Backyard 5/3--Ovenbird, Pine Siskins

Pine Siskins

I was almost happy to awake to rain this morning because the last 4 days of birding left me pretty tired. Back to bed I went. Maybe the weather will clear up this afternoon.

Looking out the back window has been entertaining. We still have Pine Siskins coming to our thistle feeder. Now officially a "rare" bird in these parts, I counted 6 this morning. Last year, according to my records, we had them as late at May 5, so we might have a couple of more days before they finally move north.

Just after refilling the feeders, I looked on the ground beneath the suet cage and saw a bird feeding. Probably a Chipping Sparrow, I thought, but once it was in the binoculars I saw (after initially thinking Wood Thrush) that I finally had my first sighting this year of an Ovenbird.

I've been hearing one, off and one, for the last few days, but assumed that, like all the others I've heard this year, I was never going to actually see one. Great backyard bird; we haven't had one here since 2013.

Ovenbird

Assunpink 5/2--Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Orchard Oriole

Fork-tailed Flycatcher in Trinidad
Photo: Shari Zirlin

It wasn't even a year bird.    We'd seen Fork-tailed Flycatcher in Trinidad last month.    But I'd never seen one in New Jersey (our life FTFL was in Connecticut of all places), so despite another cold, foggy day, I hauled my butt up to Assunpink, parked by the famous mulberry tree, and walked out to what has already become known as "the original field" where the bird was first found. There were a couple of birders standing out in the middle of the field, looking forlorn, and the idea of standing there for who knows how long, hoping that the bird was show became very depressing to me.

I had seen that the bird had once again been seen yesterday about 4 hours after we left, but not in this field, but over by the dam that forms Assunpink Lake. I'd rather be moving than standing so I after a few minutes I told the two others I was going to look by the dam (perhaps a 1/2 mile away) and they figured that was a decent notion too. As I crossed over the guard rail and started down the slope, I saw two birders coming my way and heard the phrase "hanging around."

"Any luck?" I asked and they told me they had just seen the bird on the berm between the dam and spillway but it had hidden again. At least I was in the correct vicinity. There were a few other birders in the middle of the berm and they said the bird had flown farther down the tree line. Someone saw it in the phragmites a few minutes later. I caught a glimpse of a bird that could have been anything.

Then it flew to our right and once more hunkered down in the reeds. I saw it briefly. B.V.D. (Better View Desired) While we were looking toward the water, somehow the bird flew across the berm without our noticing it, because the next time it was seen it was perched up a stem in the middle of the field downhill from the berm.  This time I got my scope on it and got the desired view--all the field marks, including a yellow crown stripe. Now I was kicking myself for not taking my camera. I had thought that it would be too far away in the field I was in yesterday, but in this location I probably could have at least gotten documentary photos. Not that there way any doubt as to identification.

After 10 or 15 minutes watching the bird and getting it in the scope for the others, I now could do some real birding. I drove back over the now heavily traveled dirt road (it probably had more traffic on it in 3 days than it gets in 3 months) and parked my car in the boat launch parking lot. I walked that road that roughly follows the shore line of the Assunpink Lake. Field Sparrows were singing their bouncing Ping-pong ball song everywhere, I finally got good looks at Yellow Warblers and, best of all, a completely unexpected bird showed up, my first Orchard Oriole of the year, a nice brick red male, which made up for the one I missed down at Belleplain on Saturday.      

After completing the 2 mile loop, I drove back down Imlaystown Road, stopping, just for the heck of it, by the farm driveway where White-crowned Sparrows like to feed in the winter. I was pleasantly surprised to find at least one still lingering.          

Looking through the eBird reports I see about 75 reports of the FTFL and many birders don't list on eBird. I saw a car there today with Ohio plates. This bird is a "Mega." I'm glad to see that many of today's reports are from people I saw there yesterday who also, like me struck out.
40 species
Canada Goose  75
Mute Swan  6
Mallard  2
Ruddy Duck  8
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Mourning Dove  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3     Heard
Eastern Kingbird  1     Sharing field, apparently not willingly, with Fork-tailed Flycatcher
Fork-tailed Flycatcher  1     
White-eyed Vireo  3     Heard
Blue Jay  2     Heard
American Crow  1     Heard
Fish Crow  1
Purple Martin  1     Parking lot at boat launch
Tree Swallow  20
Barn Swallow  30
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tufted Titmouse  2     Heard
House Wren  1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  9
Wood Thrush  2     Heard
American Robin  6
Gray Catbird  8
Brown Thrasher  1     Heard
European Starling  2
Ovenbird  2     Heard
Common Yellowthroat  10     Heard
Yellow Warbler  12
Palm Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  5
Chipping Sparrow  4
Field Sparrow  10     Heard
White-crowned Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  1     Heard
Song Sparrow  2
Northern Cardinal  1     Heard
Red-winged Blackbird  20
Brown-headed Cowbird  5
Orchard Oriole  1     Road around lake
American Goldfinch  2

