Electric power is restored to our stretch of Morris Township as of last night. Irene in 2011 was a 4-day outage, the October 2011 snowstorm, 6, and now Sandy, 3. This must be the new normal considering I have lived in North Jersey almost my entire life and never slept a night without access to electricity until 2011.

Lights out remains status quo for most, based on the small sampling of the Morristown/Morris Township area I saw this morning. The assumption is that the gasoline situation will improve in the next few days as more stations go online but I have no interest in finding out for myself. We have enough gas to get by for now. Birding locations will be close to home.

Sayre’s Farm was sparrow-filled this morning. A late-ish Lincoln’s Sparrow was with the crowd. This may be the same individual Jamie Glydon and I had in the same patch of Mugwort on October 13 unless it is a different storm-driven bird.

Here are some of the species seen today:
Eastern Phoebe
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 6
Eastern Bluebird – 6
Hermit Thrush
Palm Warbler -2
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow – 40
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow – 25
White-throated Sparrow – 41
Dark-eyed Junco – 12
Pine Siskin – 20