Some pics of the Rosella

Here are some pictures of the probable Eastern Rosella that we found on Sandy Hook during the World Series of Birding. Thanks to Bob Devlin for the pics.

World Series of Birding Recap

The weather was splendid and the birds were plentiful for the 24th annual World Series of Birding. The Sandy Hook Century Run team, led by senior naturalist Scott Barnes, associate naturalist Linda Mack, and me, racked up a very respectable tally of 126 species from 5:30 AM to 9:00 PM. We had one of the biggest groups for the Century Run's history with around 30 participants. Extra credit goes to the 12 hardy folks who stuck around until the very end.

We started the morning birding "Plum Island", which is more of a peninsula than an island, where we found birds such as Solitary Sandpiper, Common Loon, Clapper Rail, Willet, and Oystercatcher. We then quickly headed to the far north end of Sandy Hook, which is a good migrant trap. We found a few small pockets of warblers, tons of orioles, tons of Yellow Warblers, and a small handful of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. The oddest find of the day was a large escaped parrot, which was most likely an Eastern Rosella from Australia.

What the heck am I doing here? (pic from Wiki)


We did some more woodland birding where we found perhaps our "best" bird of the day - 2-3 Summer Tanagers in various plumages. They put on quite a show, at times being joined by small groups of Scarlet Tanagers. The trees looked like they were covered in Christmas ornaments. We also added some additional warblers to our list including Ovenbird, Redstart, and Chestnut-sided. Veery and Hermit Thrush were also observed.


Lunch


Lunchtime was spent lounging at the observation deck on Spermaceti Cove. This is one of those places where you just never know what will come by. Nothing exceptionally rare appeared, but we did find a Black Skimmer, Black-bellied Plover, and Peregrine Falcon. A close-feeding Black-crowned Night Heron put on quite a show eating killies from the water's edge.


Black-crowned Night Heron


After lunch we unsuccessfully searched the bay for a lingering Long-tailed Duck or Red-breasted Merganser with no luck, but we did find our only Least Flycatcher. The afternoon lull had set in, but we pressed on. We made our obligatory stop to see a Piping Plover in one of its protected enclosures. The foxes and raccoons really do a number on them at Sandy Hook and electrified fencing has been installed to keep them out. A long scan of the ocean yielded a flock of Red-breasted Mergansers and a Bonaparte's Gull.

We then headed back to the wooded areas to find our "missing" Eastern Phoebe and Black-capped Chickadees. After some heavy searching, one of the leaders in the group heard a Chickadee, but no Phoebe would be found on this day! Next, we stopped for dinner at the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory and then headed back to the north end for a long beach walk - AKA the "Death March."

It was a worthy haul out to the beach. We were able to find 4 new birds for the list. A few members of the group walked out a bit more and found a Lesser Black-backed Gull and a female Black Scoter. So, 6 new birds were seen on this one walk.

Darkness was approaching and we waited and waited for a Nighthawk to appear. No luck there, but we did hear a calling Least Bittern (very faint, but very cool) and Marsh Wren. We finished off the day by standing in the dark waiting for a Whip-poor-will or other night bird to call. We settled for a distant silhouette of a Great Horned-owl for bird #126!

World Series of Birding time!

It's that time of year again! NJ Audubon's World Series of Birding is this Saturday, May 12. Last year, our team, the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory Ocean County Wanderers, had a lackluster day birding Ocean County. This year, the brains behind our operation is having some health issues and we will not be competing in Ocean County. Instead, the team is doing a Big Day Stay at the Sandy Hook Hawk Watch platform.

I decided to opt out of the Big Day Stay and, instead, I am helping lead the Sandy Hook Century Run team. This team does a "Sandy Hook only" run and typically finds around 130 species – not bad for a 1700 acre peninsula. Anyone is able to participate on the Century Run team for a small "per bird" donation. We have about 30 people signed up already which means big bucks for the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory.

If you're interested in helping to sponsor our team, you can use this form. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. Pray for good weather!

Monday Hawk Counting

I spent all day today as a volunteer hawk counter at Sandy Hook. A few of us volunteer each year to give the paid hawk counter a few days off. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a slow day as far as hawks go. A good migration day means winds out of the southwest or south to push the birds to the coast, but the winds today were easterly. Hawk numbers were low, but I made the best of a gorgeous day.

