Baldpate Mtn (Mercer Co NJ), May 26th

After a 500 mile drive back from Hatteras NC the previous day, I lacked a little enthusiasm for another 90+ minute drive pre-dawn to Stirling Forest and elected to bird locally at Baldpate Mountain.  It was fairly productive, with Blue-winged Warbler singing at the upper parking lot, House Wrens and Eastern Phoebes at the old farm house with about the only thing putting in a lower-than-typical showing were Indigo Buntings.  It was fairly windy and cool (low 50's at the start) which probably suppressed a few things.  Multiple Red-eyed Vireos and two Yellow-throated Vireos, but no Scarlet Tanagers or Great Crested Flycatchers and only the one Eastern Wood-Pewee.  Warblers put in a decent showing: three Blue-winged Warblers, a male and female Hooded (likely a pair but not together), several Ovenbirds, Chestnut-sided, Common Yellowthroats, a female Canada, a female Blackpoll (these two likely migrants but the rest are local breeders).  What didn't show up or sound off was a Kentucky - rather notoriously difficult to find at Baldpate - although I may have heard a distant one singing.

Getting sea-sick in the Gulf Stream: Hatteras NC Pelagic

Black-capped Petrel in Gulf Stream off Hatteras

I originally scheduled two pelagic trips out of Hatteras NC for May 23rd and 25th with Brian Patteson.  Storms canceled the first one, I took the one on the following day (Friday) as a "make up" but elected to skip Saturday's pelagic because of higher winds.  That pelagic went, but at 25-30 knot winds I don't regret not putting myself through that sort of hell for 12 hours.  The return trip back to Hatteras on the Friday trip was quite enough rough water for one spring.

My targets for the trip were lifers Black-capped Petrel and Band-rumped Storm-Petrel.  I got both of those but struck out totally on the "extras" I was hoping for like Fea's Petrel and Bridled Tern.  There was a decent showing of other shearwaters: mostly Cory's but also Sooty, Great and Audubon's along with good numbers of Wilson's Storm-Petrel.  In fact the one pelagic I went on had the fewest life birds of any of the ones that went out in that period.  C'est la vie.  Given the travel expense, lodging expense, and the fact that the pelagics are not cheap themselves it's not practical to do this sort of "double" again - I'd have to consult the marine forecast and do last minute bookings.  At the moment a west coast (Monterey) pelagic is more practical since there are quite a lot more semi-reliable pelagic species to be had over there in late-Sept/early-Oct.

On the rainy/stormy Thursday I visited Alligator River NWR where there were an absurd number of singing Prothonotary Warblers (several seen), many Indigo Buntings, Prairie Warblers, some Blue Grosbeaks, Black-throated Green Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, and a small handful of singing Hooded Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler (none of these seen).  The rain mostly negated photo ops.  I also visited Pea Island NWR on the way back down to Hatteras and notched up a few common sandpipers and plovers: Sanderling, Dunlin, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Semipalmated and Black-bellied Plovers, a few distant Red Knot.  Least Terns were fairly common here, Royal Terns less so, and I snagged my first Black Skimmer  for the year.  But the weather was still rather frustrating - I skipped out on attempting to find Chuck-will's-widow or Black Rail in local habitat because I wanted to get to sleep early ahead of the following morning's pelagic at 0515.

Nothing much of note on the 8.5 hour drive down, but on the return drive on Saturday I did see a Black Bear at Alligator River NWR and stopped at Bombay Hook NWR for a mis-timed visit at low tide that nevertheless did come up with a bunch of shorebirds (Short-billed Dowitcher still being a year bird at that point), Seaside Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak and Orchard Oriole.

Central Park Fri-Sat-Sun 17th-19th, 21 warbler species

With migration now moving along quickly I made what is likely to be my last spring migration CPK trip of 2013 as a Friday to Sunday triple.  Thursday was in fact the biggest migration day, but with birds left over on both Saturday and Sunday even if the weather on Sunday was quite wet.

