September Wrap-up

Marbled Godwit, digiscoped, Winter Anchorage, Island Beach SP

As the year progresses, it obviously gets harder to add year birds (unless you travel outside your territory) so by adding 9 this month, including the lifer WHISKERED TERN, I feel pretty good about the month's forays. At the same time, there was a lot of frustration this month looking warblers and other migrants. I felt like I was slogging all month, picking up one or two birds at a time instead of a slew of them in a "fall out." My timing always seemed off. I spent a lot of time walking up and down Reed's Road (including today, when I added my last bird of the month, a Brown Creeper), hoping to replicate that one great day I had in the spring when the road and the bowl just to the north were full of birds.

We also ranged a little farther afield than usual making 2 trips to North Jersey (hic sunt leontes), doing a day at Chimney Rock Hawk Watch in Somerset County and finally getting to the Celery Farm in Bergen County. The former was frustrating; someone with my eyesight has a hard time distinguishing the hawks from the floaters. The Celery Farm was great and much more extensive than I imagined it.

Another frustration this month was missing the two American Avocets that were briefly at Forsythe-Barnegat; it was the day we went to the hawk watch. I tried for them the next day (twice) but they were gone. Avocets are always fun to see and I need them for my county list.

Greg & I canoed out to Great Sedge Island 3 times and consistently found Marbled Godwits, which pleased us immensely, along with lots of pelicans, birds that somehow just seem incongruous no matter where you find them. If the weather stays warm, we may continue the trips in October. Greg's already found an Eared Grebe in Barnegat Bay today, so who knows what kind of interesting waterfowl could be hiding in plain sight out there?

For the month I managed 152 species.
Counties birded: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Cape May, Monmouth, Ocean, Somerset.

Cooper's Hawk, Whitesbog Species               Location

Canada Goose     Brig

Mute Swan     Brig

Wood Duck     Brig

Gadwall     Cape May Point SP

American Black Duck     Brig

Mallard     Brig

Blue-winged Teal     Brig

Northern Shoveler     Forsythe-Barnegat

Northern Pintail     Sandy Hook

Green-winged Teal     Brig

Common Eider     Great Sedge Island

Hooded Merganser     Eno’s Pond

Wild Turkey     Whitesbog

Pied-billed Grebe     Brig

Double-crested Cormorant     Brig

Great Cormorant     Great Sedge Island

Brown Pelican     Holgate

Great Blue Heron     Brig

Great Egret     Brig

Snowy Egret     Brig

Little Blue Heron     Great Sedge Island

Tricolored Heron     Great Sedge Island

Green Heron     Great Sedge Island

Black-crowned Night-Heron     Brig

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron     Brig

Glossy Ibis     Brig

Black Vulture     Union Transportation Trail

Turkey Vulture     Brig

Osprey     Brig

Northern Harrier     Brig

Sharp-shinned Hawk     Chimney Rock Hawk Watch

Cooper's Hawk     Whitesbog

Bald Eagle     GSP MM 48

Red-shouldered Hawk     Chimney Rock Hawk Watch

Broad-winged Hawk     Sandy Hook

Red-tailed Hawk     Sandy Hook

Clapper Rail     Brig

Common Gallinule     Cape May Point SP

American Oystercatcher     Brig

Black-bellied Plover     Brig

American Golden-Plover     Holgate

Semipalmated Plover     Brig

Killdeer     Whitesbog

Spotted Sandpiper     Great Sedge Island

Greater Yellowlegs     Brig

Willet     Brig

Lesser Yellowlegs     Brig

Marbled Godwit     Great Sedge Island

Ruddy Turnstone     Holgate

Red Knot     Great Sedge Island

Sanderling     Holgate

Dunlin     Brig

Least Sandpiper     Brig

Buff-breasted Sandpiper     Whitesbog

Pectoral Sandpiper     Whitesbog

Semipalmated Sandpiper     Brig

Short-billed Dowitcher     Brig

Wilson's Phalarope     Brig

Laughing Gull     Brig

Ring-billed Gull     Brig

Herring Gull     Brig

Great Black-backed Gull     Brig

Gull-billed Tern     Brig

Caspian Tern     Brig

Black Tern     Great Sedge Island

WHISKERED TERN     Cape May Point SP

Common Tern     Holgate

Forster's Tern     Brig

Royal Tern     Holgate

Black Skimmer     Brig

Rock Pigeon     Sandy Hook

Mourning Dove     Holgate

Yellow-billed Cuckoo     Brig

Black-billed Cuckoo     Bunker Hill Bogs

Eastern Screech-Owl     35 Sunset Rd

Eastern Whip-poor-will     35 Sunset Rd

Ruby-throated Hummingbird     35 Sunset Rd

Belted Kingfisher     Great Sedge Island

Red-bellied Woodpecker     Bunker Hill Bogs

Downy Woodpecker     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

Northern Flicker     Whitesbog

American Kestrel     Chimney Rock Hawk Watch

Merlin     35 Sunset Rd

Peregrine Falcon     Brig

Olive-sided Flycatcher     The Celery Farm

Eastern Wood-Pewee     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher     Sandy Hook

