Spotted Towhee, Palmyra, Dec 12th

I decided to do a little morning birding at Palmyra Cove, where the shortest route for me was actually through PA (Cottman Ave exit off I-95). From the parking lot a flock of Snow Geese were overhead - probably migrating south on the north wind. Sparrows were the target of this trip, and there were quite a few Fox Sparrows present, including at least one singing. At the junction of Saw Whet and Red-winged Blackbird trails - the anointed location for the towhee - there were more Fox, White-throated Sparrows plus Junco, but the towees were elusive, calling every so often from deep in the phragmites. Moving into a better light angle, I found a female Eastern Towhee after about an hour at this place, and then another birder found the Spotted and I re-found it about 15 minutes afterward. Not, as it turned out, the most spectacular experience [I may be a little jaded, currently] and not even a year bird but at least moderately exotic for NJ.

Ivory Gull in Cape May, Nov 28th

Recovering from a late night the previous day I made it down to Cape May in the afternoon in search of the immature Ivory Gull that had been present for 2 days in Cape May harbor. I saw it even before I locked the car, at the Bree-Zee-Lee yacht basin along the north side of Cape May harbor. It flew around almost constantly during the few hours I was there, perhaps searching for scraps on the high tide, although it had been seen feeding on a fish that same morning. I grabbed more than a few snaps, of which six are at http://www.catharus.com/gallery2/v/gulls/ivory_gull/ .

(Edit: still present as of Nov 30th, first discovered Nov 27th)

Mixed feelings about raptors

Returning from South Amboy, I was unloading the wood I'd bought from the car when I noticed a Chickadee alarm call and something moving in my spruce patch. After grabbing the binoculars I was able to watch an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk eat a sparrow (probably White-throated) it had apparently just caught. Took it about 10-15 minutes to get most of the way through it.

Such is the nature of feeders - I attract birds and the small passerines attract raptors. This is the first raptor actually *on* the property, so it would be helpful if it was just passing through since I wasn't planning on maintaining a raptor feeding station. The feeders have yet to become very active, perhaps in part because of the warmer weather, but probably also because of the better seed crop this year - at least judging from the number of acorns littering my back lawn.

Black Brant, Western Grebe at South Amboy

Disinclined to chase the Pink-footed Goose on Long Island, I decided to try and find the Western Grebe that has been hanging out in the Raritan Bay the last few winters, preferably in NJ waters. So I made one of my periodic trips to Raritan Bay Waterfront Park in South Amboy.

First thing I did find was an adult Black Brant in the ball fields amongst a flock of Atlantic Brant. While getting bad photos if it (e.g. http://www.flickr.com/photos/phil-jeffrey/4125442731/) I bumped into Tom Burke and Gail Benson who told me where the Western Grebe was (1/2 mile west of the park) so after the Brant left for more distant fields I spent the next hour or so scanning the water for the grebe and not finding it. I left for a while to look for Kittiwakes at Sandy Hook (not found) and returned to look for it again, when I found it within 5 minutes in the early afternoon.

Not much else on the bay, a few Bufflehead, one Red-breasted Merganser, both loons, and a few fly-by Cormorants.

RSS for birding

Yahoo's Pipes site is obviously not the only way to handle RSS feeds for birding sites. Google's Reader is another one, and has the advantage of useful interfaces on smart-phones. So here are the RSS/Atom/XML links that I'm using for both Yahoo and Google:

eBirdsNYC: http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/ebirdsnyc/rss
SINaturaList: http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/SINaturaList/rss
BTBlue: http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/btblue/rss
NYSBirds-L: http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.xml
NJBirds: https://lists.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NJBirds&v=ATOM1.0
JerseyBirds: https://lists.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=JerseyBi&v=ATOM1.0

Lots of programs can read RSS feeds, including browsers like Firefox. Yahoo groups offer RSS feeds by default. Princeton's LISTSERV-based RSS feeds seem to have problems with Yahoo's Pipes but work ok in Google's Reader. Other non-Yahoo lists may or may not offer RSS feeds and the HTML aggregate at birdingonthe.net doesn't either - so the coverage cannot be comprehensive.

Because of the issues with Princeton's RSS feed and Yahoo pipes I am using Google's Reader and the RSS feeds above to check lists "in the field".

NYC bird list postings aggregator

Experimenting with the Yahoo Pipes site I created an RSS aggregator based on the message archives of four NYC area birding lists (eBirdsNYC, SINaturaList, BTBlue, NYSBirds-L)

http://pipes.yahoo.com/philjeffrey/nycbirds1

Which, in a certain amount of duplication, also contains this blog (disabled for now until I can filter it more effectively).

Oct 12th, Central Park

Lured in by the prospect of an even better migration day than the previous one, I found I'd predicted the movement wrong and there was less volume than Oct 11th. However spending quite a time at Tanner's Spring did produce a slow trickle of warblers and a late-ish Red-eyed Vireo:

Wood Duck
Eastern Phoebe
Red-eyed Vireo
House Wren
Winter Wren
Hermit Thrush
Brown Thrasher
Northern Parula
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
American Redstart
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow

Oct 11th, Central Park

I was up at the North End of Central Park on Sunday looking for the Sedge Wren reported the previous day. There was a decent movement of late fall migrants, including many Yellow-rumped Warblers. One brief reported sighting of the Sedge Wren and then nothing else, so I left after a while. The Ramble was not that active, but of note was a tagged Monarch Butterfly (see pic) in the Maintenance Field. Other than that, a better than average fall migration day

American Kestrel
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue-headed Vireo
Brown Creeper
Winter Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Cedar Waxwing
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Palm Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco

Central Park, Oct 6th

Not quite an epic day, but the best fall migration day for me of 2009 with good numbers of birds at Strawberry Fields at dawn (the benefit of getting the 0535 out of Princeton Jct) and birds continuing to drop in for at least another hour or more. Sparrows, woodpeckers, phoebe and kinglets dominated, with an unspectacular warbler diversity but I managed to eke out 13 warbler species (not bad for fall) but nearly all in the single digits for individuals. Species mix was mid-late fall, with both Swainson's and Wood Thrushes outnumbering the single Hermit Thrush and Red-eyed rather than Blue-headed Vireos.


