Morris
Least Sandpiper, Lincoln Park, NJ, July 17, 2015 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)
(Click on the photo for a larger image.)
It is not necessary to be on the coast to know that the southward migration of shorebirds has begun. The modest Morris County shorebirding season started today with 5 Least Sandpipers, 8 Lesser Yellowlegs (they came as a group one minute and were gone the next), and 18 Killdeer at the Lincoln Park Gravel Pits. Wading birds are represented by 7 Great Blue Herons, 4 Great Egrets and 4 Green Herons.
Somerset
From Mike Hiotis, yesterday July 16:
“Had a Solitary Sandpiper at Skillman Park, Montgomery this morning (south side). Also, along Skillman Lane was one Semipalmated Plover in with a number of Killdeer.”
Information
Below is a link for an eBird generated bar graph for inland counties of northern New Jersey. Inland is defined by counties north of Trenton and west of any counties that touch the eastern border of the state and includes Sussex, Warren, Hunterdon, Mercer, Somerset, Morris and Passaic. The point of the graph is to see what shorebird and wading bird species can be expected in the north-central and north-west parts of the state for the remainder of July.
Note: the graph shows all species recorded in eBird only during July. Scroll down to view shorebird occurrences. The link is here.
Based on the bar graph and recent history of species reported, some of the migrants and wanderers in the wading bird and shorebird categories that could be seen to the end of July are listed below:
Little Blue Heron
Semipalmated Plover
Solitary Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Caspian, Common and Forster’s Terns are always a possibility, as well.
View local eBird checklists in the mocosocoBirds region via eBird’s Region Explorer. Use the following links:
The eBird Hotspot Primer is here and can also be accessed via the Hotspot menu item on the mocosocoBirds.com website.
@mocosocoBirds at Twitter is another communications stream. Instant field reports and links of interest are tweeted throughout the day. The latest tweets appear on the sidebar of this page. One can follow mocosocoBirds at Twitter or link to @mocosocoBirds.
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