The loud, insistent call of the ovenbird is a daily experience in the woods at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm, but it’s rare that I get to see one. Today, I spotted two.
I took an unusual route. I headed up the central trail from the Cold Soil Road parking lot, turned right to the AT&T Building One oval and turned left onto the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail. But instead of keeping straight, I turned off the pavement near a sign marking a watershed divide and onto a rutted and grassy trail that crosses the woods .
I never seem to spot much on that trail and while crossing it this morning I saw only a catbird fly across my path. When the trail ended, I turned left onto one of the main trails that would eventually get me back to my car.
A few moments later, two birds flew into branches to my left, only about two or three feet off the ground. The birds were in heavy shadow, and I had trouble focusing. One of the birds flew off and the other moved back onto another branch.
I took a few shots before it, too, took off. I checked the images in my viewfinder, and only two were likely to confirm an ID. I was thinking I’d captured an ovenbird from what appeared to be an eye ring, but I wouldn’t rule out a wood thrush or another type of thrush until I would get the images up on screen.
The one sharp photo I got (and it tops this post) made clear that I’d found an ovenbird. Eureka! As with the wood thrush I found in the open earlier this month, I was thrilled to get on camera a bird I often hear but only occasionally see.
As I walked on, I got to play peek-a-boo with a young white-tailed deer. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 