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| LHR-EWR-LHR: 7200m/11592km | My Emissions: 1.2tonnes | Offset Cost: 7.50GBP | Cumulative Costs since 01 May 2006: 26.42 GBP |
The 15th of May is supposed to be THE best day of the spring for passage in the northern US, and it probably is when it's not emptying bathtubs of water/second on top of any birder foolhardy enough to go outside...
Oh well, these things happen - but I have to say that it does seem to happen every time I come to Newark, New Jersey: on a visit a few months ago I arrived shortly before 6 foot of snow was dumped on the eastern seaboard in a twelve-hour blizzard, the last time I came Mike of 10000birds.com and I got soaked to the skin at the Great Swamp Refuge, and this time Mike and I wandered around in semi-darkness trying to identify silhouettes at the tops of trees as a wave of warblers took one look at the windswept and soaked scenery below, grabbed a bug from a leaf as a consolation, and shot off again...
Regional Map - photographed inside, and copyright of, the Sterling Forest Visitor Centre.
The morning did have some great moments though - notably an hour when it wasn't raining at New York's superb Sterling Forest State Park, where Mike and I wandered along Long Meadow path (a onetime railroad track running between dense honeysuckle bushes on one side and ponds and rocky outcrops on the other) and had good views of two of eastern North America's most beautiful warblers (quite an accolade given how multi-palletted these gems are generally) - Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers, both of which were on territory and singing their buzzy little songs with gusto. Unfortunately an equally beautiful bird, and our main target of the trip in fact - the Cerulean Warbler (a potential lifer for both of us) - had either declined to come this far north and was still sunning in warmer climes to the south, or just couldn't be bothered to sing for a pair of bird-bloggers who had come quite A LONG WAY TO SEE IT (ungrateful flipping bird).
But, that's how it goes sometimes as any birder will testify, and Mike still had an ace up his sleeve. He had visited Sterling on previous ocasions and was confident of another of the US's more startlingly coloured migrants, and within a few minutes we were being dazzled by two or three stunning male Indigo Buntings - a species that seems to have absorbed into its feathers the deep blue skies above its wintering grounds and carried them north for just such a desolately grey day.
Golden-winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera
Indigo Bunting Passerina cyanea
With the clouds a constant threat, the amount of time we had in this superb spot (an hour out of New York city - just how spoilt for choice are the local birders?) was always going to be limited, and when the rain set in again and it became so dark that we'd have missed a Resplendent Quetzal five feet away we decided to cut our losses and head back towards the hotel.
Fortunately the rain diminished as we made our soggy way back, and Mike proposed a stop at New Jersey's Garrett Mountain (or - let's be honest here - 'Garrett Wooded Hill' as it would probably be known anywhere else): a relatively poorly-known 'hot-spot' where migrants are funneled onto a well-wooded slope with a refuse-strewn stream winding along its bottom edge (a run-off area that probably doesn't appeal to the aesthetics of your average hiker but looked like paradise to a couple of birders with migrants on their mind...)
It was a good call, and under leaden but dry-ish skies we ran into quite a nice selection of birds and managed to pick up some more dendroica (eg Yellow-rumped, Parula, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Magnolia, Northern Waterthrush, and a Canada), some reasonable views of Wood Thrush, Veery, and Swainson's Thrush, and a few flycatchers (Least and Great Crested, Eastern Phoebe, and Eastern Wood-peewee).
Unfortunately it was far too dark under the trees to get photos, except of the rather curious and quizzical Ovenbird below that responded to some 'pishing' and perched on a branch above our heads for a few seconds, and after about forty minutes the clouds lost the fight to hang onto so much water and the rain began again...
Ovenbird Seiurus aurocapillus
All in all day a pretty good day, and a huge thanks to my good friend Mike for making the long and circuitous journey from NY to NJ to pick me up and drop me back again, and now I'm going to get some sleep before the flight back to the UK tonight...(incidentally, Mike has posted his take on our day out, and I've just come face to face with a truism I'd given little thought to - we Brits really do bang on about the weather more than any other people on the planet!)
To get to Sterling Forest from New York the Mike 10000birds.com way :
Take the New York Thruway to Exit 15A. Turn left at the bottom of the ramp onto Route 17 and head north for 1.4 miles to the exit for Sterling Forest. Follow Sterling Mine Road (County Route 72) west for 3.0 miles, then turn right onto Long Meadow Road (County Route 84). Proceed north on Long Meadow Road for 3.5 miles, then turn left onto Old Forge Road and continue for 0.5 mile until you reach the Sterling Forest State Park Visitor Center. Park in the parking lot on the right side of the road, then cross the road to the visitor center.
Day List
Canada Goose Branta canadensis 20+; Wood Duck Aix sponsa 10+; Mallard Anas platyrhynchos 10+; Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura 2-3; Sharp-shinned Hawk Accipiter striatus 1; Cooper's Hawk Accipiter cooperii 1; Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis 3-4; Ring-billed Gull Larus delawarensis c)10; Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura 10-20; Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus 3; Hairy Woodpecker Picoides villosus 2; Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus 1; Eastern Wood-pewee Contopus virens 1; Least Flycatcher Empidonax minimus 1; Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe 2; Great Crested Flycatcher Myiarchus crinitus 1; Eastern Kingbird Tyrannus tyrannus 1; Tree Swallow Tachycineta bicolor 2-3; Grey Catbird Dumetella carolinensis c) 10; Veery Catharus fuscescens 1; Swainson's Thrush Catharus ustulatus 2; Wood Thrush Catharus mustelinus 2; American Robin Turdus migratorius 10-20; Blue-grey Gnatcatcher Polioptila caerulea 3; Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapilla 2-3; White-breasted Nuthatch Sitta carolinensis 2; Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata 2-3; American Crow Corvus brachyrhynchos c) 10; Common Raven Corvus corax 1; Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris 10+; House Sparrow Passer domesticus 10+; White-eyed Vireo Vireo griseus 1; Yellow-throated Vireo Vireo flavifrons 1; American Goldfinch Carduelis tristis 3-4; Blue-winged Warbler Vermivora pinus 2-3; Golden-winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera 2-3; Northern Parula Parula americana 3; Yellow Warbler Dendroica petechia 8-10; Magnolia Warbler Dendroica magnolia 4; Black-throated Blue Warbler Dendroica caerulescens 2-3; Yellow-rumped Warbler Dendroica coronata 10+; Black-throated Green Warbler Dendroica virens 1; Black-and-white Warbler Mniotilta varia 2-3; American Redstart Setophaga ruticilla 3-4; Ovenbird Seiurus aurocapillus 3; Northern Waterthrush Seiurus noveboracensis 3; Canada Warbler Wilsonia canadensis 1; Scarlet Tanager Piranga olivacea 1; Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina 1; Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia 2-3; Swamp Sparrow Melospiza georgiana 1; White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis c)10; Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis 2; Indigo Bunting Passerina cyanea 3; Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus 10+; Common Grackle Quiscalus quiscula c)10; Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater c)10; Baltimore Oriole Icterus galbula 1
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