Birding Salem County, NJ

     On Wednesday (6/25/14), my mom, my brother and I went to Salem County, NJ to hunt for a previously reported Dickcissel.  About 30 seconds after we arrived at the field that a male and a female were said to be breeding in, we heard the male Dickcissel call.  A minute after that, the female jumped up to a close shrub, and the male flew up onto the telephone wire.  We stayed for about 40 more minutes watching my lifer male and female Dickcissels fly to different perches. 

Male Dickcissel

Male Dickcissel

Male Dickcissel

Male Dickcissel

 

 

 

     After getting great views of one of my major nemesis birds, my mom suggested that we take a five minute drive to Mannington Marsh.  As we arrived there, we slowly drove across a little bridge.  I told my mom to stop because I saw a pair of Common Moorhens with babies; another lifer and nemesis bird.  Since there were not many people on the road, she pulled over and we got to watch them swim around through the marsh.  Later, she pulled off of the road further down and in a safer spot, so we walked back to the bridge to see what else was there.  While standing on the bridge, we also saw Great Blue Herons, a Green Heron, a Black-crowned Night-heron, a few Great Egrets, and we even saw a few Cattle Egrets fly over.



              

Common Moorhen with one baby

 

 

 

     After I got my second and unexpected lifer, we headed to Featherbed Lane and saw two American Kestrels, and a few Eastern Meadowlarks.  Finally, to end the day, we went back to the field with the Dickcissels, and watched them again for another ten minutes.

An Unexpected Lifer

     On Friday afternoon (5/30/14), I wanted to see what I could find towards the end of migration, so I headed over to Bowman's Hill with my mom and my aunt.  While trying to identify a species of flycatcher, I heard an owl call "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?".  Without thinking, I assumed that it was just a Great-horned Owl.  However, after it called a few more times and I actually thought about it, I realized that it was actually a Barred Owl.  I have never heard or seen one of these owls before, and I was dying to.  I crept over to where it was calling and searched for almost half an hour.  However, just before I gave up, I looked straight above me just to see the Barred Owl looking right back at me. 
     I went back on Saturday evening at around the same time (7:00 PM) to see if it was still there.  Soon after we arrived, I heard Blue Jays going crazy near the same spot that it was in last time.  My mom then spots it flying across the river.  After it being scared off from a few different perches by the Blue Jays, it finally stood it's ground in a large Redwood tree.  While my mom was keeping an eye on it, I walked back to and over the bridge to get a better look from the other side.  However, while I was doing that, my mom saw another fly across the river.  Without knowing, I kept walking, and was lucky enough to get great views of this elusive lifer.

Barred Owl

Barred Owl