                                                 

Brig 5/1--Whimbrel, Least Sandpiper, Gull-billed Tern

Gull-billed Terns flanked by Forster's Terns with Laughing Gull and American Oystercatcher

The second part of our birding weekend is a trip to Brig. This was problematic because
A) Only about a mile of the Wildlife Drive is open due to reconstruction of the roadway and dikes
B) It was raining. Hard.

Still, Bob & I (Shari had other plans) drove down and met a few other hardy souls. The rain was unrelenting, but we were, after all, in cars equipped with walkie-talkies and even with the little stretch of drive still open (along with the Gull Pond) we all added year birds--my three were concentrated on the little exposed sandbar near the observation tower (where all vehicles must turn around): Whimbrel, Least Sandpiper, and, most surprising of all, 2 Gull-billed Terns.

By the time we were driving back to the parking lot after our 2nd look at the Gull Pond the steady rain had become a true downpour and we figured that 2 hours and over 40 species was pretty good under the circumstances. Maybe it was time to call the game on account of rain.

But Mike saw that the Fork-tailed Flycatcher that had been reported at Assunpink on Saturday had been seen again that morning and we all agreed it was worth the 60 mile drive to try for the bird. We reconvened the trip in the field where a few years ago a Northern Shrike spent a good part of the winter. Many birder friends and acquaintances were already there, soaking, and Bob & I stood there, for over an hour as my waterproof shoes proved to no longer be waterproof and the flycatcher, which had been seen about 2 hours before we arrived, did not show up. By then, birding did not pass the "fun" test and we slogged back through the field, drove out on the mud road and despite the disappointment of not finding that rarity, we were more than satisfied with the weekend's results.

My Brig list:
43 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose  50     many along roadside
Wood Duck  6
Mallard  3
Green-winged Teal  10
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  10
Snowy Egret  5
Glossy Ibis  40
Osprey  4     one with a fish in its talons eluded an eagle
Bald Eagle  3     juv failed at getting fish from Osprey
Clapper Rail  1     Heard
American Coot  1
American Oystercatcher  1
Black-bellied Plover  2
Semipalmated Plover  5
Greater Yellowlegs  10
Willet  20
Lesser Yellowlegs  5
Whimbrel  1
Dunlin  200
Least Sandpiper  3
Semipalmated Sandpiper  10
Short-billed Dowitcher  5
Wilson's Snipe  1
Laughing Gull  1
Herring Gull  25
Great Black-backed Gull  5
Gull-billed Tern  2
Caspian Tern  2
Forster's Tern  4
Peregrine Falcon  1
Fish Crow  1     heard
crow sp.  1
Tree Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  10
American Robin  1
Common Yellowthroat  2     Heard
Yellow Warbler  2     Heard
Seaside Sparrow  5
White-throated Sparrow  1     Heard
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  2
Red-winged Blackbird  20
Common Grackle  2

Ocean City Welcome Center 4/30--Baltimore Oriole

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Black-crowned Night-Heron

After a couple of more stops on the Delaware Bay shore, the trip officially ended. But we had heard that the heron rookery that sits below the Ocean City Welcome Center was showing good numbers of Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, and since Bob had never been there before and since it was (more or less) on the way back home, we drove over the causeway to take a look. It did not disappoint. Because the Welcome Center (which is elaborate, but not yet open) sits on the causeway, you look down on the rookery and can easily see the night-herons (mostly yellow-crowns, but there were at least two black-crowns) sitting on their nests. Bob & I thought 15 YCNH was a conservative number. It was still flagged by eBird, which shows how unusual this rookery is in NJ.

