Two Red-necked Grebes at Boonton Reservoir

Red-necked Grebes, Boonton Reservoir, NJ, Apr. 22, 2017 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

The first Red-necked Grebes in Morris County in 2017 and the only ones at Boonton Reservoir since April 2015 appeared on a rainy Saturday, this morning. The grebes were at the north end of the reservoir, just south of the dam, and were content to float and eventually rest.

Only one Ring-billed Gull was seen. A Common Loon, hundreds of swallows, and the residents of the island made up the reservoir’s bird life today. The Great Egret crowd of at least six was at their usual station at the base and middle part of the island.

A Black-crowned Night-Heron was seen at the north end of the island. Black-crowned Night-Herons are under-reported on the island because they are too hard to see considering the distance. The commotion of the Double-crested Cormorant and Great Blue Heron nests contributes to the visual cacophony. Visibility will be even more difficult when full leaf-out occurs in a few weeks.

Bald Eagles

Two eaglets were seen in the Mt. Hope Lake nest, and two more were visible in the Lake Hopatcong eagle nest. The eagles at Troy Meadows and Duke Farms had failed nests.

…and it rained Lesser Black-backed Gulls on Opie Road

Today’s wet weather brought a record high count for Somerset County of Lesser Black-backed Gulls on Opie Road in Hillsborough Twp. 64 were counted plus another 8 at nearby Norz Farm. The gulls were moving around so approximately 80 were probably in the area (Jeff Ellerbusch).

520 Ring-billed Gulls were also on Opie Road which is in Somerset County. This is interesting because you could barely find any gull in Morris County today.

Other Birds

There is not enough space to write and not enough time to read all of the reports of returning bird species in the Morris and Somerset area at this time. It is best to use the eBird Region reports (links are given at the bottom of this post) to get a grasp of what is where and when.

This post closes with photos from this morning’s adventures. Click on the photos for a larger image.

Brown Thrasher, Troy Meadows, NJ, Apr. 22, 2017 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

Rusty Blackbird, Troy Meadows, NJ, Apr. 22, 2017 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

Double-crested Cormorants, Lake Hopatcong, NJ, Apr. 22,2017 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

Louisiana Waterthrush Video by David Blinder

Below, view a video of a Louisiana Waterthrush at Jonathan’s Woods in Denville from this morning, filmed by David Blinder. Very possibly, the embedded video will not show in the email version of the post but should display on the browser version of the post. If you do not see the video below, click on this link: Louisiana Waterthrush at Jonathans Woods NJ. You may need to click the start button on the transport to get the video rolling.

View local eBird checklists in the mocosocoBirds region via eBird’s Region Explorer. Use the following links:

• Morris County
• Somerset County

The eBird Hotspot Primer is here and can also be accessed via the Hotspot menu item on the mocosocoBirds.com website.

The mocosocoBirds Facebook page is located here and also posts timely information not found on the mocosocoBirds web site.

@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.

Finis