May 7 - Veery

Today I spent the morning at Garret Mountain Reservation. 14 species of Warbler were seen or heard including Tennessee, go figure, a bird that always seems to be a problem for me to find. Also Worm-eating, Blackburnian and numerous Ovenbirds were seen. 10+ Swainson's Thrushes and a few Veery were seen too. Veery is my bird-a-day.

May 6 - Tennessee Warbler

While doing some World Series scouting today at Halifax Rd. and Lake Henry, I came across a Hooded Merganser with 6 ducklings. 13 species of warbler were seen today too including Canada and Tennessee. Tennessee was singing then viewed while perched in a little area south of the lake. Tennessee has always been a problem for me to find and this is my first in Bergen County so it will be my bird-a-day.

May 5 - Yellow-throated Vireo

I spent the morning doing a bit of scouting for the WSB. I took the road at Palisades Interstate Park down to the Alpine boat basin. After a phone call to Ray, my raptor guy, I knew where the Peregrine Falcon nest was located. As soon as I found it the male flew off the cliff and defended the nest from a wandering Osprey. Along the road I found 6 Worm-eating Warblers, probably on territory. Most came close when I pished. 5 or 6 other warbler species were present as well as Red-eyed Vireo, Numerous Baltimore Orioles and 1 very vocal Yellow-throated Vireo. The YT Vireo will be my bird-a-day.

May 4 - Bank Swallow

We had rains coming in the morning that would last most of the day, so I made a quick trip to Harrier Meadow and DeKorte Park early. After checking to see the Harrier feeders were full, I took a brief walk out the trail. On the walk I saw a Grasshopper Sparrow near the first blind, but never got a great look, only pieces of the bird as it sat in some woody groundsel after flying up from the grass. The rains started and I made a quick trip to DeKorte and walked around the Lyndhurst Nature Reserve. Many Yellow-rumps were there as well as 6+ White-crowned Sparrows, 1 Indigo Bunting and a very wet White-eyed Vireo. After dinner the rains ended, I took a walk at DeKorte again. hundreds of swallows were flying low all around. I stood on the Kingsland Overlook among the midges and let the Barns, Trees and Rough-winged Swallows fly within a foot of me as they devoured the bugs. I was so close to some of the swallows I could here their wing flap and bill snapping closed on bugs. Pretty cool. I took a short walk out on the boardwalk and saw 2 Bank Swallows, always a tough bird for me. That's my bird-a-day.

May 3 - Tri-colored Heron

I spent the morning at Garret Mountain today. I picked up 4 new birds for the year today including Veery, Swainson's Thrush and Magnolia Warbler. I saw 18 Warbler species in total today missing a few that others saw. Also missed Pine Siskin today. After dinner I went to DeKorte Park in The Meadowlands briefly. After running into a friend in the parking lot, I went out the boardwalk to find the Tri-colored Heron that was found an hour earlier by Frank Bobowski. Nice bird, very easy to see and a new year bird. Tri-colored Heron will be my bird -a-day. Again thanks to Ron Shields for his great photo!

May 2 - Chestnut-sided Warbler

Today I spent the morning getting familiar with some of the territory we need to cover in the morning on our World Series of Birding day. I went to Halifax Rd. in Mahwah and 2 other Mahwah locations. At Halifax rd. I saw at least 10 species of Warbler including my first Chestnut-sided of the year. Another location produced my first Worm-eating Warbler. Overall at least 15 species of Warbler were found today. Chestnut-sided Warbler is going to be my bird-a-day.

May 1 - Nashville Warbler

Today I went with Bergen Audubon and NJ Meadowlands to Losen Sloat Park in Little Ferry. I helped locate some warblers for the group. Some got their first sightings of Blackburnian Warbler, my first in Bergen County. We also had Black-throated Green, Yellow-rumps, Black and white and Nashville. I'm using Nashville as my bird-a-day.