There are steps down to a walkway that runs along the marsh and we went down there to get a different view. While we were walking there, Bob & I spotted a big yellow bird, too big to be a warbler. It took only a moment for us to both realize that it was a female Baltimore Oriole. I'm counting that as my FOY because the look was superior to kind of hearing the oriole at Belleplain.

We were looking for Clapper Rails but only heard them. Same with Willets. But for just that little stop we listed 15 species and it was an entertaining way to end the day's birding. Now, if only this spot's White Ibis from last year would show up again.
Brant  4
Great Egret  2
Black-crowned Night-Heron  2
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  15     
Glossy Ibis  7
Osprey  2
Clapper Rail  2     Heard
Willet  2     Heard
Laughing Gull  5
Herring Gull  10
American Robin  1
Song Sparrow  1     Heard
Red-winged Blackbird  2
Boat-tailed Grackle  20
Baltimore Oriole  1     in low cedars

Heislerville WMA 4/30--Black-crowned Night-Heron, Ruff, Curlew Sandpiper

Heislerville Rookery: Cormorants with Black-crowned Night-Heron

The really interesting birds were about 20 minutes away in Cumberland County at the Heislerville impoundments. Is it just a coincidence that now that Brig is virtually shut down that the rarities are showing up here or some kind of cosmic justice? A Ruff (to be technical, this bird is probably a female, thus a Reeve) was discovered there last week and happily it hung around until Saturday for our group to enjoy. More amazingly, the next day (or perhaps the day after) a Curlew Sandpiper showed up and we were able to view both (though not at the same time as some had) from the one spot, not far away from the parking lot. This was only the 2nd Ruff Shari & I had seen and our first in NJ. It wasn't much to look at; unlike a male Ruff, which has the eponymous collar in an array of colors, a Reeve (or if this is a male, a juvenile or one out of breeding plumage) looks pretty much like a yellowlegs without the yellow legs and distinguished by color (brown, instead of gray) and a slightly curved bill. Still, a great bird to see, since they rarely show up in the U.S. The Curlew Sandpiper is a bit more common (there was one at Brig last year) but to have it in the same pool with the Ruff was amazing. While it gave good scope views, my camera was not capable of getting a clear shot, given the distance and murky viewing conditions. But I think this photograph gives an idea of what it is like to look for a rarity among a flock of shorebirds.

The Curlew Sandpiper is the bird sitting down on the island in the middle of the photo, right below the bird taking wing. The other birds in the picture are Dunlins, Semipalmated Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers. And there were hundreds of the first two species to sort through, yet, somehow, when we first got there, I picked out the Curlew Sandpiper right away. I was given the general direction it was in.

Shari wandered over to the other side of the road to look at the rookery and came back to tell me that Black-crowned Night-Herons were sharing the island with the other birds. So I finally got my Black-crowned Night-Herons. It only took exactly 4 months. Yeesh.

27 species, almost all of them seen:
Canada Goose  5
Mute Swan  3
American Black Duck  1
Double-crested Cormorant  25
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  24
Snowy Egret  3
Black-crowned Night-Heron  12
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  1
Bald Eagle  3
Black-bellied Plover  1
Semipalmated Plover  10
Greater Yellowlegs  25
Lesser Yellowlegs  20
Ruff  1     Reeve, probably. Continuing. 
Curlew Sandpiper  1     Slightly larger than SESA, with buff/red breast. 
Dunlin  500
Semipalmated Sandpiper  500
Short-billed Dowitcher  20
Herring Gull  10
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Forster's Tern  2
Fish Crow  1     Heard
Tree Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  1

Belleplain 4/30--Worm-eating Warbler, Louisiana Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Scarlet Tanager

It was our annual trip with Mike & Pete down to Belleplain SF, a warbler hot spot in Cape May county. We were joined by our buddy Bob Auster on another cold, unpleasant supposedly spring day. Bob pointed out that last year the weather for this trip was similarly lousy. Two years does not a trend make, but it does get your attention.

Belleplain is the go-to place for some hard to get warblers, but a couple of them I'd already gotten for the year--Prothonotary Warbler and Yellow-throated Warbler, so I was slightly (perhaps) less intense than I usually am when it comes to warblers. Besides, the birds I was really interested in were at our second stop and that wouldn't be until after lunch.

I can tell you that I became thoroughly sick of hearing Ovenbirds--a conservative count would be 50 and an emotional count would be, oh, I don't know...ten thousand! They were singing every 5 feet and Pete seemed determined to point out every one, using those new-fangled walkie-talkies we had for the trip. And I still haven't seen one.

