Double Trouble SP | Forsythe-Barnegat 5/8--Semipalmated Plover, Veery

Veery, Double Trouble SP

I've learned from recent experience that birds are not as flighty as I used to think they were. Rarities tend to stay put longer than I expect they will. Consequently, I'm not so pessimistic anymore when I hear about a rare bird somewhere. I think there is actually a decent chance it will stick and that I have shot at finding it. The Wilson's Plover, the Summer Tanager, and the Cerulean Warbler are all good examples of avian stickiness. That means I'm a lot more willing to chase a bird. So in between adding common birds to the year list today, I chased a couple of warblers and impressed myself by finding both.

Of course, you don't find all the cool birds.  I started out at Double Trouble, hoping to find the Evening Grosbeak that had been seen there yesterday. At least I had the consolation that it was in a part of the park I hadn't visited yesterday. I ran into a couple of birder friends, one who had a map of the grosbeak's location and we went off to look--fruitlessly, I might add, but along the way we did come across a couple of Veerys and the usual warblers.  

We also saw, on the path, this:

Possibly the grossest thing I have seen in the Pine Barrens. It was almost as long as my hand. I have an app for identifying unknown bugs and the like: it's called "My Brother." I sent a picture to Harry and he emailed back that this was a Hellgrammite, the larva of a Dobsonfly, normally aquatic but they come onto land to pupate. The adults are huge, coming in at up to 5.5" in length. I hope to never see one.      

Yellow-throated Warbler, Cloverdale

While I was walking around DT after my friends went on to other sites, an alert came in that the Yellow-throated Warbler at Cloverdale was still singing.  This bird was first reported yesterday afternoon and I didn't chase it because I was already home. Now, getting a second chance at this very nice warbler, one that, while not listed as rare in the county is also not common, I headed down to Cloverdale, about 1/2 hour away. I sorta kinda knew where it was supposed to be and after confirming with one of the park's rangers I walked over to the "savanna" habitat they were creating, which is tall pines and oaks and a cleared out understory. There were a lot of trees and no other birders around to give me a hint. But I know the song and thought I heard it. However, I am bad at locating the source of sound. If something sounds like it is singing behind me, when I turn around, it still sounds like it is behind me. But at least I can judge distance a little, so I walked toward the song and with a few minutes got lucky when the bird flew from a pine to an oak. A typical warbler, high up in the crown of the trees. I was able to get a poor photo.     

While I was walking around the bogs, where there were a couple of Solitary Sandpipers along with a Spotted and a Semipalmated, another alert pinged on my phone: Prothonotary Warbler singing near the dam at Wells Mills Park. Wells Mills Park is 15 or 20 minutes away from Cloverdale. I'd heard about this bird a couple of days ago. I assumed it would have moved on. Obviously I was wrong. On the other hand, if it was there an hour ago, chances were good it would be there an hour from now, so, instead of rushing off to my car, I completed my walk and then went over to Wells Mills. 

I knew the exact spot and when I got there I heard the bird singing. But a singing rarity isn't enough for me, so, once again, I tried to follow the sound. This lead to some bushwhacking and walk of about 1000 feet. Amazing how loud a little bird can be. When I had walked past the boat launch and walked onto the white trail it sound like the bird was directly in front of me. But I couldn't see it. I pished, once. It immediately flew out of one tree and into another right above me. I got great looks at it, but no photo. Excellent bird for the county list. I put an alert out that it "continued" and was about to leave when my friends showed up so I walked them back to where the bird had been. Of course, we couldn't find it, but after I left they persisted and eventually did come up with and were able to get great photos of it.

Yesterday, when I was at the Forsythe impoundment in Barnegat I was at a disadvantage, not having a scope. Today, I brought the scope with the plan of checking out the shorebirds there. After my detour to Wells Mills I drove down there and stopped first at the observation deck. For years this has been pretty much a waste of time as all the birds are found at the cut in the phragmites on Bayshore, but today was the exception as the sandbars in front of the platform was rife with shorebirds, including the one species I still needed for the year, Semipalmated Plover.  It was just ridiculous that I should have Wilson's Plover before Semipalmated, but the birds don't know whether they're common or not. 

