Lord Stirling’s Prothonotary Warblers, 6/5/2011

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Jonathan Klizas

From Harvey Tomlinson:

Hey All,

Spent several hours yesterday observing the Prothonotary Warblers at Stirling and counted 5 birds. A pair at the beaver hut, a pair at the E. tower and a single singing male a few hundred yards up stream from the E. tower.
I cannot verify the 3rd male has a mate despite an hr of watching.
The other 2 pairs spent the morning catching food and returning to the nesting area. I would say this activity verifies two active nest’s w/ young. The female at the beaver hut was really disturbed by my camera shutter, so I stopped w/ the photos.
The Barred Owl family is now 5.

Good local birding,
Harvey

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Sandhill Crane at Glenhurst Meadows, 6/4/2011

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Jonathan Klizas

From Jeff Ellerbusch:

Had a Sandhill Crane in the wet area before the two back ponds at Glenhurst Meadows this afternoon, around 4:30. The Crane, 7 Great Egrets, and 1 Great Blue flushed a few minutes afterwards… as soon as they noticed I was not a tree… thought I was playing the part pretty well myself. Simon Lane was able to get to the Garden P-lot, up by Wagner Farm, in time to see it flying low over the tree line behind the river with 2 Great Blues. The vicinity in which he had it in the air would be above the power line cut which stretches from Glenhurst to King George Rd. It dropped below and behind the tree line quickly afterwards which seems to indicate it may have put down in the powerline cut itself. Simon, Simon King, and I did a pretty thorough search through Glenhurst afterwards but could not relocate it.

Here are the Google maps coordinance of the original spot- 40.657881,-74.502411
The red marker with the A means nothing, the green arrow is the spot.

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Somerset County Prothonotary Warblers and Black-crowned Night Herons, 6/3/2011

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Jonathan Klizas

Jeff Ellerbusch and Harvey Tomlinson had four Prothonotary Warblers at Lord Stirling Park this morning along the Passaic River.

Jeff later saw two Black-crowned Night-Herons at Watchung Lake: an adult at the bridge on Brookdale Road and a juvenile on the lake.

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Birds at Mahlon Dickerson Reservation, 5/31/2011

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Jonathan Klizas

Mahlon Dickerson Reservation, Jefferson Township, Morris County, 7:30-10:30 a.m.

The Pine Swamp has Acadian Flycatcher, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Blue-headed Vireo, Hooded, Black-and-white, and Black-throated Green Warblers and Ovenbirds, etc. Least Flycatcher is at the Ogden Mine Railroad Bed trail. Worm-eating and Black-throated Blue Warblers are near the Headley Overlook. American Redstarts are everywhere. A Bald Eagle (Y4?) was at the pond at Saffin Rock-Rill. Saffin’s Pond is drained for some presumed maintenance but the only shorebirds there were Spotted Sandpiper and Killdeer.

The list:
Canada Goose
Mallard
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Acadian Flycatcher
Willow Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Yellow-throated Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Worm-eating Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Song Sparrow
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch

Submitted by Jonathan Klizas

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AOU Committee on Classification and Nomenclature, Pending Proposals.

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Jonathan Klizas

To take effect this year barring any last minute changes.

As it affects our immediate area: Common Moorhen, Gallinula galeata, is split from the old world’s G. chloropusis. Also proposed is a name change back to Common Gallinule.
http://www.aou.org/committees/nacc/proposals/2010_A_votes_web.php#2010-A-10

The splitting of Yellow-rumped Warbler failed at this time.
http://www.aou.org/committees/nacc/proposals/2010_A_votes_web.php#2010-A-4

See the proposals as reported in the ABA Blog:
http://blog.aba.org/2011/05/bulletin-new-splits.html

And here is the original source from the AOU:
http://www.aou.org/committees/nacc/proposals/pending.php

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White-eyed Vireos in Washington Valley, Morris Township, 5/29/2011

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Jonathan Klizas

White-eyed Vireos (WEVI) are not common in Morris Township in recent memory. eBird (see eBird.org) lists only a handful of reports for the entirety of Morris County in the last few years. The following numbers are individual sightings of WEVI in May in Morris County from the eBird database.

