A summer smorgasbord of New Jersey birds

In between spring and fall migration, we have plenty of resident and visiting birds to excite us, even if the variety isn’t quite as robust as when migrants are on the move.

While having dinner at our kitchen table Sunday evening, my wife and I were delighted to see four (4!) juvenile bluebirds in our yard simultaneously. We were heartened by the evidence that the Sialia sialis species appears to be thriving in our neighborhood.

In the ten previous years we’ve been in our home, bluebirds would rarely come to call. The numbers have picked up this year, and we even had a mating pair move into one of our bird houses. They moved out after a day or two, likely finding better accommodations nearby.

Out at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm just over two miles away, we’re having a banner summer for indigo buntings and blue grosbeaks. I typically hear or see at least three indigos on my walks, and this morning I logged five on e-Bird. My photos of the one I was able to shoot high atop a tree didn’t turn out well, but I got a fair shot of a blue grosbeak.

Male blue grosbeak perches atop a tree.
The blue grosbeak who buzzed me.

We have at least one mating pair of “bee gees” at the Pole Farm. The one depicted here has been hanging out near the Cold Soil Road parking lot and the Pole Farm historical exhibit. I spotted him in a tree near the red arches marking the exhibit, and it whizzed past my face on its way to another treetop. That’s where I got the photo.

A passing birder had seen the female blue grosbeak this morning, and he and I agreed this has been a good year for them.

On Sunday, I drove to Veterans Park in Hamilton in hopes of spotting a little blue heron that’s been visiting the last few days. It was my second fruitless attempt to spot it, but I did get a few more shots of a resident bald eagle and manged a few more of some of the purple martins living in a martin house at the edge of the lake.

A purple martin opens its beak as it perches on a metal pole supporting the martin house.
Purple martin perched near its house. These birds are chatterboxes!

On Saturday, friend Jim and I drove down to Estell Manor Park in Atlantic County again. We were hoping to catch a few remaining warblers before they skedaddle south. We spotted a couple of pine warblers, but the day’s highlights were white-eyed vireos (one tops this post) and the hummingbirds dashing through the trees by the park visitor center.

A ruby-throated hummingbird perches on a thin tree branch with greenery in the background.
Ruby-throated humming bird perched near the visitor center. We did not see any mature males.

It was nice to get shots of the seemingly always-in-motion hummers as they took short breaks in the trees before diving and dipping into the feeders hanging at the visitor center deck.

Here’s another look at one of the white-eyed vireos, who gave us intermittent opportunities to shoot as it bopped about the branches. 🦅,

White-eyed vireo looks out from a tree branch.
We spotted this vireo along a boardwalk trail at Estell Manor Park.

The pleasures of daily birding

Unless the weather is horrible or I have a family or other priority commitment, I get out birding almost every day. Most of my outings run in the 90-minute range, but shorter sessions can also bring joy.

Today was an unusual three-stop day, starting at the Charles Rogers Preserve in Princeton for about 45 minutes with a brief stop at the Dyson Tract along the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Hearing that a little blue heron was spotted on the lake at Veterans Park in Hamilton, I dashed down there after lunch.

While I didn’t see the little blue, I was instead treated to a bald eagle sitting on a snag log. I’m not sure how far away the bird was, but I was astonished at the clarity of the shots I got when I brought them up on screen. My favorite tops this post. In the one below, note the drop of water on the tip of the eagle’s beak. I snapped the shot a moment after the bird had taken a sip of water.

A mature blad eagle, with a white head and yellow talons, stands on log in the lake. A small bead of water is on the tip of the bird's beak.
Bald eagle seconds after dipping its beak in the water to drink.

Mallard ducks and Canada geese are returning to the lake at summer’s mid-point, and I was surprised to see three double-crested cormorants perched on a log at the lake’s edge below the levee path. I didn’t realize it while squeezing the shutter, but a barn swallow bombed the photo.

Three double-crested cormorants look out onto the lake while standing on a half-submerged log at the lake's edge. They seem unaware that a barn swallow is flying toward them.
I dubbed these cormorants Larry, Curly and Moe.

On Tuesday morning, I took a good walk at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm, veering off onto a trail that skirts one of the grassy meadows on the Reed-Bryan Farm side of the park. The best photo from that outing was of a great crested flycatcher I found on the alley of trees near the Cold Soil Road parking lot.

A great crested flycatcher perches on a bare branch at the top of a tree. The sun shines on the bird from behind.
Great crested flycatcher, backlit by the morning sun.

