A Whirlwind of Warblers

Ah, fall migration! One of the most exciting times of the birding year. As I stated in the recent Barnegat Lighthouse trip post, winter migrants have started to arrive and summer visitors are getting ready to go down South. This means that we get another chance to see warblers passing through the area, now in their fall plumage.

Saturday we took a trip to Palmyra Cove Nature Park. It started out normal enough: Wild Turkeys, a Great Blue Heron, a Great Egret, Mallards. Recently we’ve been taking the trail to the Dredge Retention Basin then the Red-wing Blackbird Trail to the Cove. This time Dave said he wanted to take the Saw-whet Trail. The Saw-whet Trail is only 1/4 of a mile, but it ended up being the busiest 1/4 mile of the day. Busy with what?

Warblers. A whirlwind of Warblers.

We were surrounded by warblers in all directions. They were flitting around the trees looking for food and chasing each other. There were other birds too, such as Carolina Chickadees, Red-eyed Vireos, Eastern Wood-Pewees, Cedar Waxwings, Great Crested Flycatchers and American Robins. But they were mostly warblers.

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There are 56 species of warblers found in North America. Warblers are a diverse groups of small birds that can be found in all different colors. Sometimes male and females of a particular species will look the same and sometimes they are sexually dimorphic (males and females look different from one another). There are also some warbler species that have a “Bright” and “Drab” plumage variations. But that’s just the start. There’s spring vs. fall plumage, 1st year male/female vs. adult male/female and so on.

So the world of warblers is wonderful but it’s also…confusing. And while I was happily surrounded by warblers of many kinds, the big question became: who are they?

We did recognize a few of them; namely Black-and-white and a male American Redstart. But everyone else was a mystery. One was yellow with a black eye patch. A few had distinctive yellow and black tails. Others were gray with wingbars and yellow bellies. I had no clue who they were, but I was excited to spend time watching them.

Figuring out who they were wasn’t easy. Thankful, Dave bought me The Warbler Guide last year. If you want to learn about warblers, this book is essential for your library (you can read my review at the link above). Dave and I (as well as my friend Maria) figured out that our new warblers included: many female/1st year male American Redstarts, a Blue-winged Warbler, “Drab” Chestnut-sided Warblers, “Drab” Magnolia Warblers, and Mourning Warblers. The “drab” warblers would have been more difficult to figure out if it wasn’t for The Warbler Guide because not all fields guides are as detailed with plumage variations.

Dave was able to take a decent amount of picture so that we can try to identify the new warblers when we got home. The problem with warblers is that they are small, usually far away, and moving non-stop. Basically, they are challenging to photograph. So the pictures below aren’t the best we’ve ever taken, but I think he did a nice job considering (we don’t consider ourselves photographers, just birders who happen to take pictures of who we see).

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So by the end of the day we added 4 new birds to our life list: Chestnut-sided Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Mourning Warbler, and a Veery (we’ve seen the male versions of our other “new” warblers, so they weren’t new to our life list). I didn’t realize we saw a Veery until a few days later. I was entering my list onto ebird thinking we saw a Hermit Thrush, but that bird wasn’t on the list under thrushes. Veery was there so I decided to see what it looked like and aha! There it was! It looked just like the picture we had.

I’m so happy fall migration is here. Have you seen fall warblers migrating through your area? Who are you seeing? Tell me about your fall warblers in the comments.

Bringing Back the Bobwhite (and the blog!)

Hi, friends! Long time, no see! Sorry I’ve been m.i.a. for the past few weeks. To be honest, I’ve had a bit of writer’s block since my summer break from work has started. A lot of my time lately has been taken up by my Biology I lecture/lab class. I’ve also completed my Picture Life List (to be continued…), which was a goal of mine for awhile now. And I have another exciting bird-related journey that I’ll be starting on, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to learn about that one!

My blog is not the only thing returning though. The Bobwhites are starting to return too!

The Northern Bobwhite (a.k.a. the Virginia Quail), is a small quail that lives in the Eastern United States. They are found in weedy meadows, fields, open woods with dense native grasses, and clear cuts. Grasses are important to Bobwhites because they spend their lives on the ground. Over the past 40 years, Northern Bobwhites, and other species that depend on the same habitat, have been declining.

Northern Bobwhite (Image by BirdNation)

Although Bobwhites were commonly hunted, the reason for the decline is mainly habitat degradation. America’s grasslands are rapidly disappearing, and changes in agricultural policies and cattle grazing have all had an impact on the Bobwhite. Young forest is also important to Bobwhites, which could be managed with prescribed fires. Over the years, prescribed burns have become less accepted, therefore not rejuvenating the young forests that Bobwhites and other related species need to thrive. Northern Bobwhites do very poorly in urban habitats and dense forest. Bobwhites are not the only species on the decline due to habitat degradation. Pollinators, native plants, and a variety of grassland birds (such as the Grasshopper Sparrow, Dickcissels, and Eastern Meadowlark to name a few) have been suffering along with the Northern Bobwhite.

