Crestwood Community Gardens 3/1--Eastern Towhee

It is disturbing how quickly the familiar can become unfamiliar. Tonight, even though I have woodcock on the list, I decided to continue my tradition of driving to the Crestwood Community Gardens, a few minutes away, to listen and possibly see the woodcocks in action. I arrived just a few minutes before sundown, knowing that they don't really get going until it is dark. A few birds were still calling, mostly White-throated Sparrows chipping in the brush. But there was one song I was hearing almost subliminally from over the other side of the garden. I wasn't paying that much attention for a few minutes and then suddenly I was very much paying attention because I realized it was a song I hadn't heard lately. 

I then I realized it was my first Eastern Towhee of the year, singing a slightly addlepated version of "Drink your tea." As soon as I pulled out my phone to make a recording, the carillon from the nearby church started and banged on for a good five minutes. This has always been one of the hazards of listening for the woodcocks over there. By the time they stopped, so had the towhee. 

I had given myself a time limit to stay there--it would be almost totally dark by 6:15 and if I hadn't had one by then, the hell with it. 

At exactly 6:15 I heard one peenting from someone's garden patch. Like the one the other day it only called a few times and there was no flight display. Perhaps March 1 is a little early and they're just getting geared up. Anyway, as I wrote yesterday, the surprise birds are the most fun, and the towhee was definitely unexpected. 

Reeves Bogs | Crestwood Community Gardens 3/3--American Woodcock, Tree Swallow

Harbingers of spring! Not exactly. Both of today's year birds are birds that are around in the winter but either in small numbers or cryptic in coloration and habit, so that it is around this time of year that I start looking for them.

Today, after kicking around a couple spots in Pemberton, I decided to check out Reeves Bogs, mostly to see how the winter had affected the dikes and makeshift bridges in case I wanted to do a more extensive walk soon. I saw that I'd have to alter my routes, because the precarious bridge made from boards and skids that goes around a breach, which only required balance and stupidity to cross, is now submerged in parts and thus out of commission. But meanwhile, there were waterfowl there, and as I was counting the Tundra Swans (51) I saw first one then two, three, and later, four Tree Swallows swooping over the bogs. Tree Swallows, in small numbers, can sometimes be found in winter since they have the ability to digest bayberries but today they were very likely feasting on the same gnats that I was swatting away from my face on this warmish morning. Glad to see them. I just wish one of them would have alighted on a shrub for a moment and posed for a picture but while they fly very close by me, they were not photographable. 

I was able to photograph a pair of Rusty Blackbirds in the maple swamp and post one of those pictures here for illustration, since they are a much sought after icterid in these parts. 

This afternoon, being warm and more importantly calm, I thought I'd go to my traditional spot to look for American Woodcock, which have been reported in a lot of different spots the last couple of weeks. But I'd rather avoid driving into Toms River or along some Pine Barrens road in Burlco if I can just scoot down the road to the community gardens five minutes away. Sunset was 5:51 today and I arrived at 5:54. I was ready to start listening for a "peent" when the church on Schoolhouse began playing its carillon at 5:56. And it's a whole concert, not just a quick ding-dong. By the time it stopped it was past 6 though still not dark yet. And no peents. It is such good habitat there--mud, a big puddle, and an open area for the woodcocks to do their aerial display. No peents though tonight. It isn't too early because I've heard that they're peenting in other spots. But, as I turned around to walk back to the car, a woodcock game out of the garden, flying right by me, and disappeared onto the hill that is on one side of the dirt driveway. I stayed for a few more minutes in the hopes of a peent or a display, but that one woodcock, which I at least saw perfectly, was all for the night. 

And as Zirlin's Sixth Law of Birding says:

You only need one