Semipalmated Plovers with Semipalmated Sandpipers, Forsythe-Barnegat

Having added 2 year birds and 4 county birds I did a quick check of the impoundments from Bayshore, added some egrets, herons, and terns to the list and called it a day, getting home in time to watch the Mets lose a day game in San Diego.                                

Cedar Bonnet Island 5/7--Bobolink

Bobolink
Photo: Skyler Streich

I had a plan today to hit a couple of spots looking for migrants. Supposedly the radar was promising, but predicting bird migration from radar seems to me to be second order uncertainty--there's the uncertainty of the weather itself and then there's the uncertainty on top of that of whether or not those blobs are birds and where those blobs will end up in the morning. Still, it is May and birds do move in May so at 6:30 AM I was at Double Trouble. According to reports, yesterday there were interesting birds there and according to reports I saw later today, there were interesting birds there today. I just didn't happen to run into very many of them, perhaps because I didn't cover my full route there and they were in the places I didn't look (3rd Law of Birding: Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else), or perhaps because I'm a lousy birder. That's the kind of snit I get into when I miss good birds.

The reason I was rushing through Double Trouble was that I also wanted to get over to Island Beach and visit that other migrant trap, Reed's Road. But I changed my plan when I saw that the Bobolink reported yesterday at Cedar Bonnet Island was still there--two Bobolinks actually. Bobolink is a tough county bird--there are not many grasslands in the Pine Barrens and the only likely place I can think of, aside from the Joint Base, is Colliers Mills but the dogs and their trainers act as an impediment. Since Cedar Bonnet has become another migrant trap, I figured that was the place to go.

And I'm glad I did on two counts. When I got to Cedar Bonnet I saw two friends up ahead (one shall go nameless for work reasons). They had already been to Reed's Road and said it was quiet, though I would like to have had the Nashville Warbler they saw there. The other reason I was happy (aside from them being fine folks) is that they are both bird magnets, a mystical condition that no one understands but a condition that I, sadly, lack. Skyler, in fact, showed me the first Bobolinks I ever saw in New Jersey about 5 years ago during fall migration when we had an astounding 17 of them on, where else? Reed's Road. So I felt like that was a good omen

These were peculiar Bobolinks. I was hoping to get a picture but, unlike every other Bobolink I've ever seen, these, when one of the magnets found them, were not perched on a post or bush, but foraging on the ground through the tufts of grass in the restoration area. Skyler, with his much better optics and skills, was able to get the photo above. It is a great looking bird and though not officially rare, certainly decreasing in these parts and interesting enough to attract a number of birders to the increasingly popular (for birders and birds) former dredge spoils.

The only other bird of note on Cedar Bonnet was a handsome drake Blue-winged Teal that I spotted next to a Greater Yellowlegs. Only using bins, from a distance I couldn't work out what kind of fat shorebird it was. When it turned and gave us a profile, it was evident that it was duck not shorebird.

A walk in the Manahawkin WMA had nothing unusual though it was fun to see a couple of Yellow Warblers picking up and carrying nesting material. Yesterday, at the Barnegat Impoundments, there were no shorebirds. Today someone posted that there were hundreds, so I drove up there despite having left the scope at home. I felt sure that someone else would be there with one and was disappointed when I was alone. I could make out the usual birds but it wasn't until Mike coincidentally arrived that we were able to sort through the birds thoroughly. Nothing new in the shorebird family but the tern family yielded two new county birds, which were far out on a sand bar: Gull-billed Tern and Black Skimmer. The skimmer I almost missed, dismissing it, at a distance in the shimmer, as a Laughing Gull. It was another birder who arrived as I was leaving, that posted the true identity of the bird when I was about 5 miles away. I turned around and saw it to my listing satisfaction.