Eating dinner last night, I heard another great crested flycatcher calling from nearby. I didn’t pursue finding it. But it was good knowing one was in the neighborhood.

On each of these outings, I photographed only a few birds. That was also the case Sunday, when I drove out to the Millstone River Impoundment in Princeton. The only shots I took were of a double-crested cormorant perched at the edge of Lake Carnegie island and a barn swallow that briefly stopped atop one of the rails of the footbridge that crosses the Delaware and Raritan Canal.

Barn swallow faces away from the camera while standing atop the reddish brown top rail of a bridge.
Barn swallow at rare rest.

Were any of these photos prize-winners? No.

They are, however, evidence of enjoyable outings in Mercer County that keep me engaged with nature almost every day. That is its own reward. 🦅

A-bunting we shall go

For the second consecutive Saturday, my birding buddy Jim and I headed to Assunpink Wildlife Management Area, homing in on the hilly portion of the park that hosts the aviation navigation beacon.

The hilltop fields remain rich in wildflowers, a powerful draw for birds and butterflies in colors as vivid as the blossoms. The standout species for the day was the indigo bunting. Several were singing sweetly and flying all around us.

Before hiking up the beacon hill, we stopped at a nearby meadow carpeted in pink blossoms as far as the eye could see. We were surprised to spot a swamp sparrow, which only briefly distracted us from tracking a male indigo bunting doing touch-and-goes between the field and a couple of trees. My best bunting shots, including the one topping this post, were taken there.

A deep blue indigo bunting
Our first indigo bunting of the day, singing in a meadow.

Walking back to our car, we heard white-eyed vireos singing. They were poking about a row of trees and not giving us clear shots. Finally, one popped into clear view, giving me the chance I was waiting for.

A white eyed vireo sings from a tree branch. The bird has a prominent white eye ring. The upper half of his head is yellow, and its breast is white with a bit of yellow wash.
At last in a clear spot, this white-eyed vireo paused long enough for me to snap his portrait.

We made the short drive to the parking lot at the base of the beacon hill and started up the trail. We were surprised to hear a couple of Northern yellow warblers, who seemed to be trading verses with common yellowthroats. We never did see the yellow warblers but did catch a few of the yellowthroats.

Upon reaching the crest of the hill, we heard several indigo buntings singing and watched them fly across the fields. At one point, we spotted a male adult with two brown companions, which we reckoned were immature males.

A blue grosbeak was also singing on the hilltop, but I wasn’t able to spot it, let alone get a photo. No matter. I was instead able to get a couple of shots of a grasshopper sparrow, a much less common visitor to central New Jersey.

A grasshopper sparrow perches atop a tall plant with long green leaves.
Grasshopper sparrow.

Butterflies abounded. Jim and I took shots of monarches and swallowtails. This son of Ohio was delighted to get a shot of a buckeye, a butterfly I have rarely seen.

A buckeye butterfly lights on a small yellow blossom. The insect has long antennae with rounded black tips and orange and black spots on its wings.
Buckeye butterfly, with its namesake wing spots.

I’ve become a big fan of the navigation beacon area of Assunpink WMA. I look forward to returning many times come fall, when I’ll be able to spot ducks returning to the big lake in the center of the park. 🦅

At last, I get a great crested flycatcher in my viewfinder

It’s been bugging me these first seven months of the year that I have yet to get a photo of a great crested flycatcher. I finally got one this morning at John A. Roebling Park in Abbott Marshlands, Hamilton.

I was coming up the path from the parking lot when I spotted a bird ahead and above. It was facing away from me but I snapped a couple of photos, hoping I’d catch a moment when the bird turned its head. I couldn’t make out the ID and figured I’d pick it up on screen at home.

I walked over the foot bridge to the back island but didn’t even lift my camera. It was another hear-a-lot, see-a-few kind of birding day. I turned back and as I was nearing the parking lot a bird flew over me and plopped into a tree about 10 feet away.

Great crested flycatcher sitting in a tree with a green leaf partially obscuring its wing.
This great crested flycatcher flew in close.

A great crested flycatcher! The ID was easy, as I had a good view of the bird’s slender body and pale yellow breast. I was able to get off a few shots and glad of it.

When I got home and brought up the photos of that mystery bird, I realized it was a great crested flycatcher, almost certainly the same bird I’d shot on the second pass.