Best birds: Olive-sided Flycatcher (Saturday), Black-billed Cuckoo (Friday), Tennessee Warblers (Sat, Sun: singing), a very late Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, late Prairie Warbler (Sat, Sun: singing).  The new first-of-year birds included me finally catching up with Cedar Waxwings.  I still maintained a perfect-miss record on Mourning and Kentucky, however.

On Monday morning, although a work day, migration was still humming along based on three warbler species (Blackpoll, Magnolia, Redstart) singing in my back yard, plus Red-eyed Vireo.




Double-crested Cormorant
Spotted Sandpiper (Sat)
Black-billed Cuckoo (Fri)
Chimney Swift
Northern Flicker
Cedar Waxwing
Olive-sided Flycatcher (Sat)
Least Flycatcher
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Barn Swallow
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Sat)
Veery
Gray-cheeked Thrush (Sun)
Swainson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Cedar Waxwing
Tennessee Warbler (Sat, Sun)
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler (Fri, Sat)
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler (Fri, Sat)
Prairie Warbler (Sat, Sun)
Bay-breasted Warbler (Fri, Sat)
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler (Sat)
Wilson's Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
White-crowned Sparrow (Fri)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole

Central Park Sat/Sun (11th/12th): 21 warbler species + flycatchers + thrushes

When delayed, spring migration has a predictable way to reassert itself.  In this case the even more compressed migration timeframe saw a noticeable transition in species mix on successive days, as numbers dropped after the big wave day on Friday.

Scarce to non-existant on Friday, Flycatchers and Thrushes turned up Saturday and Sunday.  It was unusual to get first-of-year Least Flycatcher and Eastern Wood-Pewee on the same day, but multiples of the former were seen both days along with Great Cresteds and Eastern Kingbirds (reports from elsewhere suggested a big flight of Eastern Kingbirds).   "Earlier" warbler species were supplemented by later spring species - I saw my first Blackpoll of the year on Friday, and had my first female Blackpoll on Sunday, as Yellow-rumped showed a rapid fall-off in numbers and I had 3 Wilson's on Sunday - they're rarely numerous in the park.

The stars of the show were a cooperative Blackburnian Warbler on Saturday morning, a male Prothonotary Warbler on Sunday afternoon, and I found a Marsh Wren while trying to reacquire the Prothonotary ahead of the storm front on Saturday.  The Prothonotary was seen on Turtle Pond on Sunday morning but then flew north - illustrating the act of faith of migrating warblers since it doesn't know the Reservoir or the Loch is ahead of it when it set off over the Great Lawn.

I came up with an aggregated total of 21 warblers for Sat-Sun and 23 for the Fri-Sun "triple".  Migration still remains, for example few Gray-cheeked Thrushes have been reported and the Eastern Wood-Pewees were silent and as singles, but the majority of the marked migration lag has been removed with the major push over the last few days.  Remains to be seen if we're going to pick up many sparrows this year, with no Lincoln's so far and a single Field and Swamp on Sunday.


Green Heron
Spotted Sandpiper
Chimney Swift
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Least Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Black-capped Chickadee
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Prothonotary Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Field Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole

Migration, finally - 18 warbler species + Summer Tanager

After an unprecedented contrarian weather system substantially shut down migration for the best part of the last two weeks, the trend reversed itself and Friday saw good numbers in the park.  Not legendary numbers, but the sort of migration that was in start contrast to all the previous days in May.

I saw, in the first 25 yards in Strawberry Fields, more warblers than I had seen in total during the last two weeks (i.e. since the last significant migration in late April).  While there were some underrepresented species (thrushes, flycatchers) it was strong day for FOY birds: Nashville, Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, Canada, Magnolia Warblers; Summer Tanager (a nice male); Red-eyed Vireo; Wood Thrush; (Swainson's Thrush also heard).  Other good birds included multiple Scarlet Tanagers, Worm-eating Warbler, two Cape May Warblers.  I conspired to miss any Blackburnian Warblers but there were significant numbers of most of the commoner warblers in the park for May.