There are many conservation groups working together to help the Bobwhites and other grassland creatures. One of these groups is the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, which consists of 25 states coming together to form an action plan to save the Bobwhite.

Another group involved with the NBCI is New Jersey Audubon (I mention them specifically because I’m from NJ and an NJ Audubon member). The Northern Bobwhite population nationally has decreased 82% between 1966 and 2010, and the bird was considered functionally extinct in New Jersey. The tide is slowly starting to turn however. In April 2015, NJ Audubon translocated Northern Bobwhites from Georgia (which has a viable Bobwhite population) to the Pinelands area. 3 months later they found the first Bobwhite nest, which was the first one in the NJ Pinelands since the 1980s. 66 eggs were found during the first release, as well as more nests from the second 2016 release, and the 2017 release. The first 2017 nest was found at the Pine Island Cranberry Study sight in June, as well as 3 more active nests. This is great news for the Northern Bobwhite!

When it comes to conservation, birds are considered an indicator species. If there’s a problem with the local bird population, chances are very high there are other major issues affecting other members of the ecosystem. Maintain healthy grasslands and open forests are not only going to help the Northern Bobwhites, but the other species that depend on these habitats for their survival too.

I started actively birding over 3 years ago now, and this year was the first time that Dave and I have seen/experienced Bobwhites. I hope that as conservation efforts continue, the Bobwhite can return to New Jersey and other Eastern states so that future generations can enjoy hearing and seeing these adorable little quails.

If you’d like to read our most recent Northern Bobwhite experience at Cape May, click here.

If you’d like to learn how you can help Northern Bobwhites and conservation efforts, check out the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative website here.

To read the New Jersey Audubon bobwhite article, click here.

Nests and Surprise Guests

Hi friends! I received an update from the American Oystercatcher Working Group about T2, who we spotted for the second year in a row at Barnegat Light State Park. T2 was banded on Island Beach State Park (which is on the barrier island directly north of Long Beach Island). T2 was banded on September 19, 2007 and spends its winters in Cedar Key, Florida, which is about a 1,050 mile migration one-way from Barnegat Light. Pretty cool to get to know a bird personally, right?

This past Friday (June 16), Dave and I took a trip to Cape May. We spent some time at South Cape May Meadows (SCMM) and Cape May Point State Park (CMPSP).

SCMM and CMPSP actually connect through a path. We made our way through the meadow with the intent of taking this path, but it turns out it was closed off. The connecting path is right before entering the beach, so we decided to explore the beach instead. It turns out the path being closed was a good thing, because we had the opportunity to watch some nesting Least Terns.

Least Terns are the smallest of the North American Tern species, standing only at about 9 inches tall. In breeding plumage, Least Terns have unique bills because they are yellow with a black tip, as opposed to orange or black of other terns. Least Terns also have a white forehead and two dark primary feathers. There were a few pairs either sitting on eggs, flying around to get food for their mate, or some defending their nests. We watched one one breeding pair repeatedly dive bomb an American Oystercatcher pair, who quickly got the message that they weren’t welcome in that spot. It was the first time we had the chance to see any sort of nesting tern. They were fascinating to watch. If you look closely to the picture on the right of the tern standing, you can see its 2 speckled eggs behind the sticks.

Least Tern on its nest (Image by David Horowitz)

Least Tern (Image by David Horowitz)

Throughout our walk we kept seeing an Oystercatcher pair. Eventually we saw one of them sitting on their nest. We were observing this oystercatcher from a distance when its mate came from the other direction and walked right up to us. This Oystercatcher had bands which read M3. Before walking off Dave was able to get some good pictures of M3’s metal band, so I submitted a report about M3 to the Oystercatcher Working Group as well. M3 was banded on Avalon Beach, NJ on June 26, 2009. It migrates over 670 miles one way to spend the winters at Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina.

American Oystercatcher M3

Other birds we saw at the Meadows included at least 8 Ospreys, Common Yellowthroats, Black Skimmers, a Willet, and Great Black-backed Gulls to name a few. We drove over to CMPSP to see what we would find there.

Osprey (Image by David Horowitz)

Barn Swallow (Image by BirdNation)

It was pretty quiet bird-wise at the Point since there were more people around. From the Hawk Watch platform we saw 20 Mute Swans (never saw that many at once!), Great Egrets, Canada Geese, Mallards, House Finches, and Red-winged Blackbirds. We were getting tired, so we decided we were only going to walk up the path a little bit then head back to the car. We didn’t expect to see too much.

