Spring migration probably reached its peak this weekend, and I spent a good deal of time in the field to experience it. The highlight was Saturday, when my friend Jim and I went to the Ted Stiles Preserve on Baldpate Mountain, hard by the Delaware River at Titusville, New Jersey.
Although I’d hiked Baldpate a couple of times, I’d never gone birding there. It seems unconscionable in retrospect, as I logged 42 species in two sections of the park.
Our first stop was at the Fiddlers Creek entrance off HIghway 29, which runs along the Delaware. With the windows down, we drove uphill listening for birds until we parked near the summit at a turnout along a stone wall that affords a great view of the treetops that warblers fancy.
We heard many but saw few warblers, and not getting a shot at a chestnut-sided warbler was particularly disappointing for me. Oddly, the only photos I took of any value were not of a bird but the Nessus sphinx, a hummingbird-like moth that flitted among the flower blossoms between the parked cars and the stone wall.
Our next stop was to drive back down to Highway 29 and head up Pleasant Valley Road, bound for another entrance to the Stiles preserve. Birders we had chatted with on our first stop recommended that we walk up the trail that follows the power lines cutting through the park, and we found a bonanza of birds.
We were hoping for a golden-winged warbler but didn’t find any. Instead, we were treated to several singing rose-breasted grosbeaks, cheeping ovenbirds, a veery or two and several indigo buntings.
At the advice of a passing birder, we veered off onto a side trail and soon spotted a bay-breasted warbler in the trees above us. I managed only a few fuzzy shots of its bottom.
On the way back down the trail, a cooperative indigo bunting gave us several good looks.
When we got back to the parking lot, Jim suggested we walk toward the gate on Pleasant Valley Road, where we’d seen a few birders as we arrived. It was a good move.
We were awarded with views of several cedar waxwings, a scarlet tanager, a Nashville warbler and a black-throated blue warbler, which tops this post. Merlin hit on a Wilson’s warbler, but I neither saw nor heard what would have been a lifer. I didn’t record it — that’s one I want to see!
I started today at the Dyson Tract, hoping to spot or at least hear the pair of prothonotary warblers that have set up housekeeping in the tree-studded swamp. I had no luck with them, but I got a common grackle with an insect in its beak on a tree overhanging the pond off the trail.
I then headed to the Pole Farm, where I managed a nice closeup of a common yellowthroat and a long shot that cropped well of a singing Eastern meadowlark.
After doing some planting in our garden beds, I had a few errands to run and made a stop at Colonial Lake to see if anything interesting might appear. I watched an osprey soar overhead as I got out of my car. It came back a minute later and dove to get a small fish. I only got focus on the bird once it hit the water.
All in all, it was a darn fine weekend of birding. I got nearly my fill of warblers and got to visit several spots. I’ll definitely return to the Stiles preserve, and often. š¦
The Jersey Birder 