World Series of Birding 2014

On Saturday a week ago (May 10), the Middlesex Merlins competed in the World Series of Birding for the third consecutive year. My teammates were again Patrick Belardo, Tom Ostrand, and Anthony Laquidara, and once again we limited our big day to Middlesex County and competed in the LGA category for the WSB. This year we rebuilt the predawn and early morning portions of our route to take advantage of sites we learned about in the past year. Our songbird numbers in past years were respectable but suboptimal, and adding better habitats in the morning could improve those totals. We also wanted to ensure that we could reach coastal areas during low tide for shorebirds and gulls. For the second year in a row, we also faced a forecast of scattered showers throughout the day.

Our predawn birding was somewhat disappointing. This year our route included a marsh edge at the end of Mill Road, Raritan Center, and Oros Preserve. We heard American Woodcock at two sites but none of the rails or other wetland specialties that we have heard in past years. It drizzled on and off during these stops; I am not sure if that had any effect on our results.

Things started to improve during our early morning route. Although we included an evening stop at Warren Park on the border of Perth Amboy and Woodbridge last year, it was not really on our radar as a migration hotspot until more recently. This year we started there at dawn, and it turned out to be extremely productive for us. We recorded 16 species of warblers at that stop alone — more than our total for the day in any previous year. These included great looks at some singing Canada Warblers, a Blackburnian Warbler, and a Hooded Warbler. The latter is an oddly difficult bird to find in Middlesex County and was our first for the WSB.

From Warren Park, we moved on to Rutgers Gardens and found our Peregrine Falcon for the day along the way. In the woods we found a lingering Hermit Thrush, and I got a look at a Swainson's Thrush, which I had missed at Warren Park. Patrick spotted a Blue-headed Vireo, which, like the Hermit Thrush, was lingering past its usual departure date.

A few stops along Riva Avenue in East Brunswick yielded a Wood Duck and a singing Orchard Oriole. Davidson's Mill Pond Park had Purple Martins, a Bobolink, and a Least Flycatcher. A farm pond had a Mute Swan, and we rounded out the southern portion of our route with a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in South River.

To this point, things had gone fairly well. We missed some birds, but we found many that we had missed in previous years. The weather was also mostly cooperative. Things would become more difficult in the afternoon. When we arrived at South Amboy, people were walking around on the mudflats to collect shells, so most of the gulls were scared off. We still saw the five expected gulls but lost any shot at rarer ones like Little or Black-headed. Shorebirds were also scarce, and we missed Bank Swallows at the boat ramp. In the pond behind the marsh we had our best bird of the day: a Short-billed Dowitcher (shown below). This bird is pretty common in coastal areas during migration but, like the Hooded Warbler, is oddly hard to find in this county. A stop at a marina in Sayreville produced a Least Tern but the not the Seaside Sparrows we had seen in past years.

We had permission to seek grassland birds at the former Kin-Buc landfill, so from the coast we headed back to Edison. Unfortunately the Grasshopper Sparrows we hoped to find there did not sing or perch in the open. We did have a flyover Common Raven as a consolation prize. A quick stop at Edison Boat Basin produced Least Sandpipers. We had to call off a search for meadowlarks along Mill Road because a bolt of lightning ran across the sky and made standing in the open field and empty parking lot inadvisable. From there we went to see the Cliff Swallows that nest at the Route 18 bridge and a Cooper's Hawk nest that Patrick had found.

We returned to Raritan Center for some daylight birding. Our first stop produced a White-crowned Sparrow, a lingering Palm Warbler, a Bank Swallow, and a Belted Kingfisher. Our stops along the riverfront were less successful since we were suddenly hit with a strong gusting wind that made it difficult to keep optics steady or in some cases to get out of the car or stand. We also missed the Willow Flycatchers, Field Sparrows, and Brown Thrasher that I have come to expect from that location.

Our evening run was about as successful as we can expect evening birding to be. We spotted our Brant for the day at the Sewaren waterfront and visited the Monk Parakeets in Carteret. We added an American Kestrel on our return visit to Oros but missed the Red-headed Woodpeckers that had lingered there until recent weeks. A return to Warren Park did not add any species to our total. A final stop at the Triple C ranch end of the Dismal Swamp produced a Wild Turkey but not any of the owls that had been found there recently. The non-avian highlight of that stop was seeing a Spring Peeper that Patrick located. As far as I know, it was my first look at that frog species.