Great Blue Heron
Gadwall (still 25+ at Turtle Pond)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (several)
Northern Flicker (many)
Eastern Phoebe (several)
Red-eyed Vireo (3)
Winter Wren (3)
Golden-crowned Kinglet (many)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Pine Warbler (Turtle Pond)
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee (several)
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow (Maintenance Field)
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Indigo Bunting (Maint Field, Strawberry Fields)
Baltimore Oriole (1)

Griggstown Preserve, October 5th

There's been a bit of a mowing frenzy at Griggstown, which has mowed the best fall sparrow habitat down to the stubble, and also mowed the existing Grasshopper Sparrow sites. Although they're probably trying to reverse the succession from grassland to scrubland the aggressive mowing does make me wonder about next spring.

In the meanwhile, the place somewhat sucks for sparrows in fall, with substantially lower numbers and diversity compared to last fall. Highlights were two fly-over Broad-winged Hawks and a small flock of American Pipits that dropped in as I left, but generally a fairly disappointing visit.

Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Broad-winged Hawk
American Kestrel
Northern Flicker
Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird
American Pipit
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Palm Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Indigo Bunting
American Goldfinch

Central Park, Sept 30th

Slow migration day off a west wind and lower temperatures. Although there were quite a few Brown Thrashers in Strawberry Fields there were very few other migrants. The most numerous warbler was Common Yellowthroat. A remarkable 25 Gadwalls in a variety of plumage (some coming out of eclipse, some in full breeding) were around the island at Turtle Pond, which offered a few photo ops.

Gadwall
Chimney Swift
Belted Kingfisher
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue-headed Vireo
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Northern Parula
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Palm Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
White-throated Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak

DeKorte Park, Sept 26th

After Central Park, DeKorte park was rather more active at least in the waterfowl and shorebird sense. Several Lesser Yellowlegs were still around, there was a large concentration of herons in the drying pools, but the best birds were 2-3 Soras, one of which was rather tame.



Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Gadwall
American Black Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Pintail
Sora
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Long-billed Dowitcher

Central Park, Sept 26th

Low volume migration was somewhat surprising off north winds, including relatively little raptor movement. Best birds were the Green-winged Teal on the Lake and the two Hummingbirds in the Oven. A switch over to later fall species was indicated by Blue-headed Vireo, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Phoebe.

Green-winged Teal
Red-tailed Hawk
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue-headed Vireo
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
Brown Thrasher
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Summer Tanager
White-throated Sparrow

Central Park, Sept 19th

A Saturday morning in the park on a cooler fall day provided some fall migration but nothing spectacular in terms of numbers or more unusual species. Best birds were a skulky Mourning Warbler in Tupelo Meadow and a Peregrine doing acrobatics over the west side at Strawberry Fields.

Peregrine Falcon
Solitary Sandpiper
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Northern Flicker
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Willow Flycatcher
Red-eyed Vireo
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Brown Thrasher
Cedar Waxwing
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Northern Waterthrush
Mourning Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting

Northern Wheatear, DeKorte Park, Lyndhurst NJ

Northern Wheatear is moderately common in Britain so I've seen a bunch of them, but only one previously in the US - a quick look at the often-elusive Smith Point Park bird on 9/22/01. So even though I had seen one in GB on 9/11 I went looking for the DeKorte Park bird, finding it relatively quickly and getting good looks at what appears on the face of it to be a first fall immature of the Greenland ssp. This is the first time I've birded the impoundments at DeKorte and there were a good number of shorebirds present. Predominantly Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs there were also Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Pectoral and Stilt Sandpipers, Semipalmated and a single juvenile American Golden Plover. Not bad for a morning, and a Northern Harrier was over the phragmites on the way out.

Jamaica Bay, August 27th

After enduring a lot more traffic than was strictly necessary, I managed 2 hours at the East Pond of Jamaica Bay WR on Thursday. Modest number of shorebirds, OK diversity, and although the tide was not perfect it was the last sunnier day before two days of rain. Best bird was the adult Red-necked Phalarope (pic) which seems like it might have had some trauma (or at least a really hard life) judging from disturbed feather patches at the vent. Not a good thing in a frequently pelagic species. Another good bird was a rather skittish juvenile Baird's Sandpiper and a distant American Avocet (so distant that if Shai Mitra had not pointed it out, it was nigh-on invisible with binoculars).

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Gadwall
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Peregrine Falcon
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Red-necked Phalarope
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Black Tern
Northern Waterthrush

Jamaica Bay, August 7th

A quiet day at the south end of the East Pond, where in retrospect the action was all happening at the north end. The shorebirds were very skittish, doubtless because of a Peregrine Falcon that was hunting the pond intermittently. The individuals were nearly all adults (I saw one juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs) although we are reaching the point there the juveniles should start arriving. The greening of the mud at the south end was just starting to happen with short grass present, destined to become thicker (and more heavily cropped by the Canada Geese) in the weeks to come.

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Glossy Ibis
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
American Black Duck
Mallard
Ruddy Duck
Osprey
Peregrine Falcon
Semipalmated Plover
American Oystercatcher
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Gull-billed Tern
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Barn Swallow
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Waterthrush
American Goldfinch

Jamaica Bay and Nickerson Beach, August 4th

Arrived at Jamaica Bay to find that in my comatose state that morning I'd left the mud gear at home, so I took a walk along the West Pond before heading further east. There were several Common Yellowthroats as well as single Yellow Warblers and American Redstart. The shorebirds on the West Pond were limited but the usual suspects, lacking some of those that might be considered regular on the East Pond (i.e. no Lesser Yellowlegs or Semipalmated Plover).

After Jamaica Bay I went to Nickerson Beach to check out the Black Skimmer and Common Tern beach colony for the first time. In retrospect I narrowly managed to avoid paying a fairly stiff beach toll by arriving before 8am. At the beach there were a few shorebirds including Semipalmated Plover and Sandpiper, several American Oystercatchers including full-grown juveniles. The colony had many Common Terns (some independent juveniles) and Black Skimmers in a modest-sized roped off area.


