July Wrap-up--Doldrums Edition

Hooded Merganser (hen), Pond on Schoolhouse Road

Until the last few days, when the Lower Bog at Whitesbog was completely drawn down and the shorebirds magically appeared, the highlight of my month, and the only new addition to the year list, was the Monk Parakeet that has been putting on a show up at Sylvan Lake in Monmouth County. I spent a goodly amount of time at my favorite spots--Whitesbog, Colliers Mills, and Jumping Brook Preserve--hoping to spot something unusual. Only the usual did I find. But, not one mile from here, while killing time waiting for a prescription to be filled, I found my own semi-rarity, a hen Hooded Merganser in a little pond on Schoolhouse Road. Not a bird that would get a MEGA on an eBird list, but at least it was something different. 

Then, as I've already written, the water was pumped out and suddenly, things got a whole lot more interesting. In the last 2 days of the month, I added 3 shorebirds to my year list: Pectoral Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, and today's Buff-breasted Sandpiper, one of the grasspiper specialties that we look for at Whitesbog. 

I went to the Manasquan Inlet a couple of times because I happened to be in the neighborhood. Each time I was hoping for a Roseate Tern. Each time I was disappointed. On a happier note, I went to Colliers Mills very early one weekday morning, figuring the hunters wouldn't be training their dogs then, and I walked along Success Road, listening and looking really hard. My reward: A Grasshopper Sparrow in Ocean County. I hadn't seen or heard one there in a few years, even though they're fairly easy to find on the Lakehurst base, just a bit to the south. A birder friend theorized that there might be "leakage" from the base after they finished nesting, and he apparently was right. I also made it a point one day at Colliers to find the Red-headed Woodpeckers this month and I was successful. It's these kinds of little games that keep me going as the summer months slog on. One of the saving graces for me is that I, at least, like the heat. For those birders who don't, this time of the year is truly a drag. 

Willet, Bay Parkway, Waretown

For the month I listed 123 species:

Counties birded: Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean

Species                 First Sighting
Canada Goose  Reeves Bogs
Mute Swan  Holly Lake
Wood Duck  Jumping Brook Preserve
Mallard  Holly Lake
Hooded Merganser  Pond on Schoolhouse Road
Wild Turkey  35 Sunset Rd
Pied-billed Grebe  Whitesbog
Rock Pigeon  Lake of the Lilies
Mourning Dove  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  35 Sunset Rd
Eastern Whip-poor-will  35 Sunset Rd
Chimney Swift  Jumping Brook Preserve
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  35 Sunset Rd
Clapper Rail  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
American Oystercatcher  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Semipalmated Plover  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Killdeer  Jumping Brook Preserve
Least Sandpiper  Whitesbog
White-rumped Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Buff-breasted Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Pectoral Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Semipalmated Sandpiper  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Western Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Short-billed Dowitcher  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Spotted Sandpiper  Jumping Brook Preserve
Solitary Sandpiper  Reeves Bogs
Greater Yellowlegs  Manahawkin WMA
Willet  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Lesser Yellowlegs  Whitesbog
Laughing Gull  Holly Lake
Ring-billed Gull  Belmar
Herring Gull  Holly Lake
Great Black-backed Gull  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Least Tern  Manasquan Inlet
Common Tern  Manasquan Inlet
Forster's Tern  Holly Lake
Black Skimmer  Manasquan Inlet
Double-crested Cormorant  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Great Blue Heron  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Great Egret  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Snowy Egret  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Tricolored Heron  Cattus Island County Park
Green Heron  Reeves Bogs
Black-crowned Night-Heron  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Glossy Ibis  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Black Vulture  Whiting
Turkey Vulture  Colliers Mills WMA
Osprey  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Bald Eagle  Whitesbog
Red-shouldered Hawk  Jumping Brook Preserve
Broad-winged Hawk  Lakehurst Railroad Tracks
Red-tailed Hawk  Colliers Mills WMA
Belted Kingfisher  Whitesbog
Red-headed Woodpecker  Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker  Jumping Brook Preserve
Downy Woodpecker  35 Sunset Rd
Hairy Woodpecker  Reeves Bogs
Northern Flicker  Jumping Brook Preserve
Monk Parakeet  Sylvan Lake
Eastern Wood-Pewee  Jumping Brook Preserve
Acadian Flycatcher  Budd’s Bogs
Willow Flycatcher  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Eastern Phoebe  Reeves Bogs
Great Crested Flycatcher  Jumping Brook Preserve
Eastern Kingbird  Jumping Brook Preserve
White-eyed Vireo  Reeves Bogs
Warbling Vireo  Colliers Mills WMA
Red-eyed Vireo  Colliers Mills WMA
Blue Jay  35 Sunset Rd
American Crow  35 Sunset Rd
Fish Crow  35 Sunset Rd
Carolina Chickadee  35 Sunset Rd
Tufted Titmouse  35 Sunset Rd
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  Reeves Bogs
Purple Martin  Holly Lake
Tree Swallow  Holly Lake
Bank Swallow  Cranberry Bogs
Barn Swallow  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Red-breasted Nuthatch  Lakehurst Railroad Tracks
White-breasted Nuthatch  35 Sunset Rd
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  Reeves Bogs
House Wren  35 Sunset Rd
Marsh Wren  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Carolina Wren  35 Sunset Rd
European Starling  Jumping Brook Preserve
Gray Catbird  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Brown Thrasher  Jumping Brook Preserve
Northern Mockingbird  Colliers Mills WMA
Eastern Bluebird  Whitesbog
Veery  Colliers Mills WMA
Wood Thrush  Jumping Brook Preserve
American Robin  Jumping Brook Preserve
Cedar Waxwing  Jumping Brook Preserve
House Sparrow  deCamp WildlifeTrail
House Finch  35 Sunset Rd
American Goldfinch  Jumping Brook Preserve
Grasshopper Sparrow  Colliers Mills WMA
Chipping Sparrow  35 Sunset Rd
Field Sparrow  Reeves Bogs
Seaside Sparrow  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Song Sparrow  35 Sunset Rd
Swamp Sparrow  Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)
Eastern Towhee  Jumping Brook Preserve
Orchard Oriole  Colliers Mills WMA
Baltimore Oriole  Colliers Mills WMA
Red-winged Blackbird  Holly Lake
Brown-headed Cowbird  Reeves Bogs
Common Grackle  Jumping Brook Preserve
Boat-tailed Grackle  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Ovenbird  Jumping Brook Preserve
Louisiana Waterthrush  Budd’s Bogs
Black-and-white Warbler  Colliers Mills WMA
Prothonotary Warbler  Budd’s Bogs
Common Yellowthroat  Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Hooded Warbler  Colliers Mills WMA
Yellow Warbler  deCamp WildlifeTrail
Pine Warbler  Colliers Mills WMA
Prairie Warbler  Colliers Mills WMA
Scarlet Tanager  Colliers Mills WMA
Northern Cardinal  35 Sunset Rd
Blue Grosbeak  Colliers Mills WMA
Indigo Bunting  Colliers Mills WMA