The turkey was our 125th species for the day. While that total includes a lot of birds, it felt a little disappointing since we backtracked from the 127 species we had recorded in each of the two previous years. Still, we saw and heard a lot of birds, the rain was not as bad as it could have been, we had a lot of fun, and I think we each saw at least one new bird for the county. So in the end it was a successful run.

Middlesex Merlins in the World Series of Birding

Every year New Jersey Audubon sponsors the World Series of Birding (WSB), an event scheduled for the peak of spring migration. It doubles as a competition for local bragging rights and as a fundraiser for conservation efforts. The statewide winner usually records over 200 species of birds, while other teams compete at the county level and in other categories. Last year I participated in a World Series of Birding for the first time as a member of the Middlesex Merlins with three other excellent birders: Patrick Belardo, Anthony Laquidara, and Tom Ostrand. We made a good showing, explored some new birding sites, and found some new county birds. You can read more about that effort in my post about it.

This year we tried again, this time representing the Plainsboro Preserve, New Jersey Audubon's center in Middlesex County. We revised our route: dropping some sites, adding others, and shifting more land birding into the morning. The route was more compact, to reduce travel time, and had the potential to produce more species than we had seen the previous year. Building a good route is challenging. Each bird species, whether a Kirtland's Warbler or a House Sparrow, counts as 1, and all team members must see a bird for it to count (except for a limited number of 95% birds). A good route needs to include locations for rare birds but also must leave time for picking up common birds in order to build numbers. In Central Jersey, there is the additional challenge of not getting stuck in traffic.

Our early morning birding was a wash, so to speak. We heard an American Woodcock but missed out on rails, bitterns, owls, and other nocturnal singers as we listened at our scheduled stops in the light rain. As dawn broke, we found ourselves at Rutgers Gardens, and new birds started coming more quickly. Blackpoll, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Blue, and Tennessee Warblers. Veery, Wood Thrush, and Swainson's Thrush. Flocks of Cedar Waxwings overhead. Lingering Pine Warbler, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Ruby-crowned Kinglet in the pine plantation. A small flock of White-throated Sparrows. By the time we left, we had seen or heard almost all of the warbler species we would find that day.

The agenda for the rest of the morning was a series of stops south of the Raritan River. When we arrived at Ireland Brook, the rain started pouring, but we found our target species there, a Pileated Woodpecker, and Tom spotted a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, another species we missed last year. At our next stop, Davidson Mill Pond Park, we missed our target Eastern Bluebirds but found Purple Martins and a Blue Grosbeak. Giamarese Farms produced a Mute Swan; we failed to find Wood Ducks at our designated Wood Duck stop, but we heard an Eastern Wood-Pewee instead. At Capik Preserve, we found Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers, and a stop in South River produced the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron we hoped to find there.

At Kin-Buc Landfill, we found big flocks of Bobolinks and a surprise Eastern Meadowlark (which I missed, unfortunately), but missed out on Grasshopper Sparrow. Our miss might have been because of the loud singing of the numerous Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows, which made it hard to hear quieter birds. (I think that was the most Bobolinks I have ever seen together at one time.) From the top of Edison Landfill, we saw a Bald Eagle cruising down the river corridor. A drive around Raritan Center produced Clapper Rails, as well as lingering American Black Ducks and Gadwall.

From there we headed to South Amboy to start our tour of Raritan Bay access spots.  Waterworks Pond was less productive than we hoped. It seems to have gone downhill as a birding spot since construction work and Hurricane Sandy changed its hydrology. A spontaneous stop at a boat ramp in South Amboy became one of our best stops of the day. Not only did we get our target bird, Bank Swallow, but Patrick found a Western Grebe! Morgan Mudflats had the birds we expected, but we had to get off the beach early because a thunderstorm was rolling in from the west. Pirate's Cove had a Lesser Black-backed Gull, and a stop in Lawrence Harbor produced a Northern Gannet.

At Brown's Marina on Cheesequake Creek, we found two very cooperative Black-crowned Night-Herons (one of which is pictured above). We also had a beautiful view of a Seaside Sparrow — a hard bird to see and a hard bird to find in Middlesex County.

From Brown's Marina, we headed north. We made a short stop at William Warren Park in Woodbridge, a wooded park with a mostly native understory, where we found our Downy Woodpecker for the day. Our stop in Carteret failed to produce any Monk Parakeets. Medwick Park had a singing Swamp Sparrow. When we tried again for the Monk Parakeets, we finally heard them squawking. Despite some night birding in South Amboy, the Monk Parakeets would be our last species of the day.

