We weren’t out to find the mythical Jersey Devil. My friend Jim and I set out for Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in the Pinelands to find pine warblers and red-headed woodpeckers.
Jim, who has been visiting Colliers Mills since he was a kid, guaranteed that we’d find the red-headed woodpeckers and figured we had a good chance of seeing pine warblers.
Colliers Mills is near New Egypt, known mainly for the auto racetrack in town. New Egypt is roughly in the middle of the state east to west and a bit south of the state’s waist line, roughly 30 miles from Trenton and 60 from Philadelphia.
Colliers Mills is in the Pinelands, the relatively new, marketing-friendly name for the Pine Barrens. The region is, as you might guess, characterized by many pine trees. The soil is sandy throughout. It’s a unique and treasured ecosystem, and it was here that the Jersey Devil emerged in folklore in the 18th century.
Driving into the WMA, we stopped first near a small lake that had attracted ring-necked ducks, mallards and a hooded merganser. As we walked a roadway through the pine trees along the lake, we soon heard the trill of a pine warbler. A while later, it flew into a tree overhead and gave us some good looks.
It flew from tree to tree, and we were able to keep pace. Or was it the other way around?
The best views came when the bird — the only pine warbler we encountered — ventured onto the end of a pine branch. The bird was well lit by the sun, and we each took several shots.
Having logged the pine warbler on our e-Bird lists, we drove perhaps a mile into another section and parked on the side of the road next to a field. We crossed the field into a section of woods. Almost immediately, Jim spied a red-bellied woodpecker.
As often happens, it takes me a while to find whatever bird Jim’s keen eyes have spotted. Eventually, I saw the woodpecker through my binoculars but lost the location once I pulled up my camera.
We wandered among the trees and spotted a second woodpecker, then a third and a fourth. There may even have been five. As we were looking at one at one end of the stretch of woods, we’d hear one of the other birds calling from the other side.
I had several opportunities to capture the woodpeckers with my Canon, and I’m restraining myself from overloading the post. I’m sticking with a few favorites.
I had spotted a juvenile red-headed woodpecker at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm last fall, but these were the first adults I’ve seen in my adult life. The birds are gorgeous, and it was a thrill to see them. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 