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Great Bay Blvd

Sylvan Lake 7/25--Monk Parakeet

 I drove up to Sylvan Lake in Bradley Beach this morning to see the Monk Parakeet that has been seen around a nest there for the last few days. I have seen lots of Monk Parakeets in various places, but I have never seen just one Monk Parakeet. Monk Parakeets tend to travel in noisy flocks, and they nest communally, in large stick condominiums that they like to build atop utility poles, especially those with transformers to keep them warm, much to the chagrin of the power companies. A lone parakeet is a curiosity. The first surmise would be an escaped pet, but this one is building a nest on, what else, the top of a utility pole, inside a triangular structure that I would guess houses some kind of equipment. I got there early and found a couple of birders hanging around while the parakeet flew from a pole across the street up into its triangle house, all the while making the typical parakeet racket. I remember the first time I ever saw Monk Parakeets, in Silver Beach, Delaware, where there was a huge flock nesting along a residential street. I wondered how anyone could stand to live there with the constant screeching of 50 or 60 birds. Talking to one of the birders, I brought up the bird's solitary status. He allowed as how he'd never seen just one either. We speculated that perhaps there were two and one of the birds was sitting on eggs inside the housing, but there's no evidence of that, so far. But even just two would be an oddity. 

I haven't seen Monk Parakeets since they disappeared from Carteret a few years ago, the victims of gentrification. Where their old nests use to be, near an empty lot in a somewhat sketchy section of town, a new condo or co-op was built and, I'm certain, the developers didn't want the birds chattering and screaming while they were showing the apartments. I have a fond memory of the last time I saw them, when the nest had moved to Heald Street. Carteret isn't far from Iselin, so when I would visit my mother, I would, once a year, drive over to see them. That day when I was leaving, I told her I was going to try to find the new nest. "Oh, I'd like to see them," she said. By this time my mother was frail and practically blind, but the idea of birding with her delighted me, so into the car she went and in about 20 minutes we were in Carteret. I parked directly beneath the nest. She got out of the car and the parakeets were making their noises. She looked up and I'm sure she could only see a silhouette of the bird, but she did see one. She said, "I thought they'd be bigger." "Mom," I said, "they're parakeets, not parrots" And then my mother, who was noise averse said, "We can go now." 

I would have liked to get a decent photo of the bird, but the sun was directly behind the opening of the nest, so all my original pictures showed was a solid black triangle. Through the magic of Photoshop, I stripped away a mass of pixels and now have this rather ectomorphic picture of the parakeet sitting on the sticks in the opening. Year bird. Monmouth County lifer.