The Cedar Bonnet List:

30 species

Canada Goose  2

Blue-winged Teal  1    

Mourning Dove  5

Clapper Rail  3    Heard

Killdeer  2

Least Sandpiper  2

Short-billed Dowitcher  25

Greater Yellowlegs  2

Willet  4

Lesser Yellowlegs  1

Herring Gull  1

Great Egret  5

Snowy Egret  4

Tricolored Heron  1

Glossy Ibis  25

Osprey  2

Eastern Kingbird  1

Tree Swallow  1

Barn Swallow  5

American Robin  2

Gray Catbird  5

American Goldfinch  1    Entrance Path

Seaside Sparrow  1    Heard

Song Sparrow  10

Bobolink  2    Near West Pavilion

Baltimore Oriole  1    At corner of entrance path and path to east pavilion

Red-winged Blackbird  50

Brown-headed Cowbird  1

Boat-tailed Grackle  25

Common Yellowthroat  5

Whitesbog 5/6--Solitary Sandpiper

Solitary Sandpiper (far left) with Least Sandpiper and female Red-winged Blackbird

Yesterday's washout (1 1/4" rain) was actually a blessing, giving me some time to revive. I was out early this morning, back at Cedar Bonnet Island, where, apparently, all the warblers but yellowthroats had left and nothing new had come in. However, I did find, to my delight, a single White-crowned Sparrow there, in the restoration area. So I finally have that on the county list. I thought I was going to have to scrounge for it late in the year. 

I then went over to Manahawkin WMA. I was hoping the impoundments would have shorebirds, but that was a foolish notion-- 1 1/4" of rain remember? There were a good number of warblers there and other land birds but nothing was new. I went up to Barnegat, intending only to look at the impoundment on Bayshore, but when I saw a huge flock of ibises in Meadowedge Park, I turned in there. Had to scan for the rarity.

The other day at Cedar Bonnet I'd been talking to another birder who said he was looking through a big flock of ibises at Meadowedge without finding the White-faced Ibis, and was just about to go when more flew in. He looked through the flock again, was ready to go, and more flew in. I had the same experience today, with at 3 landings after the initial flock of 54 had been scanned. All told I had 116 Glossy Ibises and no White-faced Ibis. This is one of the few times I've had a big flock of ibises close and in good light, so I'm fairly confident I didn't miss the oddball. 

I don't know why I thought the impoundment on Bayshore would be any different from Manahawkin--wishful thinking, because it was flooded and there were no shorebirds to be found. I then saw a nice report from Double Trouble, the only trouble being that the report was from early in the morning and it was midday already. Still, it was on my way to my last planned stop, so I detoured into there and again, found only birds I'd expect to find. I may give it a more thorough look tomorrow morning. 

Finally, I made my way over to Whitesbog. The bogs on the Burlco side had been drawn down for quite a while as the farmer was in the midst of a demonstration to the DEP and I'd been told that shorebirds had already found their way into them. Semipalmated Sandpipers, Least Sandpiper, both yellowlegs, plus a bird I still need for the year, Semipalmated Plover, were all in the bogs as of Saturday. Of course, Sunday's rain started to fill up the bogs so there wasn't as much mud as I'd been hoping for and only 1 Killdeer and 2 Greater Yellowlegs were in the middle one. 

I had one more idea. I hoisted the scope on my shoulder and walked over to the Ocean County side. Last year, when the bogs on the Burlco side were not drawn down, due to the breach at the Upper Reservoir, there was one bog at the dogleg that had been sporadically productive and I walked about a half mile up to it. At first I was only finding blackbirds grazing on the mud but at last I found my target bird--a Solitary Sandpiper picking at the mud at the back of the bog. I was very proud of myself--local knowledge had led me to the one bird I was looking for. Then 3 Least Sandpipers came out of the grass and started to feed too. It is very out of the way, but this is a good spot to keep an eye on. 

Yesterday, during the downpour, I glanced out the window and saw a bird with a very black back and white spots on the sunflower chip feeder and knew it wasn't a towhee--it was, finally, our yard's first Rose-breasted Grosbeak of the year. Today, after I got home, I looked at the thistle feeder and saw a bird that was not a goldfinch. Two actually. Pine Siskins are still hanging around and are officially rare according to eBird. They also seem to like the chipped sunflowers. Sure, why not? Go for the expensive stuff!