Here's a sample of the gorgeous view from the hawk watch platform. Today was exceptionally clear and you could see New York quite well. That's the Empire State Building on the left there. I used the panoramic mode on my camera to take this really cool picture (3 MB download).



The white flowers above are beach plums in full bloom. They will have fruit in the fall and I hear it makes a great jam. I tried eating one raw and found it pretty sour.



Ospreys, Red-winged Blackbirds, Eastern Towhees, Tree Swallows, and Barn Swallows kept me company all day while waiting for the raptors. My total numbers for the day were 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 3 Cooper's Hawks, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 20 Turkey Vultures, and 2 Black Vultures. I've had a run of bad luck in my times as a volunteer hawk counter. I hope that one of these days I will volunteer and see a monumental hawk flight!

Another new yard bird

Sorry for the shortage of posts recently, I spent 4 days last week at a big corporate meeting. It was one of those meetings right out of a sitcom, complete with drumming, singing, tons of food, and lots of "rah-rah-rah."

We got another new yard bird on Friday - a White-crowned Sparrow! He/she was feeding under our feeder and then perched on the neighbor's fence.

I didn't get to do too much birding this weekend due to a friend's wedding and being pretty darn sick on Sunday (bad seafood I think). A quick trip this evening to the Delaware & Raritan Canal got me some year birds including Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Warbling Vireo.

I'll be covering the Sandy Hook hawk watch on Monday. The hawk watch had a Crested Caracara fly over on Friday. That's just crazy. Who knows what will show up at the Hook on a given day?

Friday Night Sounds

Well, prior to just hearing the sound of my beloved Rangers losing in overtime, Beth and I enjoyed some night sounds at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Our intention was to use our newly acquired knowledge from our recently purchased book The Calls of Frogs and Toads by Lang Elliott. The core of the refuge is closed at dusk, but the roads on the perimeter allow for some listening. The most vocal frog of the night was the ubiquitous Spring Peeper. While listening to the frogs, I finally added a Woodcock to my year list. Beth had never heard the peenting of a Woodcock. Unfortunately, this guy just peented and we never got to hear his courtship display flight.

We drove to another area to listen. We were rewarded with our only other frog species of the evening - Northern Gray Treefrog (pictured). I've heard Cricket Frog, Southern Leopard Frog, and Chorus Frog at this refuge in the past, but tonight was not our night.

With the frogs being relatively quiet, I decided to try out my Barred Owl impression. I gave a few calls which elicited some laughs from Beth. She said that it sounded like a Barred Owl, but with the tone of my voice. Well, regardless of this, it seemed to work because a distant Barred Owl called back several times. Way cool! With that, we called it a night!

Bird Nicknames

My circle of birding friends has a ton of nicknames for birds. We use the common ones like "Sharpie" and "Coop" for Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk. We have a few others too. When one of us is leading a group, its hard to not use the nicknames and confuse people. Here's a list of ones I can think of.

Big Cranky - Great Blue Heron (named for its call)
Yumper - Yellow-rumped Warbler
Greg - Great Egret (its banding code is GREG)
Ceg - Cattle Egret (similar to above, pronounced "Keg")
Sneg - Snowy Egret
Snorkeler - any loon
Biter - Great Black-backed Gull (a friend was bitten once while trying to free one from a fishing line)
Croaker - Common Raven
"Weetchie" - any tiny bird
Tailpumper - any bird that bobs its tail (Waterthrush, Spotted Sandpiper)

What nicknames do you have for birds?

Yumpers and IATB

After you're done reading this, check out Greg's great take on I & The Bird - the best in bird blog posts from the last few weeks.

My yard was graced with a new bird today. As I was sitting down to watch some TV, I heard a song come from right outside my screen door. At first I thought it was a Wilson's Warbler due to its quick drop in pitch. I jumped up and saw a bird bolt from the oak tree in our yard. I then saw a group of birds chasing each other in the distance and I realized the song I was hearing was a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Their songs can be variable, but are generally a short trill ending in a sudden lower-pitched or higher-pitched shorter trill. "Yumper" may be a local NJ term that my birder friends came up with, but we use it a lot as a nickname for the bird. Yard bird #41! Not bad for a condo.