A slice of spring at Princeton Institute Woods

An overcast day with north-westerlies led me to cancel a prospective trip into Central Park and stay locally, birding Princeton's Institute Woods. Activity levels were relatively low, but there were some signs of spring: singing male Pine Warbler; male Eastern Towhee; singing Eastern Phoebe; male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker; a pair of Wood Ducks. The Tree Swallows have moved into the pond in small numbers after it was refilled this week - the pump that maintains it was broken for a while and it had almost totally dried out. Some frogs have survived, but it remains to be seen if it can reach the traditionally deafening levels of frog singing that you can encounter on warm spring evenings.

Princeton - Hooded Warbler and Solitary Sandpiper

Although striking out on the Virginia Rail that was reported the previous day, a morning visit to Princeton's Institute Woods was quite interesting early. There wasn't a big migration there, with low numbers of warblers, but there were one or two interesting birds. On the pond: Great Blue Heron, Tree Swallows and two Solitary Sandpipers. The latter were new for the year to me. Along the drive toward the water plant were Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Yellow Warbler and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at the pond and off in the woods were singing House Wren, Ovenbird and Common Yellowthroat. However the best bird of the day was right back at where I parked my car - a female Hooded Warbler moving purposefully through the low undergrowth in the woods but showing itself clearly for a few seconds before darting across the road and vanishing.

Princeton 4/18

With the prospects of a better migration day on Monday, I spent a little time at Princeton's Rogers Refuge before work. Along the road were several Yellow-rumped Warblers along with Ruby-crowned Kinglet (singing), Brown Creeper, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe. Near the pond I had a singing House Wren and back toward the car a Carolina Wren. A pair of Wood Ducks were on the pond.

The Lesser Calendines are in full bloom here, carpeting the ground in many places in an attractive display. Shame then that they are a nasty little invasive and crowding out the native species.

Princeton: Bittern, White-eyed Vireo 4/14

A quite cooperative American Bittern had been at Princeton's Rogers Refuge most of the week. After a quick check on Monday, when I found only a few Wilson's Snipe, I returned on a warm Thursday evening where I found the bird out in the open at the edge of the phragmites. Not a bad bird for NJ. I also saw one Wilson's Snipe again as it flushed from further back in the pond.

Additional birds were Wood Duck, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and a White-eyed Vireo. The vireo is noteworthy because my personal early date for WEVI in the north-east was April 22nd 2008 (Sandy Hook), so this bird was 8 days early.

Princeton, August 27th and 29th

I did a little walk without optics along the gravel road at the Institute Woods on Friday after work. Migrants were pretty much absent - the Eastern Wood-Pewee that was calling may have been a resident bird. However on my way back to the car there was a good find - two Pileated Woodpeckers feeding fairly close to the road. Once you track down the wood chopping sound there's not much you can mistake a Pileated for.

On the morning of the 29th I returned with optics to check out migration but it was still deathly quiet. I found a Scarlet Tanager along the road, Pewees were calling and that was it again. At the pond Red-winged Blackbirds were numerous, probably roosting there, and two slimmer tan icterids took off heading away from me - probably Bobolinks. Best bird was a Ruby-throated Hummingbird that shot past me as I was standing on the observation platform (literally a few feet to my left) and kept heading south-west. The loud drumming from deeper in the forest sounded big enough that it was the Pileateds again, but I didn't see them this time.

A little migration

(And some cynicism about migration prediction hype).

I did a little birding this morning in Princeton before work. Migrants were scarce and limited to a nice singing Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and a female Eastern Towhee. The brief lack of familiarity with the Gnatcatcher song makes me think I should dig out the spring bird song DVDs (or the playlist on the iPhone) before I get surprised again.
The pond has retreated to a puddle and but there are some optimistic Tree Swallows hanging around.

Now for your regularly scheduled cynicism. A post on JerseyBirds this morning cited

"...the floodgates indeed were opened last night-
and New Jersey experienced the heaviest migration event this season..."

from the person that runs woodcreeper.com. Nice hype, not borne out with a reality in Princeton or on Staten Island based on early reports and there appeared to be a lack of epic movement in Central Park although there was certainly some. But my pet peeve about this sort of rhetoric is that given the poster is a scientist with a PhD (as I am) a lot of these reports are associated with hype and no attempt at quantitation. As such they barely survive the BS filter, although I've got expectations that there's a decent correlation between radar reflectivity and migration. Quantitation is necessary if this sort of migration detection/prediction is to get much above the level of voodoo, because as it stands I usually do at least a good job at qualitative migration prediction from checking the overnight wind direction or forecast high temps.