Again, it was a lot of ear-birding, but at least these birds have distinctive songs--the songs of the Louisiana Waterthrush or the Hooded Warbler are pretty obvious and loud. Shari actually did see the Hooded Warbler--I saw a shape fly out of a tree. I was happy to get clear looks a couple of Worm-eating Warblers (which sounds like something one cowboy would call another right before he smashes a whiskey bottle on the bar), but I was unhappy to only hear a Scarlet Tanager. I also heard a Baltimore Oriole, but so poorly that I decided to count the one I saw later in the day at another location.

Bob had quite a few more birds on his list than I did--either his hearing is sharper than mine, and/or, he was paying more attention.

30 species
Black Vulture  2
Turkey Vulture  6
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  5     Heard
Downy Woodpecker  1     Heard
White-eyed Vireo  3     Heard
Barn Swallow  5
Carolina Chickadee  1     Heard
Tufted Titmouse  2     Heard
White-breasted Nuthatch  1     Heard
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
Eastern Bluebird  1
Wood Thrush  3     Heard
Northern Mockingbird  2
Ovenbird  50     Heard
Worm-eating Warbler  2
Louisiana Waterthrush  3     Heard
Black-and-white Warbler  4
Prothonotary Warbler  1
Hooded Warbler  1     Heard
Northern Parula  1
Pine Warbler  2     Heard
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Yellow-throated Warbler  1
Prairie Warbler  2     Heard
Chipping Sparrow  5
Eastern Towhee  10     Heard
Scarlet Tanager  1     Heard
Northern Cardinal  2
Brown-headed Cowbird  2

Ocean County 4/29--Sedge Wren, Wood Thrush, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler, Bank Swallow, Red Knot, Semipalmated Sandpiper

Semipalmated Sandpiper & Semipalmated Plovers
at Great Bay Blvd: both county birds

At 5:45 on a dank morning, Mike picked me up to start a day of Ocean County birding. It wasn't really a scouting run for the WSB because a lot will change in two weeks, but our first stop, Beach Avenue, was the same as it will be on May 14. It was after dawn when we got there, so no owls were calling. However, we did confirm that the location still holds Sedge Wren, a real rarity in the state, and an excellent tick to start the day.  We walked in a about 100 feet and the little bird started its machine gun call. We both heard it twice and though we saw a small bird jumping around in the reeds, we couldn't be sure that was the wren or a yellowthroat. But we know it's there for the count.

Along the road we also heard our first Wood Thrushes of the year. They sang their ethereal song a few times, but stopped by the time we were heading back out 40 minutes later. We had 26 species along the road. Note all the "heard" birds. When you're trying to amass a large number of species, you don't usually have the luxury of looking.
26 species
Mourning Dove  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     Heard
Northern Flicker  1     Heard
Great Crested Flycatcher  1     Heard
White-eyed Vireo  2
Blue-headed Vireo  1     Heard
Blue Jay  1     Heard
Carolina Chickadee  1     Heard
Tufted Titmouse  1
House Wren  1     Heard
Sedge Wren  1     Historical location at end of road. Heard loud ticking call. 
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1     Heard
Wood Thrush  2     Heard
American Robin  5
Gray Catbird  6
Ovenbird  5     Heard
Black-and-white Warbler  2     Heard
Common Yellowthroat  7
Chipping Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  3
Eastern Towhee  2
Northern Cardinal  3
Red-winged Blackbird  1
House Finch  2     Heard
American Goldfinch  1

We then made the 2 minute drive over to Stafford Avenue, which leads to the Bridge to Nowhere, which will also probably be our 2nd stop on the WSB. Here I added two more warblers to my year list, thanks to Mike's keen ear. We took some time to look for them and Mike actually saw the parula, but I had to wait for the next day, down in Belleplain, to add it to my retinal list for the year. Again, a lot of "heards." 
21 species
Mute Swan  5
Gadwall  2
Great Egret  13
Willet  2
Herring Gull  12
Forster's Tern  1
Mourning Dove  2
Downy Woodpecker  1
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  4
American Robin  1
Ovenbird  2     heard
Common Yellowthroat  1
Northern Parula  1     heard, buzzy callYellow Warbler  1     heard swee swee swee
Seaside Sparrow  1     Heard
Song Sparrow  1     Heard
Swamp Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  2
Red-winged Blackbird  10