Jamaica Bay list:
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Glossy Ibis
Mute Swan
American Black Duck
Mallard
Osprey
Peregrine Falcon
Greater Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Yellow Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Baltimore Oriole

SIx Mile Run and Griggstown, July 11th

For the first bit of birding I'd done since the MN-ND-WY and Britain trips, I went to Six Mile Run and Griggstown to get a feel of mid-summer birding there. I only got to Six Mile Run by 9am so had to compete with bicyclists for trail usage. Nevertheless I got a pretty reasonable sample of bird life there: Song, Field and Grasshopper Sparrows, Willow Flycatcher, Yellow Warbler, Eastern Bluebird, Indigo Bunting, American Goldfinch - these are all pretty representative of the species there and some of them were still singing including one Grasshopper Sparrow. Perhaps they were starting to worry about second broods, which is probably what all those singing House Wrens are doing (like the one in my back yard).

Griggstown, by contrast, was quiet although it was even later in the morning. Griggstown is less of a native grassland preserve right now than a native shrub and weed preserve and the amount of actual grassland probably translates into reduced diversity. So I didn't linger there and concentrated on trying to fit a modest-sized Buddleia (Butterfly Bush) in my Honda Accord for the drive home from the Belle Mead co-op. This place are good about stocking native plants and many of the perennials in my attempt to make the new place more wildlife-friendly have come from there.

MN-ND-WY trip

Much of June was spent on a regional hiatus as I traveled in a huge loop MN-ND-MT-WY-SD-ND-MN in search of prairie and western montane birds with pretty good success. The trip report is in mid-edit, and most of the photos (incl. Dusky Grouse) are still being processed.

Griggstown and Six Mile Run, May 30th

I really haven't spent any time at my two local grasslands this spring, so I rectified this on Saturday morning by going to Griggstown Native Grassland Preserve and the nearby Six Mile Run, both on the east side of the D&R canal in Franklin Twp.

Griggstown was somewhat of a disappointment, since it held neither Bobolink nor any singing Grasshopper Sparrow and there was no Willow Flycatcher - I'm wondering if the successional nature of what's going on there may have something to do with it - the habitat has a different feel to Six Mile Run. I did see a smattering of usual species and a Red Fox: Song, Chipping and Field Sparrows, an Indigo Bunting, Orchard and Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Bluebird, Yellow Warbler and Common Yellowthroat and the inevitable Red-winged Blackbirds and Tree Swallows.

At Six Mile Run, there was all this and more. There were several singing male Grasshopper Sparrows, some of them obviously paired. There were two singing Willow Flycatchers (not obviously paired) and a pair of Great Crested Flycatchers in the parking lot. Best of all there was a Blue Grosbeak male a little further up the trail I usually take. The Willow Flycatcher shot is from Six Mile Run.

Sterling Forest

Sterling Forest is one of the main strongholds of Golden-winged Warbler near NYC, now that the species is increasingly marginal in NJ. On May 19th I took a morning and got there at 0630, finding Golden-winged almost immediately. Other warblers present were Hooded Warbler (heard), Ovenbird (heard), Prairie Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Black-and-white Warbler (heard) and a brief snippet of Cerulean Warbler song. I ignored the Cerulean while I watched a female Golden-winged forage for nest material, only to find that the Cerulean vanished rather quickly.

Other birds included several Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Baltimore and Orchard Oriole and Scarlet Tanager. Singing activity really died down after 9am, which is at least one reason I never did see any Ceruleans anywhere.

A return trip the following Sunday (May 24th) gave me a look at two Ceruleans (singing), a singing Yellow-billed Cuckoo, a fly-by Broad-winged Hawk and otherwise much the same species mix.

Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Central Park, May 13th

Things were pretty slow in Strawberry Fields, so I went over to Falconer's Hill and found Janet talking about a sharp-tailed sparrow. Five or ten minutes later it appeared from cover and the somewhat surreal sighting of a Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow in the grass at Falconer's. OK, it was in some grass, but why it didn't hang out at the much wetter Lower Lobe nearby is anyone's guess - perhaps the deeper cover at Falconer's suited it. This is the second one I've seen in Central Park, the previous one being 4/30/2001, with a Nelson's the following year (Sept 2002). Now all we need is a Le Conte's.....

Central Park, May 12th

It helps, I find, to have the battery in the digital camera to hold a little voltage. No volts, no photos.

Nevertheless, it was a decent day, although one I cut short due to camera woes. Bay-breasted Warbler was at Strawberry Fields, Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers on the Lake, and a Gray-cheeked Thrush near Azalea Pond.

Central Park, May 10th

Although May 10th is often a high-volume day in spring migration, this particular day was pretty slow, and for a long time I had about 5 species of warbler, mainly Magnolia. Eventually the quality picked up with a Prothonotary Warbler on the Point, a Least Flycatcher, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird male and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (the latter two at Azalea Pond). Still, I only barely made it into double digits for warbler species. In the afternoon I drove back home via Bull's Island State Park, where I added the fairly reliable Acadian Flycatcher and Cliff Swallow to my year list.

Double-crested Cormorant
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Least Flycatcher
Red-eyed Vireo
Black-capped Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Prothonotary Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Field Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting

Belleplain and Heislerville

Instead of battling crowds in Central Park I made a late start and went to southern NJ. In Belleplain State Forest along Sunset Rd birds were more heard than seen. Heard-only were Acadian Flycatcher, Blue-winged Warbler and Scarlet Tanager. Seen was the reliable Prothonotary Warbler and a pair of Worm-eating Warblers as well as a fly-by Louisiana Waterthrush. A visit to Jake's Landing in the heat of the day added predictable Seaside Sparrow, Marsh Wren, Willet and calling Clapper Rails. Northern Harriers were still hunting over the marshes, surely breeding there. And then onto Heislerville WMA where it was a little after high tide and many shorebirds were on the mudflats rather than in the rather full impoundment. Nothing novel here, instead the usual roster: Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plovers, Dunlin, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitcher, Black Skimmer.

Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Northern Harrier
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Forster's Tern
Great Crested Flycatcher
Marsh Wren
Worm-eating Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Seaside Sparrow

Central Park, May 6th

Not the most auspicious weather to go birding in Central Park - a north wind overnight and overcast making viewing conditions difficult. Nevertheless it was May 6th, so there were a decent number of migrants in small pockets. Best birds for the day were White-eyed Vireo (Upper Lobe), Indigo Bunting and a persistently singing Blackburnian Warbler at Mugger's Woods. For May 6th the lack of Red-eyed Vireos gave it a feel of being a little late for some species, consistent with the poor and wet weather over the last few days retarding migration.