Pine Siskins going for the good stuff

Colliers Mills | Cedar Bonnet Island | Barnegat Light 5/4--Common Tern, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Willow Flycatcher, Grasshopper Sparrow, Cerulean Warbler

Cerulean Warbler, Barnegat Light

It's a good thing Mike isn't as feckless as I am, otherwise I'd never have added some of the rarities to our lists this year. The day started off with one of Mike's Birds of Jackson trips, in which the group visits the same sites in Jackson over the course of the late winter and early spring to see the change in the bird population as the weather and habitats change. I was hoping for some new birds, either year or county, but from FREC, to Butterfly Bogs, to Lake Enno we were finding fine birds but nothing new, and, having had a heavy week of birding, I was pretty tired and thinking that after our last stop at Colliers Mills a nap at home beckoned. 

Grasshopper Sparrow, Colliers Mills
(click any photo to enlarge)

It wasn't until we were driving up Success Road in Colliers Mills that we had success when, despite the dogs and their trainers running around the big field on the north side of the road we found our first Grasshopper Sparrow of the year, sitting on a little plant far away from canine activity.

But it was a fine spring day and birds had migrated and the alerts were pinging on our phones. The first rare bird, at Barnegat Light, seemed too far, to me, with a high risk of failure to pay it much mind but when rare birds started getting reported at Cedar Bonnet Island, it was just too tempting. Shari had to go home but after an infusion of Wawa coffee, Mike and I were off the dredge spoils in Manahawkin Bay. 

Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Scarlet Tanager, Cedar Bonnet Island

Of the two birds that sent us there--Lincoln's Sparrow and Tennessee Warbler--one, the warbler had been misidentified and had morphed into a even better, rarer species, though it turned out to be a female and thus less colorful. Still, we had to search. As often happens, we had no luck with either of the two birds but instead found others that were almost as interesting. Along the path to the east pavilion we came upon two practically fluorescent Scarlet Tanagers (county birds) and while we were admiring them I noticed that behind one of them was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. You don't often see those two species in the same frame!

Eastern Wood-Pewee, Cedar Bonnet Island

We kept walking back and forth on the entrance path where all the trees are, looking for the sparrow and warbler. We turned up a lot of birds--the place was a Northern Parula hotspot, but nothing rare or new until perhaps the 3rd trip down the path someone (we were with a couple of other birders on a similar mission) pointed out a phoebe high and far way. I looked at it and it didn't seem right so I asked if were certain of the i.d. Wing bars and yellow beak, plus the fact that it was not flicking its tail led me to believe it might be a different flycatcher, which upon closer examination it turned out to be, namely our first Eastern Wood-Pewee of the year. 

Well, that was pretty good, putting me at exactly 200 species for the county and as it was just about 4 o'clock, I thought we were done, but after speaking to the one of the birders who'd just come from Barnegat Light we decided to extend the day. He was very persuasive about the ease of finding the rarity there. The Tennessee Warbler that was misidentified on Cedar Bonnet was actually a female Cerulean Warbler which is rare in New Jersey and really rare in Ocean County. But the original report from Barnegat Light was of a male Cerulean Warbler. That's a beautiful bird that we sometimes get high up in the trees in the Delaware Water Gap area. To have one in the county, where for some reason they have been passing through in record numbers (4) would be a real coup. So, even though I thought it was low-percentage play to go, it was no-percentage play not to. After another infusion of Wawa coffee of course.

I don't usually spend much time in the maritime forest at the Light. A quick walk through sometimes having walking the beach or the jetty is all I can muster, but this time we spent quite a while in there. Not much area, but it does act as a migrant trap and though we were coming up empty on the Cerulean, we did have some warbler action in there, along with more Scarlet Tanagers. We also notched our first empid species of the year when we saw a bird with two wing bars, eye ring, plain breast that called "whit." Though rare (for the moment) it turned out be a Willow Flycatcher. In a couple of weeks we'll hear it "singing" "fitz-bew" all over the place, but now we only got the call. 

So we figured that for our consolation prize and had made the loop when I saw two photographers I'd met on Cedar Bonnet during the Summer Tanager frenzy. I told them what we were looking for and got those dreaded 5 words, "Oh, you just missed it." They pointed to a bush a few feet away.

I wish I knew what kind of bush this was which was with thick white blossoms, because whatever bugs it was attracting, the birds were loving it. There were two tanagers in there grazing. They reminded me of the parrots we saw in Australia which would feed unconcernedly as you watched from a foot away. Then Mike spotted the Cerulean Warbler in the middle of the bush, living up to it color description. The light was gray by now, so the color of the bird was muted. Still, considering that all the once I have seen have been at least 50 feet up in the canopy, to have one naked eye and eye height was amazing. 