As for actually making predictions, the weatherunderground and Accuweather diverge on wind direction forecasts - if you believe the former there's a predominant west-to-southwest flow over the area in the next few days which augers well for migration. Accuweather's wind direction prediction is much more variable and murky. So let's invoke the tie-breaker via the
NOAA forecast which suggests potential southerly winds overnight but swinging around to north-west for at least two days after that.

Easter weekend migration

Thurs Apr 1st: Pine Warbler on Princeton campus

Sat Apr 3rd: Yellow-throated Warbler and Pine Warbler singing in the southern NJ pine barrens at Belleplain State Forest and Jakes Landing Road. In the saltmarsh herons dominated the still-quiet marshland with Great Egret, Snowy Egret and Little Blue Heron. An adult female Northern Harrier still lingered.

Sun Apr 4th: a mostly uneventful trip to NYC yielded Ruby- and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Eastern Phoebe, Cedar Waxwing and a possible Barn Swallow on the train ride up. That morning Chipping Sparrow was at my feeders in Ewing.

Mon Apr 5th: on Princeton campus was my FOY Red-breasted Nuthatch, Chipping Sparrow.
Tues Apr 6th: two Yellow-rumped Warblers in my yard

Princeton, May 1st

Despite heavy overcast and some drizzle, I stopped off at Rogers Refuge/Institute Woods before work. There was certainly some migration, although not starting numbers. The best birds were a male Blackburnian Warbler and several Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (one male was singing), and Warbling Vireo was new for the year although a predictable find.

Warbling Vireo
Tree Swallow
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Gray Catbird
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch

Siskins, siskins everywhere: Jan 11th and 12th

Sunday at 1:30pm I took a late day jaunt to Round Valley Recreation Area (reservoir) in search of water birds including the reported Eared Grebe. Not a great deal to see at the boat launch (Ruddy Duck, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Common Loon, one American Coot) but at the South Lot things were more interesting in the land bird dept. Chickadee sp. (hybrid), Red-breasted Nuthatch, Eastern Bluebird, American Goldfinch and a nice flock of 15-20 Pine Siskin that were quite vocal. A fly-over Sharp-shinned Hawk completed the set.

Then, on Monday I was walking to Nassau St to get lunch when three Pine Siskins dropped into the pines at Prospect House on Princeton University campus. ID by call - the rising buzzy trill - there was still a mixed flock feeding there coming back to the lab, but I had no optics at work. A Cooper's Hawk fly-over was an added bonus. Pine Siskin is certainly the most interesting campus bird I've had - wonder if they'll make my feeders next ?

(Update Wednesday: the Pine Siskins were still at Prospect House and low enough to be ID'd by the naked eye. Still none at my feeders.)

Princeton, Sept 17th

Only a brief time before work and a 10am meeting - enough time to wander down the gravel road to the water company and back. Northern Parula, Nashville Warbler, American Redstart, Black-throated Blue Warbler and Black-and-white Warbler were of note. A high vireo couldn't be ID'd to species. Undoubtedly more there, but I didn't have time to check them out.

Fledgelings, Princeton

The European Starlings and American Robins had their first fledgelings in mid May, the Common Grackles appeared to have starting fledging shortly after that, but this week's new birds of the season were Chipping Sparrows that seem to be popping up all over Princeton University campus in their highly streaked juvenile plumage and begging for food noisily. Over at my apartment complex the Brown Cowbirds are still in evidence but I'm thankful that I haven't run into any juveniles of that species yet.

Spring migration - Princeton - May 2nd

Overnight rain combined with a southerly wind raised the prospects of migrant dropouts, and before I even got into Princeton there'd already been mention of them in a couple of places in NJ. The road towards the water facility at the Institute Woods had a couple of trees with many warblers in them - most of them Yellow-rumped Warblers. Quite a few singing species including multiple Black-throated Green Warblers and Blue-winged Warblers. I heard and tracked down a Blackburnian Warbler, which together with Black-throated Blue Warbler were new birds for the year. Overall, however, diversity wasn't that high although I did make it to 10 warbler species in about 1/4 of the time it took me the previous day.

Twenty minutes later, by 10am, these same trees were empty and the flock had moved on.

Migrant list:
Warbling Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Gray Catbird
Blue-winged Warbler (multiple)
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch