Coming face to face with a Swainson’s thrush

My pledge to finish my goal of visiting the remaining New Jersey counties where I have not gone birding had stagnated, as I had made no progress whatsoever this year. When I discovered early Sunday that I had reason to go to Passaic County to watch a baseball game, I couldn’t pass up the chance to tack on a birding stop.

The ballgame was a Princeton-Penn Ivy League playoff at Yogi Berra Stadium in Little Falls on the campus of Montclair State University. I Googled birding hotspots nearby. Rifle Camp Park was the closest for which e-Bird showed substantial sightings, so I headed there in the afternoon.

After a false start on one trail, I drove to a parking lot designated as “Pond Area” and headed uphill onto what turned out to be the red trail. Quickly I spotted a bird on a branch ahead of me and raised my binoculars. The robin-sized bird was looking straight at me, and my first thought was “veery.”

By the time I raised my camera, the bird had flitted to a couple of other branches and I was able to get a few shots. The bird flew off and I reversed course to follow, and I got a couple more shots. I wandered downhill to the pond, where the only birds I spotted were two Canada geese floating. But there were bullfrogs calling, so I got a photo of one of them.

I walked back uphill to my car without encountering any other birds, and I was pleased to think that I’d spotted my first veery in New Jersey (I had seen one in the Philadelphia area previously). I completed my e-Bird checklist listing “veery,” and I’d have to wait several hours before I could confirm it from my photos via the Merlin app.

As it turns out, I did not see a veery but a Swainson’s thrush. Although the birds are somewhat similar, the thrush has a much darker back than a veery, and this bird (shown in the photo atop this post) definitely fit the Swainson’s description. Although I’d seen Swainson’s thrushes before, I’d never gotten a close look, let alone a photo of one. I’m quite happy with the shots I got.

Meantime, I still have nine counties to go before I fill in the map.

Addendum: I also filed an incidental report to e-Bird from the ballpark, which I discovered is in Essex County. To my surprise, I thus actually added two counties from yesterday’s jaunt.