Least Flycatcher     Colliers Mills WMA

Eastern Phoebe     Whitesbog

Great Crested Flycatcher     Bunker Hill Bogs

Eastern Kingbird     Brig

White-eyed Vireo     Bunker Hill Bogs

Warbling Vireo     The Celery Farm

Red-eyed Vireo     Chimney Rock Hawk Watch

Blue Jay     Brig

American Crow     Brig

Fish Crow     Forsythe-Barnegat

Common Raven     Chimney Rock Hawk Watch

Purple Martin     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

Tree Swallow     Brig

Barn Swallow     Great Sedge Island

Carolina Chickadee     Brig

Black-capped Chickadee     The Celery Farm

Tufted Titmouse     Brig

Red-breasted Nuthatch     Wells Mills Park

White-breasted Nuthatch     Bunker Hill Bogs

Brown Creeper     Reed’s Road

House Wren     35 Sunset Rd

Carolina Wren     Brig

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     Reed’s Road

Ruby-crowned Kinglet     Reed’s Road

Eastern Bluebird     Whitesbog

American Robin     Brig

Gray Catbird     Brig

Brown Thrasher     Whitesbog

Northern Mockingbird     Holgate

European Starling     Brig

Cedar Waxwing     Brig

Northern Waterthrush     Reed’s Road

Black-and-white Warbler     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

Nashville Warbler     Reed’s Road

Common Yellowthroat     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

American Redstart     Bunker Hill Bogs

Northern Parula     Sandy Hook

Magnolia Warbler     Reed’s Road

Blackburnian Warbler     Eno’s Pond

Yellow Warbler     Great Bay Blvd

Black-throated Blue Warbler     Wells Mills Park

Palm Warbler     Cape May Point SP

Pine Warbler     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

Yellow-rumped Warbler     Brig

Prairie Warbler     Spizzle Creek

Black-throated Green Warbler     Reed’s Road

Eastern Towhee     Brig

Chipping Sparrow     Colliers Mills WMA

Savannah Sparrow     Great Bay Blvd

Saltmarsh Sparrow     Brig

Seaside Sparrow     Great Sedge Island

Song Sparrow     Great Bay Blvd

Swamp Sparrow     Spizzle Creek

White-throated Sparrow     Eno’s Pond

Northern Cardinal     Bunker Hill Bogs

Rose-breasted Grosbeak     Sandy Hook

Indigo Bunting     Union Transportation Trail

Bobolink     Reed’s Road

Red-winged Blackbird     Brig

Common Grackle     35 Sunset Rd

Boat-tailed Grackle     Brig

Brown-headed Cowbird     Brig

House Finch     35 Sunset Rd

American Goldfinch     Brig

House Sparrow     Holgate

Great Sedge Island 9/10--A Circumnavigation

Greg & I did another canoe expedition out to Great Sedge Island today. We got a later start than usual as the weather was predicted to improve as the day progressed, but the sun was still playing hide and seek when we got in the water around 11:30. The tide was high and the weather gloomy--actually downright threatening--as we made our made through snake ditch. We weren't seeing much of anything other than hundreds and hundreds of Tree Swallows streaming overhead, flying north (figure that out). However when we got through the channel and out to the inlet (where the little purple tail is on the southern part of the map) we hit a bonanza of birds. The high tide must have concentrated them all in one place. There were dozens of oystercatchers, skimmers, 4 tern species, at least 60 pelicans, but the special birds were:
A Marbled Godwit feeding in the shallows, standing next to first an oystercatcher, then a Willet, giving us good size comparisons;
A Black Tern that we first saw swimming a few feet offshore which then merged itself (but still stuck out) in the large, mixed flock of terns on the beach;
And most oddly, a very early Common Eider, just molting into breeding plumage. We first saw the bird waddling on the beach into the water--I've never seen an eider on land--it then swam out into the inlet, but not before Greg was able to digiscope a good shot:

Common Eider
Photo: © Greg Prelich

All summer we've been exploring the area, probing a little farther each time, like the Portuguese mariners who explored the African coast, until today when we turned northwest we decided, like Vasco de Gama (yes, just like him), to make the turn and circumnavigate the island.

