Catskills - Dec 7th - Crossbills

Rolling out of Ewing at 6:30am I was a little late to get to Califon (NJ) for dawn in search of Barnacle Goose. And Lo! it was not there. Fortunately it didn't put me too far off my main destination of the day: the Catskills.

Sullivan Co NY has been very productive the last two winters - I had fun seeing the Pine Grosbeaks at Grahamsville last winter, and this winter a mini-invasion of White-winged Crossbills had also hit the same general area. After some traffic on Rt-17 after a tractor trailer accident I finally got onto the roads climbing into the Catskills around 10am. The Accord isn't exactly optimal for driving on challenging snowy roads, and the antilocks got somewhat of a workout today, but after a little messing around I found myself parked on Brown Settlement Road hearing White-winged Crossbills calling from the spruce grove. A little while later I saw one, then 7. In fact I think I saw the same 7+ several times, despite the fact that there are allegedly close to 100 in this location. Perhaps they were clumping in groups of 7. Never mind - I've only seen White-winged Crossbills once or twice before.

The weather was relatively harsh - a rising strong wind, snow falling about 60% of the time, so there were no photo ops and viewing conditions were sub-optimal to say the least. I didn't find any Pine Siskins and the other notable sightings were two Bald Eagles and a few distant Common Ravens. I doubt the weather bothers the Crossbills - these birds nest during the winter in areas of good food sources.

Leaving the Catskills the truck crash had turned into a hazmat issue, so I lost 45 minutes to slow traffic through that area on "The Quickway" (I love that name). Filling up the tank on Rt-17 in NJ my iPhone proved its worth once again with confirmation of sightings of the Franklin Lakes Ross's Goose (earlier in the day there were negative reports). After winding through the recommended route I immediately saw the Ross's Goose in with the Canada's - no doubt that this flock is wild since it was relatively spooky with passing cars (and even with me opening my passenger side window for photos). Interestingly the only other adult Ross's Goose I'd seen in the east was with a flock of Canadas at Jones Beach, although perhaps this has something to do with the challenge of pulling out a small white goose in another flock of nearly identical white geese - the immature that I saw at Jamaica Bay WR was in a flock of Snow Geese but at least easier to find.

[Edit: a Ross's Goose with a Canada flock was also seen on the Princeton CBC on 12/14 but so far not relocated]

After Franklin Lakes the sun was getting pretty low but I decided to make a sprint for Califon once again, getting there just as the sun set, and after a couple of minutes of searching I did locate the Barnacle Goose at the back of the pond. Seems that sunset is better than sunrise.

I assume this is the same bird that I saw last year, which I took as USA #600. It's interesting to ponder that, given that Barnacles are vagrants from Greenland. This bird must have taken up with this flock of migratory Canadas and stayed with it. A post on JerseyBirds suggested that there was a goose in that flock that showed intermediate character between Barnacle and Canada Goose, which would make sense since hybrids are more likely to occur between an out-of-range Barnacle that finds itself within a Canada flock at breeding time with no other options to pair up with. I didn't see this possible hybrid, but that will lead me to go back and look for it myself.

[Edit: I didn't find either the Barnacle or any potential hybrid on 12/13 at Califon, despite checking multiple times]


Good day, although a tiring one with many road miles.

Cave Swallows

At Barnegat Inlet on Sunday morning the combination of fisherman and a westerly gale put a quick end to any birding intentions I had there. Heading south I went down Great Bay Blvd into Tuckerton WMA and found two previously-reported King Eiders at the end of the road fishing offshore. There was a moderate movement of many small flocks of American Goldfinch, which didn't seem to have any Pine Siskins mixed in despite the ongoing invasion.

My intention was to head further south to Cape May via Brigantine/Forsythe NWR to seek out Cave Swallows, however in the Tree Swallow flock at the start of the loop road I located 2-3 Cave Swallows - seen well, enough to eliminate Cliff Swallow which isn't present in November anyway. Brigantine didn't hold anything else exciting, and given the highly challenging birding conditions I gave up and headed home after a single loop around the impoundments, although not before looking at the Cave Swallows one last time.

Beware the range map

Cornell's site All About Birds is something that I often send people links to when suggesting ID's - I sometimes get "what's this bird" inquiries because of the websites that I run. But two things lately have illustrated that their range maps may be way out of whack.

