Birding the Preserve

Since my last birding trip there was so productive, I decided to try birding Rutgers Ecological Preserve again yesterday morning. I followed a different route and actually got a little bit lost when one of the trails petered out into a deer trail. (Obviously, I found my way out eventually.) The woods were less productive on this visit than on the previous one. I am not sure if that is a result of overnight weather conditions being unfavorable for the location or just a general slowing down of migration. I recorded about half as many warblers, with a lone Blackburnian being the highlight. Most of the warblers I did hear were Blackpolls or Common Yellowthroats, with some Magnolias in the mix. A Blue-winged Warbler was singing in more or less the same location I heard one on the last visit. Beyond that, there was a nice mix of warm-weather landbirds, but nothing extraordinary.

Here are a few flowers I found growing in the preserve. The above (I think) is a Common Cinquefoil.

This is some sort of blackberry flower. I think it may be a Pennsylvania Blackberry, but I am not entirely sure. This and the cinquefoil were on opposite sides of the trail from each other.

The woods are dark in places, and the morning kept shifting between sunny and cloudy, both of which made photography difficult. It was still worth a try to photograph this Star-of-Bethlehem, though.