When I got to the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm this morning, I realized that I’d left my binoculars at home. Oops. It wasn’t worth the drive to fetch them, so I set out on the trails with only my camera.
In the end, it was a minor inconvenience on what turned out to be a 35-species day. I logged many of them by ear, which wasn’t hard to do with ovenbirds, common yellowthroats and wood thrushes filling the woods and fields with melodies.
On the backside of my three-mile ramble, I found my birding friend Laura looking up into the “warbler wall” of trees at the AT&T Building One site. We hadn’t seen each other in months, and I was pleased to hear her tell me that the trees were brimming with birds.
The sun was shining brightly, and Laura quickly pointed out the Nashville warbler calling. We never did see the bird but otherwise got an eyeful: black-and-white warbler, Norther parula, blue-gray gnatcatcher, plus a black-throated green warbler that we heard.
At one point, I went to grab my binoculars, only to come up empty handed. I soon forgot about that when I spotted a yellow bird atop one of the trees and snapped a few frames.
I initially thought it was a prairie warbler, but Laura set me straight in viewing the bird on my camera screen. It was a Cape May warbler. Although I’ve heard and seen Cape May warblers before, I’d never gotten a photo. I was elated. One of the photos tops this post.
Earlier on the walk, I’d finally spotted a rose-breasted grosbeak after hearing their beautiful song on several outings the past couple of weeks. I also spotted a scarlet tanager but missed the brief photo op.
I have since put my binoculars back in the Volkswagen and hope for more sunshine and warblers tomorrow. 🦅
Rose-breasted grosbeak.
The Jersey Birder 