One of the images in the first batch of photos I shot did include one with the bird looking my way, and that image tops this post. Now I can relax — I got my GCF shot for 2026. That’s a nice way to close out the month. 🦅

Butterflies and bugs love New Jersey wildflowers

When I’m on birding walks, I always admire the wildflowers that line the trails and that sometimes blanket big swaths of meadows in vibrant colors. In recent weeks, I’ve seen more and more butterflies, dragonflies and bees sampling the sugars from the blossoms.

I needn’t even leave my home to take in the sights. Swallowtail butterflies have been cruising to the Mexican marigolds in our big garden box and checking out the wild bergamot that’s begun to bloom in our yard. I took the photo atop this post there earlier this month.

Those lovely pink wild bergamot (a.k.a. bee balm) blossoms must be like crack cocaine to butterflies. At Rosedale Park in Pennington, I watched a black swallowtail dive into blossom after blossom.

A black swallowtail butterfly (with yellow splotches and a bit of dark blue on its black wings) dips into a pink wild bergamot blossom.
Black swallowtail feeding on wild bergamot.

Also at Rosedale Park, I watched in fascination as a coneflower mining bee went about its titular duties atop a coneflower. That tiny bee was a new one for me. I got the ID by plugging my photo into the iNaturalist seek app, which has done for plant and insect identification what the Merlin app has done for birds.

A tiny black and yellow coneflower mining bee digs into the central orange blossom of a coneflower. The flower has longer pink leaves below the round central blossom.
Confeflower mining bee “mines” a coneflower at Rosedale Park.

I had more insect and butterfly encounters Saturday while birding at Assunpink Wildlife Management Area. First up was a monarch butterfly, which landed on a thistle blossom a few feet from me.

Orange and black monarch butterfly extracts nectar from a round pink thistle blossom.
The monarch — sporting Princeton University colors! — feeds off a thistle.

I also spotted a butterfly I can’t recall seeing before — a variegated fritillary taking sips from yellow-orange blossoms.

Yellow and black patterened variegated fritillary butterfly lands on an orange flower blossom.
Variegated fritillary getting some grub.

One other insect I caught dining Saturday was a Halloween pennant dragonfly that landed atop a mullein plant with bright yellow blossoms. I try not to anthropomorphize non-human creatures, but I can’t help but see a cartoon-like human face on this sublime flying creature.

Dragonfly with clear wings with black stripes latches on to the top of a mullein plant with yellow blossoms.
Halloween pennant dragonfly grabs onto a mullein plant.

On this site I write mainly about birds and their glorious colors. I share almost as equally in delight over the other creatures sharing the same airspace in field and forest. What a bountiful visual buffet our world provides. 🦋

Indigo buntings a-go-go at Assunpink WMA

Jim and I went in search of dickcissels this morning, heading to Millstone Township in Monmouth County where he had heard tell of those uncommon visitors.

We pulled off Trenton Lakewood Road across from a big field and immediately heard our target. It took a while to spot one, and eventually two dickcissels sat atop a tall evergreen in the middle of the field. Although the birds were a good distance away, I managed to get one fair shot.

Dickcissel singing from atop an evergreen tree. There's a yellow streak on its head and the upper breast is yellow with black "kerchief."
Dickcissel singing from on high.

Those were my first dickcissel spottings since 2024, and I was happy to add them to my log for this year. Dickcissels are common in the Midwest, but only a few of them show up in central New Jersey each year.

Our next stop was not far away at the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area, where I’ve birded many times. We checked the boat launch at the lake in the center of the park but saw not a single bird.

From there, we drove to a meeting center near the airplane navigation beacon that is on top of a hill in a section of the park I had not previously explored. Jim and I headed up a trail with a big soybean field to our right. Indigo buntings announced their presence in song right away.

Aviation beacon on hilltop. It in a circular building and looks vaguely like a bowling pin. A tall pole with two horizontal antennae stands nearby.
The aviation beacon emitted a constant hum.

I would count 16 in our 100-minute visit, the greatest number of indigo buntings I’ve ever logged in an e-Bird checklist. That probably was an undercount, because the indigos were seemingly everywhere.

As we trekked to the summit where the navigation beacon sits, we saw two common ravens pass overhead, watched a flock of red-winged blackbirds pass and heard and saw several indigo buntings.

Indigo bunting eyeing berries.

They were flying about the trees covering the hillsides and studding broad fields of wildflowers. We chased a blue grosbeak back and forth, and I was able to manage only a couple of mediocre photos. I did no better with the buntings.