Scarlet Tanager, Barnegat Light

A couple of non-birders came by and one was trying to take a photo with his camera of a tanager (which was cooperating) but we told them that they were missing the real attraction and explained how this bird was exceedingly rare in these parts and pretty rare altogether since, due to habitat loss and other factors, its population is down 80% in our lifetimes. They were entranced and then, for good measure, a Cape May Warbler plopped into the bush. The Blue-headed Vireo in there was almost an afterthought. 

Still we weren't done. Mike wanted to see if he could find a Piping Plover for the county on the beach. Over the winter the state and a conservation group ploughed down the dunes and beach grass and created a huge flat area for shorebird nesters. A couple of oystercatchers may be taking advantage of the new digs, but so far no pipers. However, near a pond that was created at the same time there was a flock of roosting gulls and I, I myself, with Mike's confirmation, was able to pick out a 3rd year Lesser Black-backed Gull, which I needed for my county list. Our final year bird of the day were Common Terns fishing over the inlet. 

When we rolled up to my house it was already dark, which was good because it gave Mike a chance to finally add Eastern Whip-poor-will to his year list. We heard at least 3. A pretty good day considering that I expected to be asleep for half the afternoon.

Cerulean Warbler

Sandy Hook | Sea Bright 5/3--American Avocet, Wilson's Plover, Black-billed Cuckoo, Red-headed Woodpecker, Scarlet Tanager

Wilson's Plover, Sea Bright
click any photo to enlarge

Mike & I went "outta county" this cold, drizzly morning, driving up to Sandy Hook for one of Scott's Half Day Fridays and we got a lot more than we expected. Even before the group had moved away from the parking lot, Scott spotted an American Avocet flying by north over the bay. This was great because it save Mike and me from having to make the death march to the north end of the Hook where two avocets have been seen hanging out in one of the ponds. I wasn't relishing that notion, because even though it was a nice day for mid-March, this is May after all.

Red-headed Woodpecker, Sandy Hook

As a group of about 12 stalwarts we  started down the usual path, the bike path, to the Road to Nowhere. One of the group spotted a woodpecker on a dead tree just at the junction of where the two paths meet. She wasn't sure she was right about her i.d., but a woodpecker with a red head, black back, and white rump is certainly what she called out--Red-headed Woodpecker, a rarity for the Hook (and Monmouth County), though I was surprised to find, after consulting my records, that a couple of years ago I had seen this woodpecker on the Hook.

Scarlet Tanager, Sandy Hook

We continued on, picking up many birds--warblers, gnatcatchers, vireos--in the murk. Over at Horseshoe Cove we found the usual kingfisher, along with a Green Heron. The same woman who found the woodpecker said she saw a red bird that wasn't a cardinal. "Stick with her," I was thinking. "Tanager?" I suggested. We went to look and sure enough, a beautiful Scarlet Tanager was moving around in a tree by the side of the road.

Black-billed Cuckoo, Sandy Hook

We were on the return loop when Scott saw a text on his phone from Tom, that a half hour earlier there had been a Black-billed Cuckoo near his banding station, eating caterpillars. Scott thought it might be too late, but after checking with Tom that the bird was still around, we walked back and got good looks at the bird, just sitting in the branches of the tree, presumably digesting.

We were all walking back to Guardian Park when another alert came in. It was on a group I don't subscribe to (I can only handle so much information) and so, as often happens with these alerts, you feel like you're coming in on the middle of a conversation. However, when a couple of guys in our group heard that there was a Wilson's Plover, a very rare visitor this far north, at Sea Bright, about 15 minutes south of the Hook, the turned on their heels and hot-footed it to their cars. Scott told them to let us know if A) the bird was real and B) if it was still there.