A discussion on the email list TEXBIRDS about American Black Duck shows that their range map for this birds has it occurring all the way down into the lower RGV. That's nonsense, and there's only a handful of recent records for this species in TX.

Chatting to a friend about her finding a Peregrine Falcon on campus in Illinois led to the discovery of a large variance between Sibley's range map (which seems plausible) and the AAB map which seems to ignore the reintroduction of the Peregrine in the east.

Griggstown Preserve, November 2nd

Back again to Griggstown in search of Vesper Sparrows - no luck there, and the general vibe was that the sparrow numbers had dropped. However the weather was cold, partially overcast, and there was a good selection of raptors so these may have been factors. Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, American Kestrel and Red-tailed Hawk were around. There were good numbers of Eastern Bluebird and American Goldfinch, several flocks of American Robins and blackbirds overhead, a probable small group of Siskins, and the usual suspects:

Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
House Finch
American Goldfinch

Harris's Sparrow at Brandywine Creek SP in Wilmington DE

I took a little early morning jaunt down to Brandywine Creek State Park on the outskirts of Wilmington DE to look for the Harris's Sparrow that had been there since October 11th. After a little wait the bird came in and was quite cooperative. Photos at Harris_2008.html

This was only the second Harris's Sparrow that I'd ever seen, and the other one was many years ago (March 1999) at Wainscott on eastern Long Island. That bird was timid, but this one was the reverse, being relatively tame although disappearing for periods of time. Since there were no White-crowned Sparrows present this - our largest sparrow - was fairly easy to spot when it flew from shrub to shrub.

Griggstown Preserve, October 25th and 26th

I birded Griggstown Native Grassland Preserve in Franklin Twp on the mornings of Sat and Sun the 25th and 26th. On the Saturday the weather was gray and foreboding the rain storm to come, and bird activity was fairly quiet with only a few sparrows. There were a few good hawks, however: two Sharp-shinned, Cooper's, Red-tailed and an American Kestrel.

In contrast, after the passage of the storm, the following morning was much birdier with cooperative Savannah Sparrows everywhere and the usual suspects: Swamp, Savannah, Song, White-crowned, White-throated, Field Sparrows. There was also a late Blackpoll Warbler along with Yellow-rumped, Palm Warblers and Common Yellowthroat.

Bird activity at Pole Farm (Mercer Co Park NorthWest) was much lower, with Field and Song Sparrows, a fleeting Eastern Meadowlark, and the best bird being a fly-over immature Bald Eagle. Two Northern Harriers were hunting the fields.

The aggregate birding list for Griggstown was:
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Hairy Woodpecker
Carolina Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Field Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch

Griggstown Preserve, October 13th

Typical for a day in mid October, Griggstown Native Grassland Preserve was swarming with Savannah Sparrows. There were also good numbers of Swamp Sparrows and various other expect sparrow species. Two American Kestrels, a Northern Harrier and a late Bobolink rounded out the selection.

Northern Harrier
American Kestrel
Carolina Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Palm Warbler
Field Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Bobolink

Central Park, Oct 4th

A big Blue Jay migration day with multiple flocks over the park, and one small flock still heaed south over the marshland near Secaucus NJ seen from the southbound NJ Train. Not seen by me was a Connecticut Warbler. A decent mix with 12 species of warbler, modest numbers, but notably a mid-late fall mix with both species of kinglet, Pewee and Phoebe.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Red-eyed Vireo
Carolina Wren
Winter Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Gray Catbird
Nashville Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Indigo Bunting

Central Park, Oct 2nd

Off a somewhat northerly wind, I took the 6:03am train into NYC in the hopes of a little migrant birding. A slow trickle at Strawberry Fields held a Canada Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-throated Green with some Towhees sounding off and a single fly-by Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. One Chimney Swift overhead. Most of the Ramble was quiet, but the Maintenance Field at times held a few warblers - Nashville being the best one. A White-eyed Vireo was found there, unusual for the park.

The Wild Turkey has lost a lot of feathers, and now looks thin, however I'm hoping that it's just going through prebasic molt and will look healthier again soon.

Red-tailed Hawk
Chimney Swift
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
White-throated Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole