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DVOC Field Trip Report
by Steve Kacir

June 6, 2009
Nightjar Field Trip to Wharton State Forest, Burlington County, NJ


I arrived at the Carranza Memorial in Wharton State Forest with plenty of time to spare. Nonetheless, several field trip participants had beat me there, and all hopes of doing some quick reconnaissance before the start of the trip was lost. Already in attendance were Janice Weisgruber and her friend Jeri (whose name I am probably misspelling), and Ken Mitchell who had just returned from a little solo exploration in the woods. We were soon to see the arrivals of Bert Filemyr, Carol and Sam Perloff. A text message notified us of three cancellations, but we were still waiting on Cathy Biel and Ed Cox. In the meantime, we took a brief look around the meeting area and Bert had some time to photograph the Carranza Memorial. We were already tallying songsters, including Eastern Wood-pewee, Great Crested Flycatcher, Gray Catbird, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Pine Warbler, Ovenbird, Chipping Sparrow and Eastern Towhee. Some impromptu squeaking courtesy of Bert brought in a couple Pine Warblers and an Eastern Towhee. Both birds were seen well by all the participants, and then the towhee retired to a mud puddle where he bathed with reckless abandon. After a good bath, there is apparently nothing finer than a dust bath, and this towhee was not one to waste the potential of the sandy soil in the pine barrens. While the bathing habits of large sparrows are usually not something to miss, we soon felt we were exhausting the possibilities for the immediate area. With some reluctance, I decided we needed to move on.

Our destination was a boggy area down the road that had been revealed to me by Tom Bailey the previous year. This part of Wharton is an exceptionally birdy area with a fairly good diversity of species due to the boggy area and the streams found there. We were lining up for the drive out, when a truck pulled up. I had thought it was our missing participants, and was glad we were all together at last and moving out. The recent rains had made Carranza Road’s washboard structure even more interesting than I’d remembered, but the roads were not too bad. We made a brief stop after I’d heard Prairie Warblers. After everyone had disembarked from their vehicles, I found we were still missing Cathy and Ed, but had picked up a pair of Don Webbs. I made some futile efforts at getting these Prairie Warblers to reveal themselves, and, afterwards we were back on the washboard again. While avoiding the choicer dips and hollows in Carranza Rd, I was so intent on looking for the bridge over the boggy stream that I missed the sand road we wanted to hike down. A quick drive over the bridge and a brief (although maybe premature) U-turn and we were back on track.
Hiking down the path, we were greeted by Cedar Waxwings, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Red-eyed Vireo and Ovenbirds. Soon we were also hearing Prairie Warblers, and a cooperative Prairie Warbler provided a good view for everyone. Wood Thrushes sang, and we began hearing Red-winged Blackbirds. Soon we were at the streamside path, but found we had limited walking opportunities as the rains had also flooded a fair amount of the path. Looking on the boggy side of the river, we startled Wood Ducks, and I happened to be looking in the right place at the right time to see a hen American Black Duck bolt for cover, followed by her three fairly large ducklings. Tree Swallows patrolled the waters for insects, and we began to hear Carpenter Frogs hammering away. I took a small contingent of the group past the worst puddle, but couldn’t entice everyone else to brave soaked socks. We didn’t go too far, but we were able to find a subadult Carpenter Frog lolling poolside in a small puddle. As you can expect, I had to try to catch the frog. I was very careful not to disturb it as I positioned myself. I thought I had a fair chance at getting the frog on the first grab, but as I made my move, the frog eased itself into deeper waters. I repositioned, and lost the frog in a mix of shadow and glare. I found the frog again, and readied for a strike. The frog disappeared. I think it went down and pushed itself into the silt and soft mud at the bottom. I made a vain scouring through the muck, but, in the end, we had to return to the rest of the group without the amphibian. On the way back, we heard an Eastern Kingbird. The kingbird was locked in combat with a Great Crested Flycatcher, a nice illustration of the territorial nature of the kingbird. The Great Crested Flycatcher retreated from the kingbird’s assault, only to add insult to injury by finding itself perched far to closely to Don Webb the younger. The flycatcher didn’t linger long after seeing itself becoming the attraction of a camera-free birder paparazzi. We returned to the cars, with Bert providing some World Series of Birding grade pishing that got the attention of an even more cooperative Prairie Warbler.

We traveled a little up the road and stopped to explore a sand road that headed towards the boggy stream area. Here we heard plenty of Northern Parulas, but none of them proved cooperative. We also found a few Black-and-white Warblers. These Black-and-white Warblers were singing a slightly different song from the one I am used to hearing during migration, and I wondered if they, like the Blackburnian Warblers at the Delaware Water Gap might have a special song for the breeding grounds. We took some time to pish at a bird chipping away in the underbrush, but all we managed to do was to get the bird to stop chipping. This sand road led out to a marshy boggy area, which was just hammering with Carpenter Frogs, joined at times by Green Frogs plucking their banjo strings. The scenery was some of the best you could hope for, and the lighting was superb. Of course, the superb lighting got me anxious to return to the clearing at the old railroads where we might start to see the display of the Common Nighthawks.

Back on the washboard road again, we soon arrived at the Carranza Memorial, collected Ed and Cathy, who had already seen a Common Nighthawk from the Memorial area, and retraced our drive to get to the intersection of the old rail line and Carranza Rd. We arrived, to find that both Don Webbs had set up their folding chairs and were waiting for the big show. Soon we had Common Nighthawks overhead. They were flying in excellent light, some glowing a little orange in the late day sun. They were peenting, but not yet doing the booming display. Our group of thirteen soon attracted the attentions of a herpetological enthusiast from Virginia who stopped to exchange information with the Webbs, and gave them a short lecture on reptile poaching, while they in turn let the herper know what had attracted thirteen people to the off-center of nowhere on a fine June evening. By now the nighthawks had started performing their booming displays, but it was difficult to hear them, as the birds were somewhat distant. The chatty herper and some hikers, who conveyed information to each other only in dull roars, certainly weren’t helping. Eventually only birders remained, and we could easily hear the booming after the nighthawks entered into their dives. Presently Whip-poor-wills began to call. They were distant and shy at first, but soon closer birds were calling all around us. We were successful in calling in a single bird, but when the Whip-poor-will caught sight of all thirteen of us it headed straight for the tree line and cover. Very few saw the bird, and almost no one saw it well, but that was the only Whip-poor-will that made a show of it. We also had some flyby nighthawks. These birds may have been females, and they worked the tree line along the road, flying much lower than the displaying males. Northern Gray Treefrogs provided some counterpoint to the Whip-poor-wills, and a few Ovenbirds sang their alternate songs.

Some of our group was starting to head out, but we made one last effort at finding some night birds. We tried to call in some Barred Owls at the stream’s edge, but despite my best efforts we only had no appreciable reply. We did hear a strange little call in response that may have been an owl, but it called only once and was not very loud or diagnostic. We did manage to upset a great many passerines in the area with my Barred Owl imitations, though. Only the Eastern Wood-Pewees seemed unimpressed, occasionally calling “Pee-a-wee” in the dark. At this point the group broke up, but I made a few stops on the way out enjoying additional Whip-poor-wills, Pine Barrens Treefrogs, Fowler’s Toads, Northern Gray Treefrogs, and a Luna Moth that was fluttering on the side of the road. All in all, we’d had very good night for enjoying nature.

Photos by Bert Filemyr