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
American Kestrel
Blue-headed Vireo
White-eyed Vireo
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Brown Thrasher
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole

Central Park, May 2nd

Intermittent drizzle and heavy overcast early in the day cleared to sunny conditions late in the day before more rain spread in overnight. As I was packing up the car to drive into NYC there were Red-eyed Vireo and Black-and-white Warbler in my yard. Garrett Mountain had a fallout day, whereas Central Park merely had a good one. First of season birds for me included Great Crested Flycatcher, Black-throated Green and Magnolia Warblers, Scarlet Tanager and White-crowned Sparrow. 14 species of warbler was probably a little under what I should have achieved, but numbers were fairly good.

Great Crested Flycatcher
Blue-headed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole

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

Central Park, April 28th

Most interesting bird was actually viewed from the NJ Transit train
headed into the city at Secaucus, where a Common Raven was soaring
above the rock outcrop at Laurel Hill Park.

Hooded Warbler and Worm-eating Warblers were the best birds for the day after that.
Possibly more than one Worm-eating, but there was just one very active male Hooded that rarely fed at ground level. A "late"
bird was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. New birds for the year for me
included Eastern Kingbird (nr Bow Bridge), Veery, Yellow Warbler
(several) and American Redstart. Slightly odd that I've seen Redstart
and Bay-breasted before Black-throated Green (which I only heard
today). 18 or 19 warbler species is, however, not a bad total for late
April. The Juncos appear to have left but the White-throated Sparrows are still numerous.

Despite hearing Chimney Swifts I didn't see any until I was working in the yard at home in the evening.

Double-crested Cormorant (flock migrating overhead)
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo (heard only)
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Blue-winged Warbler (a few)
Nashville Warbler (several, widespread)
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler (abundant)
Black-throated Green Warbler (heard)
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler (probable heard)
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart (Tanner's Spring)
Worm-eating Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush (Gill)
Louisiana Waterthrush (Oven)
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow

Siskin Tracker

Just a post to track the last sighting of Pine Siskin at my feeders...

Siskins appear to have left during the hot weekend of 25th/26th, with the Juncos leaving then or before.

May 3rd - have been silent for days, but this was seen at close range
none April 27th, but W-t Sparrow
April 24th (+W-t Sparrow)
April 20th (+Junco, W-t Sparrow)
April 17th (+Junco, W-t Sparrow)
April 16th (2, nest material ?, +Junco, W-t Sparrow)
April 15th (+Junco, W-t Sparrow)
April 13th (+Junco)
April 11th
April 10th (+Junco, W-t Sparrow)
April 7th (2, +Junco, W-t Sparrow)
April 2nd (3+)
April 1st (1)
March 30th
March 29th (2++)
March 23rd (2).
March 19th.
March 15th.
March 13th (singing).
March 12th (singing).
March 10th.

Central Park, April 25th and 26th

Unseasonably warm late-April days of 85 and 90 made it almost certain there would be a good migrant push in Central Park. Interestingly there were different species on the two days, with Nashvilles far commoner on the second day. Some very early records of mid-late spring species were seen, including Magnolia (not by me) and Bay-breasted Warblers (the latter found by me at Tanner's Spring on the 26th). However the rather modest total of 14 warbler sp. over two days does still indicate the early season. Misses for me were Yellow Warbler and Black-throated Green, neither of which were yet numerous. But the male Hooded (singing) and Bay-breasted (silent) made up for it.

Double-crested Cormorant
Empidonax Flycatcher (almost certainly Least)
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Blue-winged Warbler (1)
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided Warbler (1)
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler (1)
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat (1)
Hooded Warbler (1)
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole

Central Park, April 18th

A decent mid-April migration day with the usual suspects including a few Palm Warblers, a Pine Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Eastern Towhee. Migrants present in good numbers were: Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Winter Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch

Migration moves on

New arrivals for me:

Louisiana Waterthrush: April 12th, Central Park
Yellow-throated Warbler: April 12th, Central Park
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher: April 16th, Princeton
Yellow-rumped Warbler: April 18th, Central Park (first migrant one?)
Pine Warbler: April 18th, Central Park
Palm Warbler: April 18th, Central Park
Northern Parula: April 17th, Princeton (new early date for me by one day)

Central Park, April 12th

My first foray into Central Park for the year, and a smallish number of early spring migrants were present. Several Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Hermit Thrushes, one Fox Sparrow, a few Pine Siskins at the feeders and around the Ramble. Only two warblers: Louisiana Waterthrush in the Gill (seen singing) and a Yellow-throated Warbler at the south side of Conservatory Water. The latter was feeding on the roof of a concession stand and on the edge of the pond - rather atypical behavior for this species.

After that I went to Edgewater NJ to find Monk Parakeet, now that they had recently been added to the NJ list. Then down to South Amboy where I failed to pick out Little Gulls from the Bonaparte's Gull flock there in windy conditions but found other spring arrivals: Forster's Tern, Snowy Egret and Laughing Gull. A handful of Gannets were hunting in the bay.

Central Park list:
Great Egret
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Eastern Phoebe
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Yellow-throated Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Chipping Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Brown-headed Cowbird
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch

Hamilton-Trenton Marsh, 3/22

First time I've birded Hamilton-Trenton Marsh seriously, taking a slow walk around the woods, and finding quite a nice variety of things. Four Wilson's Snipe and two male Blue-winged Teal were in the first marsh, Tree Swallows were around the outskirts to the trail through the woods. Rusty Blackbirds (singing) and Swamp Sparrows were on the first section of trail in the woods. In the lake on the far side there was a large number of waterfowl including many Green-winged Teal and Wood Ducks but also American Wigeon and Northern Pintail. The last of the six new-for-year birds of the morning was a female Hairy Woodpecker.

What there wasn't were many sparrows in the understory, in fact it was quiet apart from a Winter Wren and a few Carolina Wrens establishing territory. This echos my experience in Princeton which also isn't a good place for understory sparrows (ironically Central Park is far better, but it would not surprise me if this was related to deer browsing).

Update: in the afternoon of 3/28 diversity was less with no Rusty Blackbirds but the addition of Brown Creeper in a mixed passerine flock with several Yellow-rumped Warblers in the woods. Very few sparrows, so I assume this is just not a good site for them.

