We’ve had a beautiful fall weekend here in central New Jersey, with warmer-than-we-really-should-have temperatures poking into the upper 70s. I was able to get two good outings in at the Mercer Meadow Pole Farm, where sparrows took center stage.
I’m leading the post with two of the Savannah sparrows I saw while walking up the Lawrence Hopewell Trail on Sunday morning. It was the beginning of a five-sparrow-species jaunt over just under three miles.
Savannahs show up in abundance during the fall, although I’ve seen fewer of them than I recall seeing in previous years. This weekend, that may have been in part because I reached the park a few minutes before dawn each day. Like many birds, the Savannahs like the light of day.
Next up in my viewfinder was a swamp sparrow, which was farther back in the grasses but lit nicely by the rising sun. Perhaps to keep balance in the universe, it seems the shortage of Savannahs is offset by a greater-than- previous showing of the swampers.
Once I reached the woods, white-throated sparrows serenaded me with their sweet, high-pitched song. I got a few peekaboo shots, but none of the birds had the courtesy to pose openly for me as the swamp sparrow above did.
I also heard a couple of field sparrows each day, and on Saturday morning I managed a nice shot of one of them that was perched near the old AT&T Building One site.
Also on Saturday, I got my first chipping sparrow of the season. It was on the path near the parking lot at the Pole Farm. I got a soft shot that was sufficient to confirm its ID.
The weekend also brought some nice looks at yellow-rumped warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets and an Eastern phoebe. But the most unexpected joy over the two days was a flock of cedar waxwings that descended in the trees above me as I emerged from the woods to the central path on my way back to my car.
At first, I couldn’t figure out what the birds were. They were chasing each other and darting in the treetops, too quickly for my brain to react. But I was able to get a few clear shots, and from the camera’s playback screen I nailed the ID.
It seems some of our residents of recent months have flown the coop. I haven’t seen or heard a catbird in a few weeks, and I think the common yellowthroats have headed south. But I saw my first dark-eyed juncos of the season in New York’s Central Park on Saturday afternoon and spotted a couple at the Pole Farm on Sunday.
We’re seeing a changing of the guard, as it were, and that’s something to crow about. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 