But as we bottomed out on the trail that took us back to the parking lot, we spotted one indigo in a big mulberry tree. It flew in and out of the tree several times, and I was able to get a few decent shots of him, including the one topping this post.

Two more surprises awaited us back by the parking lot. One was a brown thrasher in a tree where we caught fleeting glimpses of a white-eyed vireo. The other was a scarlet tanager high up in a tree, a treat for me as it was only the second one I’ve seen this year.

A brown thrasher sits on a fat tree branch. The bird is grown, with a prominent beak and a slim tan eye ring.
A youthful looking brown thrasher caught our eyes.
A male scarlet tanager perches on one of several bare branches atop a tree. The bird is a brilliant red with black wings and tail and a gray beak.
Male scarlet tanager high up on tree branches.

I would be remiss if I did not post a photo showing the beautiful field of wildflowers we walked along just below the aviation beacon summit. The flowers brought in bees, butterflies and dragonflies. I’ll devote a separate post to them. In the meantime, I offer a photo that will give you an idea of the beauty of the place. 🦅

A pink garden cosmos flower (with a yellow center) is surrounded by orange and yellow flowers in a field of grassy plants.
A pink garden cosmos is surrounded by orange flowers.

Another routine day of Pole Farm birding

Even an ordinary day of birding at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm can become extraordinary. Today, for example. No unusual species appeared, which was not a surprise during this mid-summer lull when many birds go quiet if not away.

A brilliant blue indigo bunting sits amid green oak leaves atop a tree, with blue sky in the background.
Indigo bunting, one of at least two I observed this day.

I was lucky to catch an indigo bunting singing from atop a low tree in one of the meadows off the central trail. Twice I spotted a blue grosbeak farther up the meadow, but that scamp flew off each time I went for my camera.

When I moved over to the paved Lawrence-Hopewell Trail and headed for the back corner of the park, I spotted a tufted titmouse. The titmouse is a year-round resident, and I typically hear at least one singing on most visits. Rarely, though, do I get a photo. Today, I was able to catch one on camera. I’ve given that bird top billing on this post.

Several American goldfinches were chirping along the trails, and I spotted an Eastern kingbird high up in a tree near the Cold Soil Road parking lot.

Song sparrows and field sparrows serenaded me as I walked the trails, or at least that’s how I interpreted their sweet songs.

A field sparrow sits on top of a bare branch at the top of a tree. The bird's beak is orange. Its upper wing is a rusty brown and the rest of the wing is dark brown with white accents. Its breast is pale taupe.
Field sparrow taking in the morning sun near Blackwell Road.

All of the above and more — red-eyed vireos, American robins, Eastern towhees, et al. — created a cumulative effect as I got back to my car and drove home.

It was indeed an ordinary day at the Pole Farm, typical with just shy of two-dozen species sightings plus coneflowers, wild bergamot, wild carrot and black-eyed Susans lining the trails.

How extraordinary, I mused, that I live so close to such a wonderful park with an abundance of birds, wildflowers, trees and other critters. How wonderful that each visit brings me in touch with the familiar, making days of rarities and surprises even more magnificent. 🦅

More warblers in the New Jersey Pinelands

My buddy Jim and I headed south once more today to the Pine Barrens, hoping to find a summer tanager in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest. In my Subaru Outback, we crawled along some sandy trails and negotiated many large puddles to get deep into the woods.

Alas, no summer tanagers brightened our day, even in a sector of the park where Jim has found them several years in a row.

Our luck changed when we drove to a park campground a few miles away at Pakim Pond. We wandered a couple of trails and entered a section of trees busy with birds.

A black-and-white warbler sings from a bare branch.
B&W warbler, with pine needles behind.

A pine warbler’s call tipped us to the action in the pitch pines, and then the black-and-white warblers showed up. Two were high up and tough to shoot, but popped up on the other side of the road we were standing on and checked out two trees to give us good looks.

After a few minutes, the bird settled onto a single branch and stayed a while. It was a virtual studio portrait session. I found it hard to pick a favorite from the selection of shots I got. I topped the post with a horizontal image that captures not only the bird but the leaves behind it dappled by sunshine. The photo also shows the crusty bark of the trunk of the tree in which the bird parked.

I was also able to get a couple of shots of a pine warbler that landed nearby.

A female pine warbler sits on a thick branch of a pine tree, with pine needles drooping behind her.
Pine warbler, a female lacking the more vibrant yellow of the males.

