Morris Shorebirds

Semipalmated Plover, Lincoln Park, NJ, Aug. 29, 2014 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

The Lincoln Park Gravel Pits, (The Pits), continue as the only reliable shorebird location in Morris County. Although not exactly “Little Brig”, this is the time and place for as much shorebird diversity as one can find in Morris.

The shorebird list from The Pits today includes 4 Semipalmated Plovers (including one in the heavily cropped photo above) and 4 Semipalmated Sandpipers. Do not snicker, these are high counts for these two species in this part of the world. Also present were 20 Killdeer, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 4 Lesser Yellowlegs and 17 Least Sandpipers.

4 Little Blue Herons, 5 Great Blue Herons, 4 Great Egrets and 10 Green Herons were busy eating frogs.

Songbird migration was light although the Tennessee Warbler pictured below put in an appearance.

Tennessee Warbler, Lincoln Park, NJ, Aug. 29, 2014 (photo by J. Klizas)

An Osprey and a Northern Harrier (pictured below) represented the raptors. A mink, which almost ran into this observer yesterday, was not seen today.

Northern Harrier, Lincoln Park, NJ, Aug. 29, 2014 (photo by J. Klizas)

As stated in this space before, The Pits is a difficult place to get around in. It was a well-birded location in decades past but has fallen into birding neglect due to accessibility issues, etc. There is one public access, the berm separating the municipal swimming lake and the main lake of The Pits. After that you are on your own. The Pits, which is privately owned, is currently leased to a hunting club. It is mentioned in mocosocoBirds to keep it in the public consciousness and in the hope that, someday, it will pass into the proper conservation and nature-minded hands.

Chimney Rock

13 species of warblers were observed at Chimney Rock this morning including Nashville Warbler, Northern Parula, Magnolia, Bay-breasted, Blackburnian, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue and Canada Warblers (Jeff Ellerbusch). Common Nighthawk and Least Flycatcher were also tallied.

Other Bird Notes

The Short-billed Dowitcher of Glenhurst Meadows continues for a third day (m.obs.). The original post from Aug. 27 is here.

A Yellow-bellied Flycatcher was seen along the White Bridge Wilderness Trail, Great swamp NWR this afternoon (Simon Lane).