On the way back, Dave paused. “Is that…a Bobwhite?”. I listened closely.

“poor- bob-WHITE!” 

Yep. Our ears weren’t playing tricks on us. It was a Northern Bobwhite. A Bobwhite is not quite who we expected to hear at the beach since they tend to live in forest or brushy habitats. Then I remembered that people were reporting Bobwhites here at the Point on the NJ Rare Bird List. Some people say they were released there, which is very likely. We started walking towards the sound when a cute, plump brown bird popped out from the grass.

The next moment made the whole trip for me. It ran right at us, stopped, and started making little mumbling sounds at us. It was adorable to watch it run around. It quickly ran back into the grass only to emerge onto a large sand pile a few moments later. Then its friend showed up on another sand pile and began to make the “bob-WHITE!” call. The original Bobwhite wasn’t too happy with the other’s appearance though, because it ran down the sand pile and waddled straight down the path until we couldn’t see it anymore (I couldn’t help but think of Forrest Gump, “Run, Bobwhite, Run!” hahaha :-P). The Bobwhites were really amusing, and a fun way to end our Cape May trip.

Male Northern Bobwhite (Image by BirdNation)

Doin’ the Turkey Trot

We’ve had some beautiful warm weather here in New Jersey the past couple of days.Dave and I decided to take advantage of the warmth by going to Palmyra Cove Nature Park on Sunday evening.

Palmyra Cove Nature Park is 250-acres and there are a ton of trails to explore. We can easily spend hours there, but since we were competing with the sunset we decided to check out the meadow and the beaver pond.

There were a lot of Tree Swallows gliding over the meadow. Tree Swallows can migrate south as early as July and August. The East Coast population migrates to Florida, Central America, and Cuba. I was surprised to still see so many Tree Swallows around at this point, but I guess since it’s still so warm they are continuing to feed before they leave. Towards the end of the meadow is a small pond. We saw a Lesser Yellowlegs, Great Blue Heron, some sandpipers, and Eastern Phoebes.

The next destination was the Beaver Pond. You have to pass through the forest to get to the beaver pond from the meadow. Along the way we saw Carolina Chickadees, different woodpeckers, American Robins, Carolina Wrens, some deer, and 2 Wild Turkeys. I’m always delighted to see the Turkeys at Palmyra. I know that there are a decent amount that live there, and we usually see a few at a time.

Wild Turkey (Image by BirdNation)

There are a lot of little trails interspersed throughout the forest. It’s easy to “trail hop” from one to another without realizing it. We know the paths pretty well, but weren’t paying attention and took a “wrong” turn (there’s not technically a “wrong way”, we just missed the trail we wanted). We should have already been at the pond, but decided to continue and explore this new path.

And I’m glad we did. Because suddenly a group of Turkeys jumped out onto the trail in front of us. It started with about 5 or 6, but as we watched more and more ran from the bushes. By the time the whole flock ran past there were about 24 of them! They were apparently headed in the same direction as us, so we trailed behind at a distance.

What an experience! Just Dave and I and 24 Turkeys strolling along on a warm Sunday evening. I’ve never been that close to that many Wild Turkeys before. In the past we’ve watched a large group of Turkeys in a field doing mating displays (you can watch a video of it at that link), but it’s quite different being so close. They eventually caught on that we were following them, so a few started to trot and the other followed. The group ended up going back into the bushes to forage. It made me happy knowing that pretty soon all 24 of them were going to climb up into the trees to roost. You wouldn’t expect to see a bird that big sitting in a tree, but they do roost in trees at night. I unexpectedly discoveed that last year; it was quite amusing to me (you can read the story here).

Turkeys on the go (Image by David Horowitz)

Turkeys taking a stroll (Image by David Horowitz)

Wild Turkey (Image by BirdNation)

At the Beaver Pond we saw Double-crested Coromrants, a female Belted Kingfisher, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. From across the pond we could heard Red-winged Blackbirds and our first White-throated Sparrows of the season.

Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warbler (Image by BirdNation)

We always have a wonderful experience at Palmyra Cove, and Sunday was no exception. How can you beat spending some time trotting around with Wild Turkeys? 🙂

Have you ever experienced a large flock of Turkeys?  Tell us your Turkey stories in the comments.

A “Big” Day

In the world of birding, the term “Big Day” is used to describe an event where birders try to count as many birds possible in one day. Dave and I didn’t attempt this kind of event, but we had a “big day” in a difference sense: we saw multiple species of large birds.

Rain was a constant threat, but did that deter us from going bird watching? Of course not! Many birders don’t like going out on overcast days, but I love it. The sun isn’t drowning out all the bird’s details as you try to see them in your binoculars and there are less people out so it’s quieter. We decided it would be a nice day to go to Amico Island.