March 14th and 15th

Spring migration was in evidence courtesy of probably my least favorite bird - the Brown-headed Cowbird. On Saturday I had three fly over me at Barnegat Inlet, two males singing at Wells Mills County Park; on Sunday there were both males and females in the blackbird flock at Plainsboro Preserve.

At Barnegat on Saturday the best birds were two Red-necked Grebes and two Great Cormorants, with a mixed Surf and Black Scoter flock in the inlet and the usual suspects including large numbers of Long-tailed Ducks and my first Ruddy Turnstones of the year. I also did my best to trash my left knee while rock-hopping along the jetty with the camera gear. In the bay, viewed from local streets in Surf City, there were additionally American Oystercatcher (newly arrived in numbers throughout the region), three White-winged Scoter, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye and Horned Grebe.

At Wells Mills County Park the feeder birds were present including a still healthy number of Pine Siskins.

And then because a little sun was peeking through the clouds I went to Wreck Pond in Spring Lake (nothing of interest), Lake Como (Redhead, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup), and Silver Lake in Belmar (Eurasian Wigeon, American Wigeon, Am. Black Duck, Ruddy Duck and a lot of Brant).

On Sunday, nursing the damaged knee, I limited myself to three local spots: Plainsboro Preserve (American Tree Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Brown-headed Cowbird, but no Tree Swallows), Griggstown Native Grassland Preserve (quiet, Eastern Bluebird), Negri-Nepote Grasslands (Northern Pintail, Song Sparrow).

Update 3/21: making much the same trip the following weekend I finally saw a few Purple Sandpipers at Barnegat, the "paired" Red-necked Grebes were still there, but there were no other surprises. Nine White-winged Crossbills were at Brigantine NWR along with the first Osprey of the season for me and a Northern Bobwhite in the grassland area - apparently a rare bird at Brigantine with only a few calling males left. The bird I saw was probably a female.

And with patience, a Woodcock or two

Returning to Kingston the following night (March 12th) after confirming the location with a local birder, I exhibited more patience and was rewarded by a few American Woodcock peenting and one or two singing. In fact I managed to lock on one twittering as it circled upwards and was able to watch the entire display in the gathering gloom. It was relatively cold, which might suggest that there could be even more on a balmier evening. Peenting started shortly after 7pm.

Update: on March 17th I returned to this place, saw one Woodcock and heard another one. The Woodcock I saw displayed right over my head and did a close fly-by on descent before landing in an open patch and started to peent. On another display flight I saw it land in a different open patch and watched it while it "broadcast" the peent by pointing in a different direction after each call - there's obviously quite a different volume depending on which way the bird faced. There was also a little soft "hic" call once or twice before each peent and a low soft growl call when I saw it flying around at low altitude - this might have been the result of the one bird reacting to another one peenting.

Great Horned Owl

While unsuccessfully searching for American Woodcock in Kingston, I heard two Great Horned Owls hooting at each other over the corner of the area I was searching. As this was persistent, I was able to slowly and quietly approach the area and finally was rewarded by the sight of one of the Great Horned hooting away. Interesting how it lowered its posture to a more horizontal position while hooting. The second owl was much further away.

In the extensive scrubby area I picked up a Field Sparrow (first of year for me), but I didn't so much as hear a Woodcock.

American Woodcock

Tuesday night (March 10th) I heard two American Woodcocks at the old apt complex of Quakerbridge Rd but they were not very vocal, I didn't see either of them, and the road noise was significant. They were in the adjacent field and not in the wet area near the parking lot that they had also been in for the two previous years - I used to be able to hear them from my apartment.

March 7th: Brigantine to Belmar

Starting off at Brigantine NWR shortly after sunrise, I spent the first few hours taking pictures of the accommodating White-winged Crossbills that were feeding in a low (Black? Japanese) Pine in the parking lot area. Conditions were balmy and emphasized by early spring birds like Killdeer, Greater Yellowlegs, Wood Duck and Hermit Thrush at flew over or hopped around the general area. Mixed blackbird flocks flew over, with at least some birds sounding like Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Then down to the impoundments were there were thousands of waterfowl: Brant and Snow Geese, dabbling ducks dominated by Northern Pintail and American Black Duck, thousands of Greater and Lesser Scaup with Redhead and Canvasback in the impoundments. All three merganser sp. were to be found. The most interesting find were two Short-eared Owls that were hunting near the south-west corner of the impoundments in broad daylight.

After Brigantine I went north to Barnegat Inlet which was swarming with humanity in this warm day. That and a sore left knee reduced my desire to walk out on the jetty too far. Common Loons were numerous, some in near breeding plumage, as were Long-tailed Duck. Other ducks included Harlequins, Black Scoter and Red-breasted Merganser. There were Red-throated Loon and Red-necked Grebe mixed in with the Common Loons, and Northern Gannet were working the coast offshore.

A brief visit to Wells Mills County Park showed that the feeders were quiet with no Siskins.

Then on the way north I visited Wreck Pond in Spring Lake, Lake Como and Silver Lake in Belmar. At Wreck Pond the most unusual bird was an American Bittern hunting at the edge of the phragmites. At Lake Como a small toy watercraft had limited the number of birds but one Redhead was in the small Canvasback/Lesser Scaup flock. At Silver Lake there was no Eurasian Wigeon but a few Americans and a large number of Brant.

White-winged Crossbill in the garden !

This morning (March 3rd) I was taking the car out of the garage before filling the feeders and stopped to listen to the singing Pine Siskins that have been visiting the thistle over the last few weeks. I heard something that sounded atypical, and yet reminiscent of.... White-winged Crossbills visiting the three Spruce at the top of my driveway !

I almost fell over from shock. The four crossbills relocated to a deciduous tree nearby and waiting cooperatively for me to look at two males and two females (one greener than the other) before moving on.

That's quite the yard bird. Red-winged Blackbird made the yard list the previous day, part of a large blackbird flock that touched down for a little while in the Red Oak.

North shore again, March 1st

Despite still recovering from an epic bout of food poisoning, I spent a little time at the North Shore on Sunday ahead of the cold snap. At Wreck Pond I found a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls in with the gull flock. At Silver Lake in Belmar I finally found the Eurasian Wigeon mixed in with the American Wigeon and Brant flock there. Lake Como had some diving ducks but was mostly closed for a parade, so I had no luck searching for Redhead.