We made one more stop, leaving the forest to head to the hamlet of Whitesbog, historic home of cranberry and blueberry cultivation. Driving past a. couple of stores and a few homes and through the village’s lone intersection, we headed onto the dirt roads that delineate the bogs outside the town.

Jim was keen to explore the banks, in hopes that the previous day’s heavy storms had coaxed some shore birds inland to the bogs. We stopped in one spot and watched tree swallows skim the water for bugs. After walking over to another bog, Jim got his wish: solitary sandpipers were treading the mud and grasses not covered by water. We also spotted a couple of least sandpipers.

Solitary sandpiper walks along the grassy mud in a cranberry bog. Its shadow is reflected in the water.
This solitary sandpiper wasn’t solitary. Others were close by.

The solitary sandpiper is the “bird of the day” in the Merlin app, and I was happy to make that ID, unexpected as it was. 🦅

A smokey sky trims my birding

WIth smoke from Canadian wildfires blowing into the mid-Atlantic region, I woke up this morning with some irritation in my eyes. With the air quality rating poor, I decided to skip a planned outing with the birds.

I did go out Thursday morning and encountered hazy conditions under filtered sunlight at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm.

The sun appears as an orange disk in a brown-tinted sky above a few evergreen trees.
The sun appears orange through the smokey haze at the Pole Farm.

Knowing the air quality was deteriorating, I took a shorter walk than usual and thus encountered fewer photo opportunities with our feathered friends.

Plenty of common yellowthroats were singing and a few popped into view. I captured one of them on my camera as it was flying from stalk to stalk a few feet off the trail. I didn’t see the bug in its beak at the time, but it showed up clearly once I got my photos up on screen.

A male common yellowthroat clenching in its beak an elongated orange bug with black eyes.
Mr. Yellowthroat, with breakfast bug.

Other than this yellowthroat, the only other bird I shot was a juvenile Eastern bluebird.

I’m hoping the air will start clearing overnight and that the expected storms late in the day will wipe away the haze — for the birds’ sake and mine. 🦅

Another day in the New Jersey pines

If you’re wondering if warblers are still hanging around in New Jersey in mid-July, the answer is yes. It helps to travel to the Pine Barrens to find them, as my pal Jim and I did this morning.

We headed to the MIchael Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve, stopping in two areas. The first was a dirt road from a turnoff from Sooy Place Road. The dirt road bisects hunting club property, and we pulled off in two spots.

At the first, we heard red-headed woodpeckers calling and soon spotted two of them on a snag. One of them — or perhaps another — flew in close to us a couple of times. I whiffed on the first opportunity but had better luck on the second. The first view I got was the partial one in the photo topping this post. After a minute or so, the bird popped out in full, giving us good looks.

Red-headed woodpecker stretches toward the sky while perched atop a thick, bare tree branch. The bird has a bright red head and a white breast. It has black wings with large white patches on the back halves.
Red-headed woodpecker basking in the sun.

On the second stop, we got out of the car and immediately heard blue grosbeaks singing. A couple of them flew in close, giving us some nice looks.

A male blue grosbeak perches on a tree branch near red berries and green leaves. The bird's body is mostly blue, with a red-orange wingbar and a silver beak.
Male blue grosbeak.

On the other side of the road, a prairie warbler flew into the trees. It was zipping about, and I managed to get a couple of fair shots when it settled in a spot not shrouded by leaves.

Praire warbler perched on a tree branch. The bird has a yellow breast and a mostly yellow head streaked with brown. Wings are grayish with a white wing bar.
Prairie warbler

We moved on to a trail head off Sooy Place Road, near Johnson Place Road, at the southwest corner of the preserve. We heard a single pine warbler a few minutes later as we started a walk three-quarters of a mile up the trail. Our destination was a small bridge where we’d previously seen hooded warblers and prothonotary warblers.

The prothonotaries appear to be long gone, but we were treated to a singing hooded warbler that came in close a few times.

A hooded warbler sits on a tree branch in a gap in green leaves. The bird has a yellow head outlined in black, a yellow breast and greenish wings.
Hooded warbler stopping for a moment in the trees.

We were pleased to be able to find the hooded warbler at this point in the summer. They’ll likely start heading south soon.

We also observed an American redstart, Carolina chickadees and tufted titmice, among others. We were pleased with what we saw and the photo opportunities we got. We had plenty to rehash on the drive north. 🦅