A view of Rancocas Creek (Image by Michelle Horowitz)
Today was a chilly but lovely day, so we ended up birding at two parks for day 3. First my in-laws joined me for a hike at Boundary Creek Natural Resource Area. We saw 10 species, with highlights including Eastern Bluebirds and a pair of Northern Mockingbirds. There also was a beautiful male Northern Cardinal who posed for a picture.
A beautiful male Northern Cardinal (Image by Michelle Horowitz)
Boundary Creek Natural Resource Area (10 species, 66 individuals)
3 Canada Geese
24 Mallards
14 Ring-billed Gulls
12 Turkey Vultures
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Tufted Titmouse
2 Northern Mockingbirds
4 Eastern Bluebirds
4 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Northern Cardinal
After Boundary Creek I ended up going to Strawbridge Lake. There have been some Common Mergansers in the area, so I wanted to see if they were around today. I started noticing Common Mergansers at Strawbridge within in the past 5 years, which was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately they weren’t at the lake today but I did see some other species.
Strawbridge Lake (12 species, 38 individuals)
13 Canada Geese
4 Mallards
3 Mourning Doves
2 Ring-billed Gulls
2 Turkey Vulture
1 Downy Woodpecker
3 American Robins
4 House Sparrows
1 House Finch
2 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 White-throated Sparrows
1 Northern Cardinal
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology released their “halftime report” today. At the time of writing this post, 7,373 species have been seen and over 191,000 checklists have been submitted from 192 countries. Last year’s species total was 7,538, so it would be amazing to see if that total could be beat this year.
Over the weekend, Dave and I went to Edwin B. Forsythe NWR on a mission. There were 2 birds at Forsythe on the NJ Rare Bird List: an American Golden-Plover and a Black-headed Gull. Our mission was to see if we could find either of these species. By the end of the trip, we set a personal record for our Forsythe trips (I’ll tell you what it was at the end).
It was our first spring trip down to the refuge. The weather was nice; it was actually pretty cool (only around 60), but not too cold. We walked a little bit around the visitor’s center, where we saw a Chipping Sparrow, some Purple Martins, Tree Swallows, Savannah Sparrows, Tufted Titmice, and heard a House Wren.
Savannah Sparrow (Image by BirdNation)
Eastern Bluebird (Image by David Horowitz)
Tufted Titmous (Image by BirdNation)
We also walked a bit on the Songbird Trail, which becomes part of the Wildlife Drive. There were Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Red-winged Blackbirds, Mallards, a female Bufflehead, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker.
Male Red-winged Blackbird (Image by BirdNation)
Once on the Wildlife Drive, the search for the rare birds began. Willets marched through the mudflats looking for food. While watching a sleeping Mallard we spotted some tiny shorebirds running on the water’s edge. They were too small to be Sanderlings and were about sparrow-sized. Upon closer examination we determined that they were Least Sandpipers. It was a new edition to our life list. A Greater Yellowlegs was also hanging out nearby.
Least Sandpiper (Image by David Horowitz)
At one point there was a mudflat/low tidal area that was occupied by a mixed flock of shorebirds. It mainly consisted of Dunlins, but there were also Whimbrels (life list #2), Black-bellied Plovers (life-list #3), Short-billed Dowitchers (life list #4), and American Oystercatchers. It wasn’t an easy crowd to watch though, because that area was overcast and the birds were slightly too far, so the more we watched, the more the colors would get washed out. I was seeing all these plovers, and trying to carefully scan for the American Golden-Plover. The supercilium (eyebrow), of the American Golden-Plover is very distinctive, but we weren’t seeing that. No American Goldens here.
There was a gull that was hanging out near the shorebird flock. It was small, and had a red bill/legs. It was our Black-headed Gull! A birder nearby with a scope confirmed the id with us. Black-headed Gulls have black hoods similar to a Laughing Gull, except that their hood only goes to the top of the head and not the full head. This gull was nonbreeding, so it just started getting its hood, and had the characteristic two gray stripe on its head. I was so excited to find this gull! It could have been anywhere in the refuge and we happened to find him. Black-headed Gulls are rare because they usually are found in Northern Canada, Europe, or Asia.
A small group of terns arrived on the other side of the drive where the tide was higher. Terns plunge dive from the air into the water to catch fish. They can’t see under the water, so they rely on accurately locating a fish above the water. Sometimes they skim the water’s surface instead of plunging all the way under. The Double-crested Cormorants nearby took note, and decided to join in on the action. It’s cool when you see different bird species “helping” each other find food. Here’s a short video I took on my Iphone from the car.
Other birds we saw along the drive included Snowy and Great Egrets, 6 pairs of Ospreys on their nests, Great Blue Herons, Laughing Gulls, Northern Rough-winged/Barn/Tree Swallows, Common Grackles, and some left over Snow Geese to name a few. Our final life list addition for the day was two Boat-tailed Grackles. Boat-tailed are larger than Common Grackles, and have long tails that are almost half their body length. They typically fan their tails out into a V-shape, like the keel of a boat.
We had a great afternoon at Forsythe. We added 5 birds to our life list, making our total for the day 53 species, which is a record for our Forsythe trips. We didn’t see the American Golden-Plover, but did get to see the Black-headed Gull, which was a great experience, and another rare bird for the year. I’m looking forward to more great spring birding trips.
BirdNation 