I’m plodding along on my quest to go birding in all 21 of New Jersey’s counties, and today I registered No. 14. My pal Jim and I drove north along the Delaware River to visit the Alpha Grasslands Preserve in Warren County.
Google Maps took us to a trailhead on Oberly Road, where a sign prohibiting unauthorized vehicles induced us to park on a gravel road leading downhill to a farm.
Stepping out the car, we immediately heard bobolinks. That struck the theme for the day. Bobolinks were all around us. I put 75 for my total on e-Bird, noting that it was likely an undercount.
Jim and I walked down the road, which was bordered by tall grasses to our right and a mix of grasses, low shrubs and soybeans to our left. As many bobolinks as there were, we were often frustrated because they’d land on stalks of grass that bowed low to the ground, making it difficult or impossible to photograph the birds.
We spent close to an hour walking the trail, during which we managed to accumulate photos of bobolinks and a few indigo buntings. We also observed dozens of flyovers by a trio of swallows — barn, Northern rough-winged and tree.
After wrapping up on the trail, we drove a good stretch of the preserve’s perimeter, where we spotted five American kestrels and a pair of Northern flickers.
A short while after we left the preserve, Jim spotted a broad-winged hawk perched on a wire overhead. We parked on the side of the road and turned our cameras toward the bird, my first New Jersey broad-winged and only my second lifetime.
The broad-winged hawk, Jim noted, was the cherry on top for the day — a good one for sure and a great introduction to birding in Warren County. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 