When we tallied our list for the day, it came out to 127 species — the same total as the year before. (You can view our full list here.) Because of this year's unfavorable conditions, I think that shows we devised a better route this year than the year before. However, 127 species was not enough to unseat the defending county-level winners, the Meadowlands Marsh Hawks, who found 145 species in Bergen County.

Here is the full list of winners and full list of species found statewide (pdf). For the first time ever, a youth team won the World Series of Birding.

Birding Raritan Bay with the Middlesex Merlins

Last Saturday I went birding with the other members of my World Series of Birding team — Patrick, Anthony, and Tom. We started out at Morgan Mudflats, which in recent weeks has been a hotspot for rare terns and other unusual birds. I saw my life Sandwich Tern there a few weeks ago, on a day when over 140 Common Terns were present at the mudflats, with another 350 at Pirate's Cove. Other recent reports included an American Avocet, Gull-billed Terns, and Short-billed Dowitchers.

Tern numbers were down significantly on Saturday but still substantial. Shortly after we started scanning the mudflats, Anthony picked out a Roseate Tern. It hung around the mudflats for the rest of the morning, mostly loafing but sometimes venturing out on short trips over the water. This bird appeared to be banded on both legs, but the distance was too far to make the bands out with confidence. I shot the photo above through Patrick's spotting scope; the bird on the left is a Common Tern.

Patrick picked out another interesting bird, a Surf Scoter swimming just offshore. Scoters are highly unusual anywhere in New Jersey during the summer months, and even more so in Middlesex County where they rarely venture even in winter. This bird was a county first for me; the Roseate Tern was a state first.

We moved on to Pirate's Cove, a spit of beach at the Middlesex-Monmouth border. As at Morgan, the mudflats at Pirate's Cove held a lot fewer terns than in previous weeks. No rare terns were present despite our best efforts to pick one out from the reduced crowd. We did hear a Fish Crow, our bête noire from the World Series. From there we stopped at a couple marinas on the north side of Cheesequake Creek. At the first, we saw a Clapper Rail chick (shown above) foraging in the mud along the edge of the creek. I had never seen a rail chick before, so this was a great way to end the morning.

Forsaken by Fish Crows

Last Saturday was the World Series of Birding, an event run each year by New Jersey Audubon. Teams compete to see the most species of birds in the Garden State or to win a variety of other categories while raising money for conservation. This year, for the first time, I was on a WSB team, the Middlesex Merlins. Patrick Belardo recruited us; my other teammates were Anthony Laquidara and Tom Ostrand, who compiles the Raritan Estuary Christmas Bird Count. I had met and birded with Patrick and corresponded with Tom, but I had not met or birded with either Tom or Anthony before we started planning our big day attempt. Somehow, though, we all got along well and worked well together as a team. We competed in the Limited Geographic Area (LGA) category, which meant that all of our sightings had to be in Middlesex County, and the winner of the category would be based on percent of par (with a different par for each county) rather than the absolute species total.

We started the day with some pre-dawn nocturnal birding. Our first bird for the day was a Killdeer in a parking lot next to one of the marshes in southern Edison. We quickly tallied Marsh Wren, Northern Mockingbird, and Common Yellowthroat, all of which were singing near the edge of the marsh. Moving on to Raritan Center, which we had permission to bird for our big day attempt, we heard more vocalizing birds. American Robin – almost as familiar of a nocturnal singer as Northern Mockingbird – was a quick find. More importantly we heard Virginia Rail – giving its kidik call – and Swamp Sparrow at one stop, followed by Northern Bobwhite and American Woodcock at subsequent stops. Northern Bobwhite was a real surprise since that species has become increasingly scarce in the state.

From there we went to Rutgers Gardens, where we arrived before dawn. With the start of the dawn chorus, we started tallying new species more quickly. In the display gardens and hedgerows, we found Chipping Sparrow, Indigo Bunting, Eastern Phoebe, Blackpoll Warbler, and Eastern Towhee. Several pairs of Wood Ducks passed overhead, as well as flocks of Cedar Waxwings. Along the edge of Helyar Woods, we quickly found Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, Hairy Woodpecker, and a suite of warblers, including Canada Warbler. Inside the woods, we found three thrush species, including Veery (a personal favorite) and Swainson's Thrush, a hard species to find in the county. Other birds included Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Worm-eating Warbler. Somewhat ominously, some silent crows passed overhead.