On the way to Amico Island we spotted a large group of Wild Turkeys in a field. There were at least 20 of them. All the males were strutting around doing courtship displays to try to impress the hens.  When a male Wild Turkey  displays he droops his wings, fans his tail feathers, and struts around in a sort of “dance”. They may gobble to warn off other suitors and attract females to watch them. Male Wild Turkeys are polygamous, meaning one male may mate with multiple females. Dave was able to get a video of one of the males mating. Seeing this large flock was a fantastic sight. In the first video you can see the mating pair and in the second video one particular male is trying to woo a hen with his dance.

Wild Turkeys strutting around (Image by David Horowitz)

A displaying male Wild Turkey (Image by BirdNation)

Once at Amico Island our trend of large birds continued. When we visited Amico Island about a month ago there were about 10 Great Blue Herons preparing their rookery (a.k.a nesting colony). We did see them again, but this time they had a visitor hanging around: a Bald Eagle! The Herons were spending time  in their nests while the Bald Eagle stood on a neighboring branch. They looked out over the water together for a little while until the Bald Eagle finally flew away.

Great Blue Herons and a Bald Eagle enjoying the view (Image by David Horowitz)

The Bald Eagle wasn’t the only raptor we saw. A pair of Ospreys flew overhead by the pond on the red trail. This was our first Osprey pair we observed for the season. The female flew away, but the male stood around the pond to collect branches for his nest. It was so cool watching him tear branches off the trees. He decided to take a rest on a branch for a bit when another Great Blue Heron showed up. I guess the heron thought the Osprey needed some company, because the heron chose to perch directly next him. The two were an unlikely pair, and it looked like they were having a showdown. (Or a staring contest? If that was the case the Osprey looked away first so the Heron won that haha :-P) They stood facing each other for at least 10 minutes before flying off to continue their duties. This is what I love about birding, you never know what you’ll see!

The Odd Couple: a Great Blue Heron and an Osprey (Image by David Horowitz)

Of course, we didn’t see only  large birds. We saw many robins, sparrows, 4 Northern Flickers, Mourning Doves, Red-winged Blackbirds, Canada Geese, and this Downy Woodpecker. This lovely lady let us get very close to her and didn’t seem to mind us watching her climb up the tree (by the way, this image is not cropped).

A lovely Downy Woodpecker posing for her portrait (Image by David Horowitz)

It was such a beautiful afternoon. Who needs the sun out when you have wonderful birds to make your day sunny?

Turkey in the Straw…or not?

I’ve been thinking about turkeys lately. Sometimes I see them while I’m driving around to various locations in South Jersey. I was driving to work about a week ago and almost slammed on my brakes in awe (don’t worry, I didn’t and no one was behind me anyway!). There were about 12 turkeys on somebody’s lawn strutting around. There were about 3 males, and they were displaying their feathers while females walked around. It was a fascinating sight! Of course I was running late for work and didn’t have a camera, so I wasn’t able to take a picture, but I definitely saved a mental image. It reminded me of one of my favorite unexpected birding moments.

When we hear the word “turkey” we usually think of a large bird strutting around in a field or open area. But maybe “Turkey in the Straw” (like the American folk song) may not be accurate all the time. What about a turkey in the tree?

Last October, Dave and I were taking an evening walk at Boundary Creek. As usual, we were looking up in the trees seeing what we could find before daylight was gone. We always keep an eye out for owls, so when we saw something large and dark in a tree we got excited.

And there it was. Not an owl but…a female turkey in a tree. A turkey in a…tree? It definitely wasn’t what we expected to find.  She was not very graceful as she moved from the tree she occupied to a neighboring one. The confusion was very brief though, and the excitement came right back. A turkey in a tree! Cool!

A turkey roosting in a tree (Image by secpnc)

So being a bird nerd, I had to learn more about this. It turns out that turkeys roost in trees at night. Roosting is when a bird finds a place to sleep or rest.  Turkey don’t have good night vision, so roosting in a tree helps protect them from predators. It makes sense. Many smaller birds roost in trees, but you never expect to see something like a turkey up there with the songbirds.

After that I was hooked. My mission from then on was to be on the lookout for turkeys in trees (and  it still is!). A few days later, Dave and I found the female again, this time with two juvelines in a different tree. It was just as exciting as the first time. From that point on I think of that specific tree as “The Turkey Tree”.

I haven’t seen a turkey in a tree since then, but I’m hoping I will. It’s a fun and somewhat silly sight. Next time you’re out in a wooded area at dusk keep an eye out for turkeys. Just make sure you’re looking up :-).