After a Wawa stop (it would be interesting to know how much Wawa makes off of birders in NJ) and look around Barnegat that didn't yield anything new, we drove over to Cloverdale Farm, where Mike had never been, hoping that the Prothonotary Warbler I found on Saturday was lingering. Alas, we couldn't add it to our list, but over the bogs we did have 4 species of swallows including my FOY Bank Swallow, a difficult bird for the county, which is surprising, in light of all the sand pits dug out of the pine forests.
26 species
Canada Goose  2
Mallard  5
Great Egret  1
Turkey Vulture  2
Greater Yellowlegs  3
Mourning Dove  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     Heard
Downy Woodpecker  1
Eastern Phoebe  1     Heard
Blue Jay  1     Heard
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  6
Tree Swallow  5
Bank Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  5
Carolina Chickadee  1     Heard
White-breasted Nuthatch  1     Heard
Eastern Bluebird  1     Near Visitor's Ctr
American Robin  5
Brown Thrasher  1
Pine Warbler  1     Heard
Chipping Sparrow  1     Heard
White-throated Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  2
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Common Grackle  5
Brown-headed Cowbird  1     Heard

From there, we got on the parkway and, despite the increasingly gloomy, cool day and high winds, drove down to Tuckerton to see what the shorebird situation was along Great Bay Blvd. It was good, with 10 species, with big numbers of Black-bellied Plovers plus a Red Knot mixed in with some dowitchers and my first Semipalmated Sandpiper of the year. The Semipalmated Plovers we saw were not new for the year, but they did increase the county list. Keeping the scope upright, never mind steady, in the wind was a challenge. It was April 29th and it felt like late January, except I wasn't dressed for it. 

We spent a little over 2 hours there and listed 35 species:
Brant  140
Canada Goose  3
Mallard  1
Bufflehead  7
Common Loon  1
Double-crested Cormorant  10
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  16
Snowy Egret  12
Glossy Ibis  1
Osprey  5
Clapper Rail  2     Heard
American Oystercatcher  5
Black-bellied Plover  135
Semipalmated Plover  10
Greater Yellowlegs  5
Willet  3
Red Knot  1
Sanderling  2
Dunlin  25
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1
Short-billed Dowitcher  5
Herring Gull  125
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Forster's Tern  13
Mourning Dove  2
American Crow  2
Fish Crow  1     Heard
Tree Swallow  1
European Starling  1
Common Yellowthroat  1     Heard
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  2
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Boat-tailed Grackle  50

It was either nail your shoes to the ground or go inland, so up Rt 539 we went as a drizzle started, first to New Egypt where nothing new for the year was in the fields (though we did tack on Northern Mockingbird and Black Vulture for our day list), then over to Colliers Mills. The grasslands along Success Road haven't recovered enough from their annual burning to have any Grasshopper Sparrows in them, but history is on our side there, and while we know where the Red-headed Woodpeckers are nesting, none were in evidence. We drove all the way up to Success Lake, where we hit little pockets of warblers in a couple of swampy spots. I, however, was happiest with the birds we found nearest the parking lot--Northern Waterthrush and Spotted Sandpiper--because they were both county birds (state birds, country birds--we saw them in T&T).
30 species
Canada Goose  2
Turkey Vulture  6
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Killdeer  1
Spotted Sandpiper  2
Mourning Dove  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     Heard
Hairy Woodpecker  1     Heard
White-eyed Vireo  1
Blue Jay  1     Heard
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1
Tree Swallow  1
Carolina Chickadee  1     Heard
Tufted Titmouse  1     Heard
Carolina Wren  2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  6
American Robin  5
Gray Catbird  1
Brown Thrasher  1
European Starling  15
Ovenbird  1     Heard
Northern Waterthrush  1
Black-and-white Warbler  4
Common Yellowthroat  4
Pine Warbler  2
Yellow-rumped Warbler  2
Prairie Warbler  1
White-throated Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  1
Red-winged Blackbird  10

We always have a "number" before we start the day. Today's was 80. We smashed that with a total of 93. Last year on the WSB, in lousy weather similar to today's we had 109, but started earlier and ended later, so I'm optimistic (there's something I rarely say) about our big day in 2 weeks.