Here's my problem with photographing birds: When I see a cool bird I want a picture of the bird to prove I saw the bird but while trying to photograph the bird I don't really see the bird I'm trying to prove I saw. Thus, no picture of the Dickcissel we saw early this morning just outside the entrance to Island Beach State Park. While standing around waiting for the group to assemble, Scott heard the unfortunately flatulent call of a Dickcissel and I did too once he called our attention to it. It didn't sound like it had zipped overhead, as they so often do, but rather was in the field that is used for a farmer's market in season. We found the bird in a large bush with a number of other birds--Chipping, Lincoln's, and later a Clay-colored Sparrow. I saw the bird decently in the first bush, but when it flew to a nearby tree, after I had retrieved my camera, I lost it, so intent was I to get a picture of it that I couldn't see it in my camera lens and every time I put up my binoculars, it moved and I lost it. But I did get the bird. Trust me.
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Little Blue Heron with unknown egret/heron
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The rest of the 9 hours and 26 minutes I spent in the park were taken up by some interesting birds, but nothing new. We didn't even try Reed's Road, so flooded was it from yesterday's rains, but some of the other bayside paths were surprisingly dry. Spizzle Creek was where we had some interesting birds though they made us work to get good lines of sight on them. A late
Yellow Warbler came up rare and a
Little Blue Heron, piebald as it molted into adult plumage, was difficult to see from one angle while a few feet down the path it was easy and obvious.
Warblers are still to be found mid-month, though the transition to winter warblers, i.e. Yellow-rumped Warblers, seem almost complete. They were everywhere you looked today and the count of 40 is more a product of counting fatigue than accuracy.
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Eastern Meadowlark
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The other interesting and somewhat out-of-place bird today was an Eastern Meadowlark in the far reaches of the Swimming Lot 1. Perched up in a tree, far from any meadow, though I do recall a trip from last year when one was found in the dunes, another place you wouldn't expect to find one. I mention this only because I always remember a line from Peterson's field guide where he said that a "Meadowlark needs a meadow." Apparently not.
63 species
Canada Goose 7
Mute Swan 4
Mallard 8
American Black Duck 12
White-winged Scoter 1 Flying north
Black Scoter 100 100+
Mourning Dove 5
Black-bellied Plover 25
Dunlin 5
Laughing Gull 5
Herring Gull 40
Great Black-backed Gull 10
Caspian Tern 1 Winter Anchorage
Forster's Tern 8 A20
Royal Tern 4
Red-throated Loon 2 Flying north
Northern Gannet 1
Double-crested Cormorant 310
Brown Pelican 8
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 14
Snowy Egret 1 Spizzle Creek
Little Blue Heron 2 Spizzle Creek
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 2
Cooper's Hawk 2
Bald Eagle 3 Adults
Belted Kingfisher 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Merlin 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1 Johnny Allen trail
Carolina Chickadee 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Brown Creeper 3
Carolina Wren 3 Heard
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 4
House Finch 2
Pine Siskin 35 Large numbers this year
Chipping Sparrow 2
Clay-colored Sparrow 1 Farmers market field
White-throated Sparrow 5
Song Sparrow 6
Lincoln's Sparrow 1 Farmers Market field
Swamp Sparrow 2
Eastern Towhee 1
Eastern Meadowlark 1 Swimming lot 1
Red-winged Blackbird 7
Common Grackle 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 1 A21
Cape May Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 1 All yellow warbler w eye ring Spizzle Creeks. Late
Blackpoll Warbler 4
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1 Female
Yellow-rumped Warbler 40
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Dickcissel 1 Some yellow on breast. Gave “ flatulent zit” call