About a half hour later, just as the trip was ending, our scouts reported confirmation on both counts and about half the group made the quick trip down to the Sea Bright beach. After walking about an eighth of a mile north of the dormant beach club where we parked, we came upon the bird, which, at first glance you'd dismiss as a Semipalmated Plover, picking at the wrack line. The thick dark bill and heavy chest band were the field marks we needed and it displayed them nicely. There were a couple of Piping Plovers in the vicinity and we had a demonstration of one trait that has enable that species  to survive under adverse conditions--it is a feisty little bird and wanted the Wilson's out of its territory. Instead of feeding alongside it, as you often see shorebirds do in mixed flocks, the Pipers chased the Wilson every time it got too close.

Checking my records, I hadn't seen one of these birds in more than 2 years--we last encountered them in Florida. I also have records from the Bahamas and Puerto Rico; this was the 356th species I've listed in NJ.

My trip list for Sandy Hook was 55 species. It was the best Half Day Friday in memory. And this was the season's inaugural trip so who knows what goodies lie ahead.

Brant  100

Canada Goose  2

Mallard  3    flyover

Mourning Dove  2

Black-billed Cuckoo  1    Road to Nowhere, by banding station

American Avocet  1    Flyby Guardian Park

Killdeer  1    Beach of Horseshoe Cove

Greater Yellowlegs  4    flyovers

Laughing Gull  5

Herring Gull  100

Great Black-backed Gull  5

Northern Gannet  1

Double-crested Cormorant  5

Great Egret  2   

Snowy Egret  1    Horseshoe Cove

Green Heron  1    Horseshoe Cove

Osprey  1

Cooper's Hawk  1

Belted Kingfisher  1

Red-headed Woodpecker  1    

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Heard

Downy Woodpecker  1

Merlin  1    Junction of Road to Nowhere and Bike Path

Great Crested Flycatcher  4

Eastern Kingbird  1    Guardian Park

White-eyed Vireo  2    Heard

Blue-headed Vireo  4

Red-eyed Vireo  1

Fish Crow  4

Red-breasted Nuthatch  4

House Wren  4

Carolina Wren  6    Heard

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  2

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  2

American Robin  15

Gray Catbird  6

Northern Mockingbird  2    B lot

European Starling  2

Cedar Waxwing  1

Purple Finch  5    Streaked brown females

Chipping Sparrow  10

White-throated Sparrow  10

Song Sparrow  1

Eastern Towhee  10

Baltimore Oriole  6    Bike Path around Horseshoe Cove

Red-winged Blackbird  5

Common Grackle  2

Ovenbird  1

Black-and-white Warbler  1

Northern Parula  2

Yellow Warbler  3

Yellow-rumped Warbler  15

Black-throated Green Warbler  2

Scarlet Tanager  3    Two males, one female

Indigo Bunting  1 

Merlin, Road to Nowhere, Sandy Hook

Manasquan River WMA | New Egypt 5/1--Baltimore Oriole, Black-throated Green Warbler

To initiate the new month, Mike & I roamed around the northern and western parts of the county, starting with the Manasquan River WMA up in Brick. For May 1, it was cold and raw. I don't know how many new arrivals were there, but we found the usual warblers and one new one for us--Black-throated Green Warbler, which Mike's keen hearing picked out and which we finally found high in the crown of a leafing out tree. Interesting to me because they were new county birds, but not so much to Mike who already had them in the county, were hearing both Wood Thrush (multiple birds) and one Red-eyed Vireo.

We then decided to try a place in Jackson that neither of us had been to in at least a couple of years, the Metedeconk Preserve, a tract of hardwoods and pines with a little stream running through it, which I suspect is the Metedeconk River in its infancy. The first 3/4 of a mile around the muddy loop was giving us only Common Yellowthroats and Ovenbirds at best, but it started to get more interesting toward the end. At 11:17 we heard, twice, a Barred Owl hooting and we had Warbling Vireo (new for Mike) and a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The owl was worth the slippery walk.

Eastern Meadowlark, Colliers Mills

Our next stop was Colliers Mills. We walked out to Success Road in the hope of hearing (maybe even seeing) a Grasshopper Sparrow but we had success of a different sort when Mike heard an Eastern Meadowlark which I was able to locate in the grassy field. This is the first meadowlark I've seen at Colliers Mills, where you would think the conditions perfect for it, and Mike says he hasn't seen one there in 20 years. It was also a new county bird for me, much to Mike's chagrin, as was the Orchard Oriole in the parking lot. We like to see who can rack up the most county birds in a year. It's not a competition unless I'm winning. Right now, I'm winning.