Barnacle Goose, Barrow's Goldeneye - NYC and NJ

I went specifically looking for two species of waterfowl over the weekend of the 21st/22nd Feb - Barrow's Goldeneye in NYC and Barnacle Goose in NJ.

On Saturday, fighting with three traffic slowdowns and my own tardiness, I did a quick sprint to Warinanco Park in Linden for Barnacle Goose, failed to find it, but somehow did manage to get to Jamaica Bay WR in Brooklyn/Queens a little before sundown. There the male Barrow's Goldeneye was amongst a decent-sized flock of Common Goldeneye on the West Pond around 5pm. This was perhaps the largest flock of Goldeneye I recall seeing on the West Pond. Other ducks were in less impressive numbers, with relatively few (Greater) Scaup, one Canvasback and relatively few dabbling ducks. This was my first Barrow's Goldeneye in NYC, the life bird was the Ransom Beach/Long Island one, and I'd seen other ones at Sandy Hook (NJ) and in Colorado. Other interesting birds at Jamaica Bay included a hardy Great Egret but there wasn't much time to search for more given impending sunset.

Despite much uglier weather on Sunday I did a more diligent search of Warinanco Park in the midst of intermittent drizzle and heavy overcast, and it wasn't all that hard to find the Barnacle Goose there in a large flock of Canadas. The Barnacle Goose had intact halluxes, apparently intact primaries, and was neither more tame nor more wild than the accompanying wild Canada Geese - so at first blush this seems like a legit bird. It was being harassed a little by the Canadas, but otherwise was pretty comfortable in the flock.

NJ Coast

Starting not as early as I should have done, I braved moderately brisk conditions to wander down the breakwater at Barnegat Inlet. While Harlequin Ducks were present, shorebirds were notable by their absence - no Turnstones or Purple Sandpipers and a grand total of one Black-bellied Plover, two Sanderlings and a Dunlin. In the inlet itself, a Red-necked Grebe continued there after several days, one male Black Scoter, an immature male Surf Scoter and the usual suspects with several Long-tailed Ducks, both loons, and a few Red-breasted Mergansers. Over the other side of the inlet a small group of Common Eider were seen at a distance, and there were Great Cormorant on the end of the far jetty. Luckily I bumped into my friend Brian at the end of the jetty, so we hung out for a while before retreating to the parking lot.

After Barnegat I went south to Brigantine NWR which held all the usual suspects: Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Mallard, American Black Duck, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Tundra Swan, Brant and Snow Geese, Northern Harrier. A nice find was a small flock of American Pipits.

North again from Brigantine I followed Brian's advice and stopped at Wells Mills County Park to view the feeders at the Nature Center, where the Pine Siskins were very tame but not very photographable.

Then I did a north coast pond tour, starting in Point Pleasant which didn't have much on the ponds there. Lake Como, Silver Lake (no Eurasian Wigeon) and Sylvan Lake were a little better, and I finally wound up at Lake Takanassee where the Common (Eurasian) Teal wasn't particularly hard to find, but so far not considered a separate species in the USA. And then I went back down to Silver Lake (Belmar) for one last look for the Eurasian Wigeon. Overall there was a decent collection of ducks: Snow Goose, Hooded and Red-breasted Merganser, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, Canvasback, Black Duck, American Wigeon, Gadwall etc as well as Black-crowned Night-Heron and Great Blue Heron.

Raptors, raptors everywhere

Saturday was a bad day for prey in Lawrenceville. Despite the overcast I did a last minute wander to Pole Farm. At 4:30pm a Peregrine with prey flew up to the top of a pole along Federal City Rd near the small shopping center. At Pole Farm the Short-eared Owls were already up in the air at 4:30 with dark overcast conditions with little wind. At least four Northern Harriers were around, one or two Red-tailed Hawks) and finally on exiting Pole Farm I saw a Merlin perched in a tree near the entrance.

(I also saw Red-shouldered Hawk there earlier in the week).

Pine Siskins, Ewing, Jan 27th

This morning there were (at last!) two Pine Siskins at my yard feeders, making me not quite the last feeders in NJ to get a visit from these irruptives. Also new for the feeders was a Northern Flicker, making rapid headway through the suet block that had only just been discovered by the pair of Carolina Wrens that have been overwintering. Things are going to get busy with this afternoon's scheduled snowfall.

(Update: Siskins returned on the 29th, briefly, and there was a fly-over winter finch flock on the 30th).

Round Valley, Alpha, Great Swamp

Showing a startling lack of innovation and general laziness, I birded much the same areas as the previous weekend over the 24th and 25th.

Saturday dawned cloudy but after it started to clear I made a late afternoon run to Round Valley and back to Pole Farm near sunset. Up at the northern end of Round Valley at the boat ramp the Eared Grebe was quite cooperative and near the ramp, but too far away for worthwhile photographs. This turns out to be the first Eared Grebe I'd seen in NJ. A white-ish immature Iceland Gull was also in the Ring-billed Gull flock at the boat ramp. Common Merganser and Bufflehead were also there. Because Round Valley closes at 4pm I didn't check the interior lots but instead came back south and went to Pole Farm as the sun set. There were several hopeful photographers swarming all over the place, and there seemed to be quite a lot of Harriers around - perhaps up to 4 females and one male but the light was bad enough that I left the camera in the car. After sunset, and just as I was headed out, a single Short-eared Owl put in an appearance.

On Sunday morning I was back at Round Valley. The south lot was very quiet but I did at least hear Pine Siskin sound off once - I never did see it. The Eared Grebe was still at the boat launch but still outside photo range. So I went east to Great Swamp NWR and parked at the heronry overlook. After a little effort I got distant but diagnostic looks at the adult Red-headed Woodpecker, then after returning to the lot some other birders found the Northern Shrike which was moderately cooperative at range for a while before it vanished. The Shrike appeared to be an adult but apparently there's also an immature around. The icing on the cake was being told of a Long-eared Owl roost nearby, which had attracted predictable attention. I still don't understand why people hold full-volume conversations about camera gear right in front of an owl roost, but I guess we can call these the "sacrificial owls" in terms of human disturbance. Two of the LEOs showed some stress in posture (narrow and vertical) but the other two seemed more relaxed. Thankfully all were obscured and not viable for photographs, so that probably relieved some of the pressure.