2011 – 6 (3 are related to this post; the 1st bird recorded 2 days in a row)
2010 – 1
2009 – 1
2008 – 2
2007 – 1

Finding two individuals in Washington Valley in Morris Township warrants some interest, especially since another WEVI has been down the road at Scherman-Hoffman Sanctuary in Bernardsville for most of May. One of the Morris Township birds was at the paved part of Patriot’s Path on Washington Valley Rd. This bird sang two different songs. Here is the first song recorded today as well as a sonogram rendering: Click here to play Song No. 1

And here is the second song. In the field I thought I was hearing a distant Blue Jay or a Catbird until I realized it was the second note of this song by WEVI: Click here to play Song No. 2

This is a brief excerpt of the second WEVI on Whitehead Rd. Its song is similar in gesture to Bird No. 1’s 1st song Click here to play Bird No. 2’s song

Washington Valley 5/29/2011
Canada Goose
Mallard
Great Blue Heron
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Willow Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
White-eyed Vireo – 2
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
House Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Blue-winged Warbler – 4
Yellow Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Song Sparrow
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch

Submitted by Jonathan Klizas

Posted in Morris County | 3 Comments

Another Bernardsville Trumpeter Swan in Morris County

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Jonathan Klizas

For those familiar with the Bernardsville Trumpeter Swan story I will get to the point. Another of the three wayward young Trumpeters has been located at the northern shore of Lake Parsippany. Seen at 6:43 p.m. 5/27/2011 as Carolyn and I took a drive around the lake. A mediocre photo taken with my phone is seen below. One can basically walk up to the tame Swan and say: “Hello, how’ve you been”. The Great Swamp Trumpeter was seen (again) a few days ago at its usual place along Long Hill Road in the vicinity of the Friends Blind keeping company with the presumed legitimately wild Tundra Swan. Jim Gilbert has been keeping tabs on the remaining captive Trumpeter Swan family in Bernardsville and at last count that I know of there were five remaining birds out of the original eight from earlier in the year (2 clipped adults and six cygnets raised in comfortable surroundings last year). That leaves one unaccounted for.

Probable Bernarsdville Trumpeter Swan at Lake Parsippany, 5/27/2011

See Harvey Tomlinson’s photos of the Great Swamp Trumpeter.

Here is Jim Gilbert’s photo of the Bernardsville clan.

Submitted by Jonathan Klizas

Posted in Morris County, Somerset County | 2 Comments

Somerset County shorebirds update, 5/27/2011

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Jonathan Klizas

The White-rumped Sandpiper at Opie Rd. remained throughout the day. The Dunlin at Studdiford Drive, Branchburg was seen by Frank Sencher, Jr. in the morning but missed by Peter Burke and myself in the afternoon. A Semipalmated Plover and Killdeer remained.

Submitted by Jonathan Klizas

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White-rumped Sandpiper and Dunlin in Branchburg, Somerset County, 5/26/2011

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Jonathan Klizas

From Jeff Ellerbusch:

Two very productive Somerset County stops this late afternoon…

Studdiford Drive had 2 Semipalmated Plovers (they’re back), a very nice, full breeding Dunlin, and 2 Killdeer. It was nearby Opie Rd though that had the big highlight with a White-rumped Sandpiper which was feeding in the main shorebird puddles. Also on Opie was a singing Prothonotary Warbler in the marsh area between the main Shorebird field and the River (maps for everything below).

The local Killdeer parents, who have two large youngsters now, were, unfortunately, pretty aggressive towards the White-rumped. One particularly charge by one of the parents resulted in the White-rumped completely leaving the vicinity….however it did return shortly after and was still feeding when I left around 5:45. If looking for the White-rumped keep in mind there is some long grass that the bird was feeding in and out of, though most of the time it was clearly visible.

(Google Maps)

Dunlin- 40.548403,-74.698727
Best place to pull over on Studdiford- 40.548154,-74.699462
White-rumped- 40.518872,-74.719187
Prothonotary- 40.518448,-74.720024

Jeff

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The Yellow-crowned Night Heron of Denville, continued, 5/22/2011

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Jonathan Klizas

Steve Fasciana found the Yellow-crowned Night Heron (YNCH) on Friday, May 20, at 8:45 in the morning. To my knowledge and the documentation I currently have at hand this may be only the second record of YCNH in Morris County (the only one I have an accounting of is Pete Bacinski and Rick Radis from the Great Swamp N.W.R. in 2001). Saturday, Tim Vogel found the YCNH at 3 p.m. after not finding it at 7 a.m. I looked for it briefly and unsuccessfully at 7 p.m. Today, Sunday May 22, Tom Halliwell found it at 11 a.m. after initially not finding it.
See Yellow-crowned Night Heron in Denville, 5/22/2011

I met up with Glenn and Eileen Mahler at 1:30 p.m. and after searching for awhile found the bird in apparently the same tree Tom had photographed it in but from a different angle where we could only, and barely, see the head. Eventually the bird left its perch and flew into a tree near the road and then moved to the bank of the river. The bird can be seen from the parking lot of the condominium complex located on Katherine Street which is off of Savage Road in Denville. The bird’s pattern says that if it isn’t easily visible on the river bank then look carefully in the fully leafed-out trees along the river. As the following photos show – when the YCNH is out in the open it is very cooperative. These photos were taken today, Sunday, May 22, 2011.

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