It was a hard pull for a while since the tide was going out as we were going in, but we made back to the bay just in time to see the sand bars start to emerge at low tide. We stopped at a hummock and scanned the water At first there were few birds, mostly gulls, resting in the shallow water. Just as Greg put the scope away I told him that a lot of large, reddish birds had just flown in. He reassembled the scope and there, for the 2nd time in a row, were 7 Marbled Godwits. The odd number leads us to believe that these are the same godwits we had last week (and that the single godwit at the inlet is also the same one we saw last week). We watched them for a long time before first one, then five, then the remaining godwit flew off, perhaps as impatient as we were for the tide to finally expose some ground.

Today's trip yielded 40 species for me. They were:
Mallard  2
Common Eider  1     
Double-crested Cormorant  100
Brown Pelican  60
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  10
Snowy Egret  15
Little Blue Heron  1
Tricolored Heron  2
Green Heron  1
Osprey  2
Clapper Rail  2     Heard
American Oystercatcher  65
Black-bellied Plover  25
Semipalmated Plover  20
Willet  3
Marbled Godwit  7     
Ruddy Turnstone  5
Red Knot  1
Semipalmated Sandpiper  25
Short-billed Dowitcher  4
Laughing Gull  100
Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  4
Caspian Tern  10
Black Tern  1
Common Tern  50
Forster's Tern  30
Royal Tern  25
Black Skimmer  60
Belted Kingfisher  1
Peregrine Falcon  2
White-eyed Vireo  1     Heard, boat launch
American Crow  1
Tree Swallow  1500     Huge flocks flying over in streams.
Gray Catbird  1     Heard
Northern Mockingbird  2
Saltmarsh Sparrow  2
Seaside Sparrow  2
Boat-tailed Grackle  3

August Wrap-up

"Sedge" seemed to be the theme of the month. We had our lifer SEDGE WREN at Bombay Hook this month and I made 3 canoe trips with Greg to Great Sedge Island off Island Beach. I'm not even sure what sedge is even after reading up on it a little--apparently it is a grass with triangular stems and spiraling flowers and there are 5500 varieties of it so I'm sure I've stumbled on some this month.

The month started off with me going to Whitesbog almost every day. The bogs were drained and for a little under 2 weeks abounded in shorebirds. Then the water got too low and the birds disappeared.

Pectoral Sandpiper, Whitesbog

But for a while there, we had a mini-Brig only 15 minutes away from the house.

We had a good trip to Delaware, adding 5 year birds there, and we made a number of trips to Brig. Shorebirds there, at Barnegat, on the sandbars around Sedge Island...we even got shorebirds on dirt when we birded the sod farms in Monmouth County.

There was also productive birding around the house, surprising for summer. A Merlin made an early appearance, counting as a rarity, and continued to perch for a number of nights at the top of the same dead tree in the drainage basin.

One night last week I went out to take pictures of it and found 6 Common Nighthawks flying overhead, while a pewee called from another branch in the tree. Then, after the Merlin flew off, a Cedar Waxwing came in to take it's place.

Cedar Waxwing

 
                      Merlin

For the month I had 145 species, including 10 year birds.
Counties birded
Delaware: Kent, Sussex
New Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May, Monmouth, Ocean
New York: New York

Species                First Sighting

Snow Goose     Bombay Hook

Canada Goose     Whitesbog

Mute Swan     Brigantine

Tundra Swan     Bombay Hook

Wood Duck     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Gadwall     Cape May Meadows

American Black Duck     Whitesbog

Mallard     Whitesbog

Northern Shoveler     Bombay Hook

Green-winged Teal     Great Sedge Island

Black Scoter     Port Mahon

Ruddy Duck     Bombay Hook

Northern Bobwhite     Bombay Hook

Wild Turkey     Whitesbog

Pied-billed Grebe     Whitesbog

Double-crested Cormorant     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Brown Pelican     Great Sedge Island