We spent so long in Rutgers Gardens that we were already behind schedule when we left, even though we had arrived there ahead of schedule. A quick stop at the US 1 Bridge netted some common urban birds but not the Peregrine Falcon we had hoped to see. Once we arrived at Cliff Avenue in South Amboy, we walked back along the dirt road to check the ponds and woods. The local Cooper's Hawk did not make an appearance, but Anthony picked out a Black-capped Chickadee, an uncommon species south of the Raritan River. Out on the mudflats, we did not see nearly as many birds as we had hoped. We picked up Dunlin and a distant Red-shouldered Hawk but missed lots of shorebird species, Little Gull, and large terns.

Following on that stop we visited the other sites along Raritan Bay in Middlesex County. Pirates Cove produced a lingering Greater Scaup and Belted Kingfisher. A few stops in Laurence Harbor produced a Green Heron and not much else. At this point we decided to skip a planned stop at Cheesequake State Park and head to South Amboy Waterworks Pond. Here we added Glossy Ibis, Eastern Kingbird, Bank Swallow, and Sharp-shinned Hawk. Unfortunately an American Coot that Patrick had found while scouting did not make an appearance.

We started the afternoon portion of our itinerary at Raritan Center. As we ate lunch, a Bald Eagle passed overhead. A short drive around the roads produced more species we needed to see there. A Field Sparrow sang in the location where I had heard one on my point counts. A Lesser Yellowlegs and a Solitary Sandpiper were foraging in two of the ponds. An American Black Duck was paddling in the Raritan River near the old piers. A real surprise was seeing a Wild Turkey dart across Olympic Drive. We heard American Crows but still no Fish Crows.

Our next stop was the Kin-Buc Landfill, where we had permission to bird for our big day attempt. This former landfill is now a Superfund site and forms a complex of grasslands and early successional habitat with two other former garbage mounds. A friendly staff member let us in and showed us how to get to the top of the landfill. As we made our way to the top, we could hear Willow Flycatchers and Field Sparrows. At the top, we stopped and walked a bit on the road. We heard two Grasshopper Sparrows singing right next to the road and saw four Bobolinks fly up out of more distant grasses. The latter was a county bird for me, but not a particularly satisfying sighting due to its brevity. As we left the landfill, we listened for Blue Grosbeak in a patch of suitable habitat where they have been seen before, but none sang.

Middlesex Merlins on top of the Kin-Buc Landfill. L-R: Tom, Patrick, Anthony, Me. Photo by Tom Ostrand

After this we started to track down individual species. We made a quick stop in Johnson Park to see the nesting Cliff Swallows at the Route 18 Bridge, and then a visit to Giamarese Farm in East Brunswick turned up three species we would not see elsewhere that day: Mute Swan, Purple Martin, and Eastern Bluebird, all of which are breeding on the property. We had confidential information on a Great Horned Owl nest and stopped there just long enough to see one of the owls. American Crows were scolding the owls as we arrived.

We returned to Morgan Mudflats to look for species we had missed on our initial visit. Unfortunately Little Gull once again did not make an appearance, even though Anthony and Patrick combed carefully through the large flock of Bonaparte's Gulls on the beach. However, we did add a few more species. An American Oystercatcher flew in front of us as we made our way down to the beach. Anthony picked out a distant Common Loon, and Tom spotted a Least Tern that landed on the beach near the gulls. Patrick found a trio of Red-breasted Mergansers. A return to Zaunerowikz Road turned up a Seaside Sparrow across Cheesequake Creek – my 212th species in the county. It also turned up more silent crows – at this point we still had not heard a Fish Crow, even though we had seen numerous crows in appropriate habitat. For some reason, the crows were simply not very vocal that day, and we ended up missing an insanely common species as a result.

Our final stop was Cheesequake State Park. We walked out almost to the end of Steamboat Landing Road, where it meets Cheesequake Creek, and scanned the skies as the sun set and dusk set in. Lots of swallows were still flying, along with herons and blackbirds. The no-see-ums were annoying, but we persevered long enough to hear and then see a Common Nighthawk fly overhead.

At this point we wrapped up our itinerary and headed home. It is possible that a little more nocturnal birding could have turned up another species or two. However, without known locations for the species we still needed, our efforts may well have been unproductive. So the nighthawk was our last species for the day, and our final tally was 127 species – easily the most bird species I have ever seen in the single day and not bad at all for Middlesex County. As it turned out, we would not win the LGA category; the Meadowlands Marsh Hawks from Bergen County finished with 139 species and 83% of par. To beat them, we would have needed to find 151 species. Despite not winning our category, we had a great time and were already talking about next year before this year's big day had ended.