There's also signs of delayed migration effects: multiple singing (i.e. male) Blue-headed Vireos - and while May 10th is certainly not my late date for them, the ratio of Blue-headed to Red-eyed was anomalous.  The absence of Veeries was conspicuous.  Still, with continuing favorable winds tomorrow (Saturday) may yet change the species mix.


Double-crested Cormorant
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Black-capped Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Worm-eating Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
American Goldfinch

Weekend: Delayed migration and Brigantine

In what was the quietest May 4th/5th in many years, I visited Bull's Island (NJ, Delaware River) to look for the Prothonotary Warbler and other summer breeding birds.   There were no Cliff Swallows nesting under the bridge, perhaps because of construction work there, although there were a number of Northern Rough-winged Swallows along the river.

The northern camping area of the island is closed currently, and you can't even walk in, so I was restricted to my preferred birding spots on the southern half of the island.  Activity seemed much lower than I usually associate with this place - not all the migrants had arrived and there was a single singing Ovenbird, two Northern Parulas and a pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.  I also heard a Prairie and a Great Crested Flycatcher.  No Acadian Flycatchers.  Of course the main reason for going there was a male Prothonotary Warbler which was singing nearly non-stop and periodically offering up decent views.  Not a regular breeder here, not least of all because this is a riverside location not a dense southern swamp.

On Sunday I went into Central Park, and got what I expected - almost nothing.  Best bird was a singing male Prairie Warbler.  The rest of the migrant count included: two Warbling Vireos, two Yellow Warblers, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, one or two Baltimore Orioles.

So in the late afternoon I went down to Brigantine NWR to try my luck on the Bar-tailed Godwit.  This had apparently made a permanent departure that morning (I'd seen them in AK last summer) but still present were flocks of shorebirds and in particularly at least one hundred Whimbrels.  Tern numbers were low with just a few Forster's, but the Ospreys were already starting to nest.  As expected the saltwater surge from Hurricane Sandy had devastated the freshwater vegetation in the pool, but I saw some signs of sprouting.  The brackish pool fared better, but much vegetation has been removed from the wildlife drive where multiple breaches were repaired and the drive re-graded.  Some of the lower elevation woodland had been killed but much of it remained intact.  What was noticeable was the apparent lowering of the saltmarsh, in that there was much more high tide flooding than I remembered.  Part of this could be the easterly wind pushing water into the bay, but it's probably also a hurricane-induced effect that may mitigate over time.  How this changes the Forster's Tern population (a saltmarsh breeder vs the Common Tern's beach breeding habits) remains to be seen.

List from Forsythe/Brigantine NWR:


Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Brant
American Black Duck
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Osprey
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Whimbrel
Sandpiper sp. including probable Semipalmated and Least
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Forster's Tern
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Common Yellowthroat

Slow, slower, slowest

Princeton, Wednesday was slow but with two first-of-year birds for me (the vireos) and most of the species were singing:

House Wren
Yellow-throated Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Northern Parula
Common Yellowthroat
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole

Princeton, Thursday was quieter but with more wandering around I actually did a little better than Wednesday, finding another two grosbeaks and a singing male Scarlet Tanager.

Wood Thrush (heard)

House Wren
Warbling Vireo
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Ovenbird (heard)
Common Yellowthroat
Scarlet Tanager
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole

Central Park, Friday, was glacially slow, just as it was reported to be on Thursday:

Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Palm Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat (probable)
Eastern Towhee

and in fact the short species list above by no means gives an accurate picture of just how eerily silent the whole experience was, standing in the Ramble and not being able to hear a single warbler for much of the time.  ON MAY THIRD.

While much of the blame goes to the persistent weather system delivering easterlies to the NYC/NJ area, I was still assuming that at least some species would move out of sheer necessity and also because the weather remains reasonably warm.  Possibly the birds are moving past in the interior.