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



Neighborhood Migration

       Throughout the entire month of May, there has been incredible migration at one patch of woods in my development, especially for warblers.  On the first and second day I went down there, I got a lifer warbler, a Wilson's Warbler.  With the Wilson's, there were also many Northern Parula's, many Black-throated Blue Warblers, a few Magnolia Warblers, many Yellow-rumped Warblers, many American Redstarts, many Black-and-White Warbler, many Common Yellowthroats, a few Chestnut-sided Warblers, and a Black-throated Green Warbler. 

Wilson's Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

American Redstart

Common Yellowthroat

 

Black-and-White Warbler

 

 





 

     The next few days added on a few more warbler species for us.  Those were Northern Waterthrush, and Bay-breasted Warbler.  We also got a new neighborhood bird and life bird, a Least Flycatcher.

 

Northern Waterthrush

Bay-breasted Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

 

 

 

     Towards the end of May, the numbers of Blackpoll and Canada Warblers greatly increased.  We also got a new neighborhood bird and life bird for my mom, a Black-billed Cuckoo. Along with these birds, the number of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds had also increased. 

Canada Warbler

Canada Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Black-billed Cuckoo

 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

 

 

 

     So far it has been a great May with 16 warbler species and a few life birds.



Migration at Churchville Nature Center and Baldpate Mountain

    On Saturday (5/3/14) my mom, my aunt, and I went to the bird walk at the Churchville Nature Center.  We got a total of 71 birds beating our previous record of 70 birds.  The highlights were a Horned Grebe, a Worm-eating Warbler, many Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green Warblers, a few Northern Parulas, two Blue-headed Vireos, and five Orchard Orioles.

One of the two Blue-headed Vireos

One of the five Orchard Orioles

Horned Grebe

Ovenbird

 

 

 

     After the walk, we went to Baldpate Mountain.  There we immediately heard and saw multiple Blue-winged Warblers, many Black-and-White Warblers, a Yellow-throated Vireo, a few Yellow Warblers, and a few Black-throated Blue Warblers.

Blue-winged Warbler

Blue-winged Warbler singing

Black-throated Blue Warbler





Missing a Bird but Seeing Another

   On Friday (4/18/14), my mom, brother, aunt, and I headed down to Clinton, NJ to try to see a previously reported Neotropic Cormorant.  We first stopped at Spruce Run Reservoir, where it was first seen.  We pulled into the first parking lot we saw.  Although we did get a few awesome Horned Grebes and a rare Red-necked Grebe, we did not see the Cormorant.  We then pulled into the next lot we saw... nothing.  Then the next lot... nothing.  The third lot we did pull into however, did not have the Cormorant, but a few good early warbler species.  We got Palm, Pine, and Yellow-rumped Warblers and a very cooperative Blue-grey Gnatcatcher.

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

 

 

 

     After seeing those warblers,  we stopped at another place it was seen, Demont Pond.  After a few minutes of looking... nothing.  Then we stop at another pond it was seen on.  We did not get the bird, but we did get great looks of a Palm Warbler.

Palm Warbler

Palm Warbler

 

 

 

     The last spot we stopped at was Round-valley Reservoir.  When we pulled in to the parking lot and started to eat our lunch, I immediately dropped my sandwich and ran down to the edge of the water with my camera.  I saw an adult Horned Grebe in almost total breeding plumage.  I had been trying to get a good picture of one for a year so no matter how uncooperative he was being, I kept trying.  As he hugged the shoreline, I went down to try and get a picture.  As I got closer, he got farther away.  After following him up and down the shoreline multiple times, I went back up towards the car.  I stopped for another minute just to see where he would go.  I watched him go farther and farther away from the shore when out of nowhere, he made a complete 180 degree turn and started swimming right at me.  Trying not to spook him I left my camera down and slowly inched only another foot forward.  When he got as close as possible, I brought up my camera and started snapping away.  When he dove, I rushed down to the shore trying to get as close as possible undetected.  He popped up right in front of me.  I brought my camera up and when I tried to take the first photo the camera read "card full".  I was devastated, however I did manage to get a couple good shots.

Horned Grebe

Horned Grebe

  

 

 

The Grebes of Lake Nockamixon

    On Wednesday (4/16/14), my mom and I headed over to lake Nockamixon to try to get pictures of the Horned Grebes.  When we first got there, we immediately saw a Horned Grebe.  After taking many pictures, we stopped at the next parking lot and saw five Common Loons in breeding plumage.  After that, we stopped at our last parking lot.  On the drive in to the lot, we saw a Broad-winged Hawk perched in a tree right over the road.  After that we went all the way in and I immediately saw another Horned Grebe.  After taking many pictures we started walking back to the shore from the car.  However I saw another grebe-looking duck right near the shore.  So I headed back down only to see that it was an Eared Grebe in winter plumage.  I called my mom back down and we both got incredibly good looks at this incredibly rare bird.

First Horned Grebe

Two of the five Common Loons

Broad-winged Hawk

Eared Grebe

Eared Grebe

Eared Grebe

Eared Grebe (Back)  Horned Grebe (Front)



A Great Weekend at Peace Valley Nature Center

     On Friday (4/11/14) I went to Peace Valley Nature Center to try and see the Red-necked and Horned Grebes.  After looking around for a while, we pulled up in another parking lot only to see an adult Common Loon in breeding plumage swimming in front of us.  I jump out of the car and immediately start taking pictures.  After a while, he starts heading down the lake.

Common Loon

Common Loon

 

 

 

     The next day, I go back for a longer period of time to see if it, or any of the grebes, are still there.  Sadly, I did not see any of them.  However, after walking around for almost two hours and getting my first of the year Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, I see that there was an American Bittern seen by the bridge that day.  I head down hoping to see one behind some brush a ways away, but see a group of people looking down at something only about five feet away.  I walk up and they say that there is an American Bittern right there.  However, they have scared it down behind the heavy brush.  After waiting for about twenty minutes for it to come out, it finally does.  As I watch it for over an hour waiting for my mom and two of my aunts to get there and see it, it comes right out into the open.  They get there just in time to see it right out in the open.

American Bittern

American Bittern

American Bittern out in the open