Common Raven, Colliers Mills

We also first heard, then saw a Common Raven fly over the fields. Rave is supposedly rare in the county but of late, "common" is the operative word.

We took a run out to the New Egypt mud fields pastures where we thought we might find some shorebirds but those fields haven't been very productive this year. Instead we found a creepy flock of over 60 Black Vultures settled in among the cattle and roosting in the trees, a few more warblers and one more bird for my year & county list, Baltimore Oriole. Two actually, high in a tree, but that orange really stands out.

Fence Lizard

We made a couple of more stops with nothing else of interest other than a torpid fence lizard not enjoying the unspring-like weather conditions that Mike moved off a track tie coated in creosote and into the brush at the Lakehurst railroad tracks. 68 species seemed to be enough for the first day of the month and the weather was only getting colder and drizzly so we ended around 4 o'clock.

Species             First Sighting

Canada Goose   Colliers Mills WMA

Mallard   Colliers Mills WMA

Wild Turkey   Manasquan River WMA

Rock Pigeon   New Egypt

Mourning Dove   Manasquan River WMA

Laughing Gull   Colliers Mills WMA

Herring Gull   Manasquan River WMA

Great Blue Heron   Manasquan River WMA

Black Vulture   Colliers Mills WMA

Turkey Vulture   Manasquan River WMA

Osprey   Manasquan River WMA

Red-tailed Hawk   Manasquan River WMA

Barred Owl   Metedeconk Preserve

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Manasquan River WMA

Downy Woodpecker   Manasquan River WMA

Northern Flicker   Colliers Mills WMA

Merlin   New Egypt

Great Crested Flycatcher   Manasquan River WMA

Eastern Kingbird   Manasquan River WMA

White-eyed Vireo   Manasquan River WMA

Blue-headed Vireo   Manasquan River WMA

Warbling Vireo   Metedeconk Preserve

Red-eyed Vireo   Manasquan River WMA

Blue Jay   Manasquan River WMA

American Crow   Metedeconk Preserve

Fish Crow   Manasquan River WMA

Common Raven   Colliers Mills WMA

Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Colliers Mills WMA

Purple Martin   W Colliers Mill Rd, Plumsted

Tree Swallow   Colliers Mills WMA

Barn Swallow   Colliers Mills WMA

Carolina Chickadee   Manasquan River WMA

Tufted Titmouse   Manasquan River WMA

Red-breasted Nuthatch   Manasquan River WMA

White-breasted Nuthatch   Manasquan River WMA

House Wren   Manasquan River WMA

Carolina Wren   Metedeconk Preserve

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Manasquan River WMA

Wood Thrush   Manasquan River WMA

American Robin   Manasquan River WMA

Gray Catbird   Manasquan River WMA

Northern Mockingbird   Colliers Mills WMA

European Starling   Colliers Mills WMA

House Finch   Manasquan River WMA

American Goldfinch   Manasquan River WMA

Chipping Sparrow   Manasquan River WMA

Field Sparrow   Manasquan River WMA

White-throated Sparrow   Manasquan River WMA

Song Sparrow   New Egypt

Eastern Towhee   Manasquan River WMA

Eastern Meadowlark   Colliers Mills WMA

Orchard Oriole   Colliers Mills WMA

Baltimore Oriole   New Egypt

Red-winged Blackbird   Colliers Mills WMA

Brown-headed Cowbird   Manasquan River WMA

Common Grackle   E. Colliers Mill Rd

Ovenbird   Manasquan River WMA

Black-and-white Warbler   Manasquan River WMA

Common Yellowthroat   Manasquan River WMA

Yellow Warbler   New Egypt

Pine Warbler   Manasquan River WMA

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Manasquan River WMA

Prairie Warbler   Manasquan River WMA

Black-throated Green Warbler   Manasquan River WMA

Northern Cardinal   Manasquan River WMA

Rose-breasted Grosbeak   Metedeconk Preserve

Blue Grosbeak   Manasquan River WMA

House Sparrow   Metedeconk Preserve