Great Blue Heron     Whitesbog

Great Egret     Whitesbog

Snowy Egret     Forsythe-Barnegat

Little Blue Heron     Whitesbog

Tricolored Heron     Great Sedge Island

Green Heron     Whitesbog

Black-crowned Night-Heron     Brigantine

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron     Brigantine

Glossy Ibis     Forsythe-Barnegat

Black Vulture     Whitesbog

Turkey Vulture     Whitesbog

Osprey     Forsythe-Barnegat

Northern Harrier     Brigantine

Cooper's Hawk     Brigantine

Bald Eagle     Prime Hook NWR

Red-tailed Hawk     Brigantine

Clapper Rail     Brigantine

Black-necked Stilt     Prime Hook NWR

American Avocet     Bombay Hook

American Oystercatcher     Great Sedge Island

Black-bellied Plover     Whitesbog

American Golden-Plover     Reed's Sod Farm--CR 526

Semipalmated Plover     Whitesbog

Piping Plover     Great Sedge Island

Killdeer     Whitesbog

Spotted Sandpiper     Whitesbog

Solitary Sandpiper     Whitesbog

Greater Yellowlegs     Forsythe-Barnegat

Willet     Great Sedge Island

Lesser Yellowlegs     Whitesbog

Whimbrel     Brigantine

Marbled Godwit     Great Sedge Island

Ruddy Turnstone     Great Sedge Island

Red Knot     Great Sedge Island

Stilt Sandpiper     Whitesbog

Sanderling     Great Sedge Island

Least Sandpiper     Whitesbog

White-rumped Sandpiper     Jarvis Sound

Buff-breasted Sandpiper     Brigantine

Pectoral Sandpiper     Whitesbog

Semipalmated Sandpiper     Whitesbog

Western Sandpiper     Brigantine

Short-billed Dowitcher     Whitesbog

Long-billed Dowitcher     Brigantine

Laughing Gull     Forsythe-Barnegat

Ring-billed Gull     Great Sedge Island

Herring Gull     Forsythe-Barnegat

Great Black-backed Gull     Forsythe-Barnegat

Least Tern     Brigantine

Gull-billed Tern     Whitesbog

Caspian Tern     Great Sedge Island

Black Tern     Brigantine

Common Tern     Great Sedge Island

Forster's Tern     Forsythe-Barnegat

Royal Tern     Great Sedge Island

Black Skimmer     Brigantine

Rock Pigeon     Berkeley--Pinewald-Keswick Rd

Mourning Dove     Whitesbog

Yellow-billed Cuckoo     Double Trouble State Park

Black-billed Cuckoo     35 Sunset Rd

Common Nighthawk     Whitesbog

Eastern Whip-poor-will     35 Sunset Rd

Chimney Swift     Double Trouble State Park

Ruby-throated Hummingbird     35 Sunset Rd

Belted Kingfisher     Cattus Island County Park

Red-bellied Woodpecker     Double Trouble State Park

Downy Woodpecker     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Northern Flicker     35 Sunset Rd

Merlin     35 Sunset Rd

Peregrine Falcon     Brigantine

Eastern Wood-Pewee     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Eastern Phoebe     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Great Crested Flycatcher     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Eastern Kingbird     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

White-eyed Vireo     Whitesbog

Red-eyed Vireo     Bombay Hook

Blue Jay     Whitesbog

American Crow     Whitesbog

Fish Crow     Whitesbog

Horned Lark     Whitehall Crossroads - Leipsic

Northern Rough-winged Swallow     Whitesbog

Purple Martin     Whitesbog

Tree Swallow     Whitesbog

Bank Swallow     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Barn Swallow     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Carolina Chickadee     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Tufted Titmouse     Double Trouble State Park

White-breasted Nuthatch     35 Sunset Rd

House Wren     Whitesbog

SEDGE WREN     Bombay Hook

Marsh Wren     Bombay Hook

Carolina Wren     Whitesbog

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Eastern Bluebird     Whitesbog

American Robin     35 Sunset Rd

Gray Catbird     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Brown Thrasher     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Northern Mockingbird     Island Beach SP

European Starling     Brigantine

Cedar Waxwing     35 Sunset Rd

Ovenbird     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Northern Waterthrush     Central Park

Black-and-white Warbler     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Common Yellowthroat     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

American Redstart     Double Trouble State Park

Yellow Warbler     Brigantine

Pine Warbler     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Prairie Warbler     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Eastern Towhee     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Chipping Sparrow     35 Sunset Rd

Field Sparrow     Brigantine

Saltmarsh Sparrow     Great Sedge Island

Seaside Sparrow     Great Sedge Island

Song Sparrow     Whitesbog

Swamp Sparrow     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Northern Cardinal     Whitesbog

Blue Grosbeak     Brigantine

Indigo Bunting     Bombay Hook

Bobolink     Bombay Hook

Red-winged Blackbird     Whitesbog

Common Grackle     Whitesbog

Boat-tailed Grackle     Brigantine

Brown-headed Cowbird     Clara Barton rest stop

Orchard Oriole     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

Baltimore Oriole     Whitesbog  (Ocean Co.)

House Finch     35 Sunset Rd

American Goldfinch     Whitesbog

House Sparrow     Clara Barton rest stop