My Ray of Sunshine

My Ray of Sunshine

Ain’t she cheery at 7 a.m.?

Surprisingly, we’d already been up for 4 hours at this point, having gotten up at 3 a.m. to participate in the Burlington Birdquest 2007. Sponsored by Palmyra Cove – where Pam works – it was a ‘contest’ to get local birders to go to a number of spots all around Burllington County, NJ and see what there was to see.

A group made up of us, Anita Gould and two acquaintences of Pam’s (Bill and Greg) went out early to do some birding and have some fun. Starting at Whitesbog in Browns’ Mills, NJ, we then made our way to Amoco Island in Delran and finished at Palmyra Cove. In all, we saw or heard 77 species for the day, and won the ‘competition’ by quite a margin. But it wasn’t about winning – the prize was a set of Palmyra Cove pins – it was fun to get out there and enjoy ourselves, although we were exhausted by 3 p.m.

Thanks and kudos to Bill and Greg, whose ears were a boon to our count – of the 77 species, 9 of them were by sound only (that counted for this contest). And thanks to Anita for making the trek down!

Whitesbog (* = ID’d by song only)

  • Double-crested Cormorant
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Snowy Egret
  • Great Egret
  • Green Heron
  • Glossy Ibis
  • Turkey Vulture
  • Canada Goose
  • Mallard
  • Wood Duck
  • Osprey
  • Lesser Yellowlegs
  • Laughing Gull
  • Ring-billed Gull
  • American Herring Gull
  • Mourning Dove
  • Rock Dove
  • Yellow-billed Cuckoo *
  • Eastern Screech Owl *
  • Whip-poor-will *
  • Ruby-throated Hummingbird
  • Belted Kingfisher
  • Red-Bellied Woodpecker
  • Downy Woodpecker
  • Northern Flicker
  • Eastern Phoebe
  • Great-crested Flycatcher*
  • Eastern Kingbird
  • Warbling Vireo
  • White-eyed Vireo*
  • Blue Jay
  • American Crow
  • Tree Swallow
  • Barn Swallow
  • Black-capped Chickadee*
  • Carolina Chickadee
  • Carolina Wren
  • House Wren
  • Marsh Wren
  • Ruby-crowned Kinglet
  • Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
  • American Robin
  • Wood Thrush
  • Gray Catbird
  • Northern Mockingbird
  • Brown Thrasher
  • Starling
  • Northern Parula
  • Yellow Warbler
  • Magnolia Warbler*
  • Black-throated Blue Warbler
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler
  • Prairie Warbler*
  • Palm Warbler
  • Pine Warbler
  • Black-and-White Warbler
  • American Redstart
  • Ovenbird
  • Louisiana Waterthrush
  • Common Yellowthroat
  • Eastern Towhee
  • Field Sparrow*
  • Chipping Sparrow
  • Savannah Sparrow
  • White-Throated Sparrow
  • Song Sparrow
  • Dark-Eyed Junco*
  • Northern Cardinal
  • Rose-breasted Grosbeak
  • Indigo Bunting
  • House Finch
  • American Goldfinch
  • Brown-Headed Cowbird
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Common Grackle
  • Baltimore Oriole
  • House Sparrow
  •  
  • Total Birds: 77

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6 Responses to “My Ray of Sunshine

  • Nice weekend to be out, Shari looks so happy in that picture. Don’t know why, but with all I’m going through right now, this made me slightly smiley this morning. There is joy.

  • She looks happy indeed! 3am is an insane time to get up, but it sounds like it was worth it. I’m very impressed with all that you saw, but if you’re like me, just being out there is the main point.

  • Thanks to both of you. Van, glad we could help start the morning with a smile. And Michael – the full list is up now.

  • O my, looks like you had soo much fun and I would have loved to join you guys! Too bad you are so far away! Love your list of birds! A few of those would have been lifers for me!

  • Wow. That’s quite a list, very impressive. Thanks for IDing those critters on Sarah’s blog, it’s very helpful. I also wanted to mention that we got a field guide on wildflowers, the National Audubon Society one, and so far, it looks awesome. I haven’t tried IDing all the flowers we’ve seen yet, although I did find out from the book that that weird thing we saw was Squawroot.

  • I posted it on your Flickr page, but I really love this picture of Shari. She looks so happy. You know, if a woman looks at you like that, you’re a lucky man.

    As Michael said, thanks for the IDs. It’s really cool that you have that kind of base knowledge to draw from. Hopefully, I’ll start learning a few things and be more useful myself.

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