After Great Swamp I made a very quick stop at Scherman-Hoffman to check out the feeders - non-photographable (at least in the PM) but there were Pine Siskins on them. Then on to Alpha where I was primarily looking for photos of Horned Lark and Lapland Longspur. Only one Horned Lark, no flocks, and since the clouds had moved in just as I arrived I contented myself with a couple of sweeps of the area and watching the large Snow Goose flock accumulate in the fields nearby.

On the way home a stop at Round Valley once more produced a Lesser Black-backed Gull but nothing else of note.

Florence and Pole Farm: Jan 20th, 21st

While waiting for FedEx Ground to screw up a delivery I birded Florence (NJ) and the Mercer County Park NorthWest (i.e. Pole Farm).

At Florence I arrived to find a lot of ice on the Delaware River at the boat ramp park. This stretch of river heads east-west and of course such is the curse of Florence that the river view overlooks the large Tullytown landfill on the Pennsylvania side. The upside, of course, is that landfills attract a ton of gulls and many of these loaf on the river.

The moment I arrived at the boat ramp park a Great Cormorant flew by and helpfully circled back around to help me clinch the ID - it was starting to molt into breeding plumage so the white flank patch was partially formed. There were quite a few Common Mergansers on the river - probably frozen out further north and from interior lakes. But the main deal is the gulls, many thousands of them, most of them Herring and Ring-billed: there were relatively few Lesser Black-backed Gulls, perhaps less than 10 seen on the entire trip, but I found a pale immature Iceland Gull on the second pass through the flock, and then a second one that kept flying around that was a little darker - towards pale coffee color. After scanning the flock multiple times I went west (i.e. downstream) a few blocks to River's Edge Park where there were very few gulls but luck produced a fly-over third Iceland Gull.

Back at the boat ramp the gull flock had taken flight and moved upstream, so I went to neighboring Roebling and at the park along Riverside Ave I scoped through the chain link fence at the more distant gull flock, (re-)finding two Iceland Gulls and Lesser Black-backed but no Glaucous. I hadn't birded Roebling before but in line with the whole Florence experience the park there overlooked an EPA Super Fund site along the river and seemed to be next to an abandoned manufacturing center. The dilettante nature of birding seems somewhat at odds with the gritty nature of these two towns.

Back at Pole Farm in Lawrenceville a mid afternoon visit yielded the usual suspects: Northern Harrier (2 females, at least one of which was immature), Red-tailed Hawk, a female American Kestrel, American Tree Sparrow and a Short-eared Owl that put in an appearance at a relatively early 3:30pm. Around that time two Eastern Meadowlarks zoomed overhead. Lets hope all these species can hang on for the snow thawing toward the end of the week.

The following morning at Pole Farm I pulled up to find a hovering Red-tailed Hawk, then panned to what I thought was another one before realizing that it was a pale morph Rough-legged Hawk. Possibly the same one that has been in the area for several weeks. I watched this bird for a while as it hunted the field, catching at least one rodent, before it circled high into the air and headed north. I suspect these Rough-legged Hawks cover quite a lot of territory in one day, whereas the Harriers (1 male, 1 female on this visit) seem to cover more limited ground.

(Thursday 22nd: both pale morph and dark morph Rough-legged Hawks were at Pole Farm, with the dark morph showing some aggression toward the light morph. Also there was the female American Kestrel, a single Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawk, Dark-eyed Junco and American Tree Sparrow. The Kestrel showed signs of food caching, something I hadn't observed before.)

(Friday 23rd: one apparent male pale morph Rough-legged seen well at Pole Farm, with what appeared to be a second adult female pale morph seen just before I left - it appeared different with a solid black breast band but was only seen at a distance)

Round Valley, Alpha, Califon

Despite the biting cold I made an afternoon run to Round Valley Reservoir and while there were still water birds around (Common Loon, American Coot, Gadwall, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead) the number of passerines were very low indeed. Two interesting birds were a vocal Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and 8-10 Lesser Black-backed Gulls amongst the predominantly Ring-billed on the reservoir itself.

Headed further west to Oberly Road in Alpha near the PA border and found the expected Horned Lark flock in the fields. Amongst the somewhat flighty groups of Larks were a few Snow Buntings, and then when one flock settled close to me I spied a Lapland Longspur. Nothing was close enough for photographs, however and the light was particularly bad. Since it was relatively late in the day several large flocks of Snow Geese flew over, presumably from feeding grounds to the (south-east) en route to a roost at Merrill Creek Reservoir.

On the way back home I diverted via Califon and found the Raritan river to be frozen - not a huge surprise with overnight temps in the low single digits and daytime temperatures in the teens. In fact more reminiscent of the time I spent birding Duluth MN four years ago.....but without the owls.

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.)

It is an ex-Murre, it has ceased to be

(If you're not familiar with Monty Python's Parrot Sketch .....)

The major reason for the trip onto Long Island on Saturday morning was to see the Thick-billed Murre at Hempstead Lake State Park. I knew it was sick, so there was a risk, nevertheless I wasn't entirely happy that I was told the bird had died before I even got the spotting 'scope out of the car.

C'est la vie.

Instead I went to Massapequa Preserve, further to the east. At the pond near the Pittsburgh Ave entrance there were a good number of waterfowl, especially Green-winged Teal. Also present were Gadwall, Mallard, American Wigeon, Mute Swan and the inevitable Canada Goose. The best birds were five Long-billed Dowitchers and a small flock of fly-over probable Pine Siskin (call and silhouette fit, but I like to see more on a year bird). Black-capped Chickadee and Winter Wren were also nice firsts for the year - I had heard but not seen another Winter Wren in Princeton in the previous week.

Then on to Jones Beach SP where I started at the West End at the Coastguard Station which was very quiet (one Long-tailed Duck at the dock). More interesting was a duck hunting boat (and "hunter" both in full camo) with a 500mm lens pursuing pictures of ducks in the inlet and bay. I mean pursuing literally, and I think he was flushing more birds than he was getting pictures of. West End 2 was similarly dead with the first of many Song Sparrows along the roadside, but West End 1 (Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center) was more productive. There was one flighty flock of 50-60 Snow Buntings milling around, and on the boardwalk there were Yellow-rumped Warbler, a few more Song Sparrows, many Savannah Sparrows including a couple of the "Ipswich" subspecies, Northern Harrier and Horned Lark. I didn't manage to pick out any Lapland Longspurs but there were many passerines in this section. There was also a single immature Snow Goose in with the Canada Geese feeding in the median strip outside West End 1.

