Rainy start to October has been excellent!

Well with yet ANOTHER camping weekend being washed out, Deb, Ron, and I were bummed out a bit. But, Deb and I decided to get some birding in anyway yesterday, even in the rain. The morning started well, as I was checking the weather we had this Cape May Warbler visit our stream/pond out front!
Having done Cape May, Brig, and Donio park a million times in the last month, I decided to go to one of my spring herping/birding routes to see what I could come up with. So we hit Jackson Road and Cedar Lake first. 2 Cape May Warblers and 2 Yellow Rumped Warblers were the highlights here amongst a modest flock of migrants.

Then Heislersville WMA. Rain coming down. Not much in the impoundments. So we decided to call it quits. On our way out, In a pretty steady rain, we ran into a very large flock of migrants, and while trying to keep the rain off our lenses, we started calling out lots of birds!
Baltimore Oriole, Redstart, Magnolia, Waterthrush, Yellow, B+W, BTB, Yellowthroat, Parula, Palm, White Eyed Vireo, Red Eyed Vireo, Phoebe...Bald Eagle above!

So in about 3 hours of birding we ended up seeing 63 species!

So I decided today I would do my usual lazy route: Donio, then the backyard.
Donio was loaded with great shorebirds. 13!! Pectoral Sandpipers! Semipalmated, Least, L Yellowlegs, 27 Killdeer, and a solo Spotted Sandpiper.

The house was even better...12 migrating Ospreys, Merlin, Chestnut Sided Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Redstart, Yellowthroat, Cape May Warbler, RE Vireo, House Wren, 5 Indigo Buntings.

So even though we didn't camp, we got our fair share of birds!

Milestones:
Yard Bird #115 - Tennessee Warbler
Atlantic County Bird #222 - Northern Waterthrush
Cumberland County Birds #166-168 - N Waterthrush, BTB Warbler, Magnolia Warbler

Local findings...Sicklerville birding!

Well some rain, wind, and crappy weather forced me to delay my Cape May camping trip to a further date (yet to be determined). So, I spent my Sunday/Monday/Tuesday birding in the backyard and at Donio Park and Penbryn Pond.

Sunday consisted of a few afternoon hours on the back porch overlooking the garden...and it was surprisingly fantastic! First off, 3 Ruby Throated Hummingbirds were busy all day feeding in the garden and on a new feeder I got. They are still present today.

The more exciting show though, was the steady stream of warbler surprises in the confines of the garden....the first being a very dull Cape May Warbler that I flushed from the garden, and then spent a good 15 minutes in the red cedars, where a Magnolia Warbler was also foraging. A Northern Parula, 3 Common Yellowthroats, 4 American Redstarts, a Chestnut Sided Warbler, and a Black and White Warbler also made appearances. And a blue tailed, brown-bodied Indigo Bunting spent about an hour in the backyard.

Found a Ruby Crowned Kinglet on Monday in the backyard. A sure sign of Autumn arriving!

Donio Park has been a hotspot. I visited Monday and Wednesday and in just 2 40 minute walks saw:
2 Blackburnian Warblers
1 Tennessee Warbler
4 Northern Parula
1 Black Throated Green Warbler
1 Pine Warbler
1 American Redstart
1 (adult) Bald Eagle
1 Pectoral Sandpiper, 1 G Yellowlegs, 8 L Yellowlegs, Semi Sandpipers
Rough Winged Swallows (plenty)
2 Green Winged Teal

Though the numbers aren't as impressive locally compared to in Cape May or other migrant traps, I certainly get more satisfaction out of finding stuff locally!

My Sicklerville Big Day (sorry so long!)

So my big sit was today in the backyard. I only made it 6 hours (8-2) because my eyes were in pain. So i decided to turn my big yard sit into a Sicklerville-style World Series of Birding. I stayed within my zipcode and tried to find as much as I could. I actually didn't bird the whole 6 hours at home (included a nap, lunch, eye breaks, etc). But here's how I did.

My first photo op were these two female Northern Cardinals fighting for the feeder:
And then the Wild Turkey clan (5) came along to clean me out of cracked corn:

Petunias are still strong here in October!

My first major highlights were 2 Northern Harriers (yard bird #103) and 54 Double Crested Cormorants, all migrants flying very high! But then the day hit a screeching halt and all I really saw was the following:
Oh, and:

But then as the afternoon approached some local hawks started to fly. 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 Sharp Shinned Hawk, 3 Red Tailed Hawks, 2 Black Vultures, and a bunch of Turkey Vultures.

That followed with a few high migrant hawks (2 Cooper's Hawks, 1 SS Hawk)

So I ate lunch with Dad and tallied another brand new yard bird, a Red Breasted Nuthatch (#104) and then headed off to Lake George and Donio Park.

Lake George had a very pleasant surprise: the early arrival of 50-60 diving ducks (all Ruddy Ducks and Ring Necked Ducks). 2 weeks early for that local gang. Also, picked up Belted Kingfisher and Mute Swan there.

Then I went to Donio Park for shorebirds, swallows, and ducks to add to the list. I got Killdeer, L Yellowlegs, and Solitary Sandpiper, N Rough Winged and Tree Swallows, and a Merlin! But, the real highlight was the songbird group feasting on bugs.

Mainly consisting of dozens of Yellow Rumped Warblers, I was hoping for Palm Warbler, and I managed two of them, a "western" and a "yellow" subspecies. Poorly pictured here :)

I also had a diverse group of sparrows. 4 total sparrows, all different species! Chipping, Field, Savannah, and Song. Here's a Chipping Sparrow with a YR Warbler:

And a Field Sparrow with a Yellow Rumped Warbler:

And a Savannah Sparrow with the Chipping Sparrow (sorry bout all the pics, I thought it was cool all the sparrow diversity mixed with YRW's)

Here's a pair of Yellow Rumpeds (nickname "Butterbutt" makes sense)

So I was thrilled with my successes there and the fact I added about a dozen birds (including both Kinglets on the way out, and Eastern Bluebird).

So I had to get my car cleaned , filtered, and vacuumed today so I went home and figured I might manage a few more species to meet my yard bird goal of 40 for the day (needed 3). Tree Swallow was #38, a female Purple Finch was #39, and a very nice "Yellow" Palm Warbler was #40! It was also yard bird #105! He hung around for 90 minutes feeding in the grass in the backyard!

So I totaled 40 for the yard, 55 for Sicklerville and I really look forward to doing another Sicklerville Big Day next month!