Next I went to West End 6, where I scanned the ocean looking for ducks and Gannets. No Gannets but quite a few Long-tailed Ducks, some Surf Scoter, two Black Scoter and one fly-by Greater Scaup showing the full extent of the wing bar rather nicely. Both loons, Horned Grebe and a mere handful of Sanderlings were also present.

Finally, and to complete the rare bird strike-out sweep for the day, I went to Camman's Pond in Merrick where the Ross's Goose was nowhere to be seen but there were a decent number of dabbling ducks on the pond including Northern Shoveler, new for the day/year.

Aggregate list:

Red-throated Loon
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Brant
Mute Swan
Gadwall
American Wigeon
American Black Duck
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Surf Scoter
Black Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Sanderling
Bonaparte's Gull
Horned Lark
Winter Wren
Northern Mockingbird
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Snow Bunting
House Finch
probable Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch

Pole Farm - Jan 8th

A brief morning foray to the nearby Pole Farm (Mercer County Park NorthWest) mainly looking for photographs of Rough-legged Hawk. In the event, no Rough-legs were to be found, and instead there was a relatively low count of two Northern Harriers (male+female), two Red-tailed Hawks, American Kestrel and both species of Vulture. Numerous Canada Geese were spilling out of overnight roosts at/near Rosedale Park in small foraging flocks. A few Northern Flickers were milling around and the most interesting bird was a sleepy Carolina Wren calling from the field edge - this was species #46 for the year.

Wild Goose Chase - Jan 4th

Barnacle Goose and Pink-footed Goose were in NJ and NYC respectively, which was enough of a lure to make me chase them.

But first I started out locally, visiting Pole Farm briefly to check on the pale phase Rough-legged Hawk which was hunting over the field off the Federal City Rd entrance, but too distant for photos. Then up to northern NJ and DeKorte Park in the Meadowlands to look for the Snowy Owl that seemed pretty reproducible there. About all it took to find it was to walk up to the other birders that were already there at 10am. Northern Harrier and Rough-legged Hawk were also present in this area. Thank God - at this rate I was going to miss all the Snowys during an invasion year, perhaps the best one in quite some time.

Feeling optimistic I skipped across Staten Island quickly, along the Belt and into Flushing Meadows Corona Park where I started scanning Canada Goose flocks to no avail. And driving the wrong way on roadways that were extremely badly signed. Mea culpa. I checked both north and south of the Long Island Expressway and found a few Canada Goose flocks and no Pink-foot. After a while, I gave up on this first version of the wild goose chase and headed back down the Belt. I decided to stop at Floyd Bennett Field to scope for water birds in Jamaica Bay, coming up with the usual suspects: Common Loon, Red-throated Loon, Horned Grebe, Red-breasted Merganser, Bufflehead and Common Goldeneye. I didn't find a Great Cormorant, however, often quite regular there in winter.

After that, I decided to try for the Western Grebe on the south shore of Staten Island. Thankfully this was a lot more cooperative, being seen well in NY waters from the pier just to the east of Mount Loretto. Also present were several Long-tailed Duck.

Then out of Staten Island by way of the Goethals Bridge and back north to DeKorte Park to see if the Snowy Owl was any closer - in fact it was further away but there were still birders there looking at it. There probably was a slow trickle of coming and going all day.

The light was waning, so I gave up on staking out Northern Shrike at Great Swamp NWR and decided to try for the Barnacle Goose at Califon in NJ towards sunset. Predictably for my karma on Sunday the bird did not come into roost while I was there - I've seen that bird twice in ~8 visits, but there's always more time to look for it and the Canada X Barnacle hybrid that I'm particularly interested in before it leaves in spring.

My year list sits at a modest 43 species, but it's early days yet.

Jan 2nd - Mercer County Parks

To start the year out, I decided to head to Florence NJ to view the gulls in the river that accumulate there when the dump was in operation. Of course, on Friday the dump wasn't operating at all and there were very few birds to be seen, only the three species of gulls, and in the light snow not a great deal else.

While contemplating this debacle I decided to visit Mercer County Park in Lawrenceville/Hamilton to see if I could at least find a Common Merganser. I did, almost immediately, and there were a few small flocks flying around. Most of the lake was frozen but at the marina a decent size Canada Goose flock had accumulated. In the midst of it I found a Cackling Goose - classical in petite structure with a paler and pale-fringed mantle. Then while looking for more of them I came across a Greater White-fronted Goose in the same flock. After I returned with my scope I couldn't find the GWF but finally tracked it down after the flock decided to leave the lake and feed on the ball fields behind the ranger station near the marina. Two nice geese and not a bad consolation for Florence.

Near home I decided to check out the other version: Mercer County Park North West i.e. Pole Farm. The snow had stopped and the weather was starting to clear as I made it to the park. Almost immediately I saw a pale phase Rough-legged Hawk - rather unexpected - and then a few Northern Harriers (including two males) and an American Kestrel. A rather nice mix of raptors, padded by one of the local Red-tailed Hawks. After sprinting home to get the camera to see if I could get photos of the Rough-legged I returned just to watch the pale phase decided it had had enough action for one day and perch on the far side of the field. The icing on the cake was a dark phase Rough-legged that flew over the park toward dusk, ultimately ending up roosting on the far side of the other field I was monitoring.

I waited around until dusk and after the sun went down the final bird of the day was a single Short-eared Owl. Not as prolific as last year in terms of owls, Pole Farm still has some nice birds hunting the grassland this winter.

Interesting invasion patterns related to food supplies in northern wintering areas: last year was a Short-eared Owl invasion year, at least at Pole Farm but also in general; this year the numbers are low but in turn Snowy Owls and Rough-legged Hawks are having some of the best invasion numbers in years. I'm always conflicted about this - I love these birds but invasion years always correspond to years in which food supplies crash and the birds are starving. Many will not make it to return to breeding grounds.