Budd Lake

(Click on the photo for a larger image.)

The Osprey at Budd Lake may have wondered what a water skier was doing out and about at 7:00 AM on a crisp Saturday morning in April. The Ruddy Ducks certainly didn’t know where to go. As soon as they settled in one location on the lake, the water skier disrupted them again and off they flew to another part of the lake. Back and forth they went during the time this observer was present.

The Red-throated Loon found by Alan Boyd on April 14th was not found today.

There is a small Purple Martin colony off of Sand Shore Road opposite N. Mt. Olive Rd. The house may not be as pretty as the faux gourd setups at national wildlife refuges and elsewhere, but it works.

Vesper Sparrow at Allamuchy Mountain State Park

No attempt is made here to define the boundaries of fragmented Allamuchy Mountain State Park and Stephens State Park as both parks are located in the Waterloo Valley Road area of Mt. Olive Township.

Birders refer to the current area of interest as Tilcon Lake or Tilcon Pond which fits within the park map for Allamuchy S.P. The Vesper Sparrow found this morning was with Chipping, Song and Savannah Sparrows at the end of the gravel at Sauantino Field. This is the remote control airplane field opposite Tilcon Lake. In recent years, American Pipits and Horned Larks have been found here in the appropriate season.

Other Bird Notes

4 Bonaparte’s Gulls continue at Lake Hopatcong. Only one Common Loon was found. Boats are a-plenty on the water.

In keeping with the Purple Martin thread, there apparently is a colony in the Nolans Point, Lake Hopatcong area by the Jefferson House restaurant as 5+ were seen there today and have been seen at other times as well. The area near Barnes Bros. Marina by the Mt. Arlington municipal beach may also have a colony as Purple Martins were seen here today as well in recent past years.

Common Loons continue to be found on Morris Lakes albeit in smaller numbers compared with the spring of 2015. 4 were at Lake Parsippany April 15; 2 were at Boonton Reservoir along with a Horned Grebe on April 15.

On April 15, the first two Black-crowned Night-Herons in Somerset County for 2016 are reported from their usual haunt at the North Plainfield side of Green Brook Park (Walter Blenderman).

Cornell Laboratory’s Bird Cast Regional Forecast for the Upper Midwest and Northeast, April 15-22 can be found here.

Analysis of the previous week, April 8-15, 2016, is here.

Bird migration activity is building and the number of birders submitting checklists to eBird is growing. To get a more complete picture of what people are reporting, view local checklists in the mocosocoBirds region via eBird’s Region Explorer. Use the following links:

The eBird Hotspot Primer is here and can also be accessed via the Hotspot menu item on the mocosocoBirds.com website.

@mocosocoBirds at Twitter is another communications stream. Instant field reports and links of interest are tweeted throughout the day. The latest tweets appear on the sidebar of this page. One can follow mocosocoBirds at Twitter or link to @mocosocoBirds.

The mocosocoBirds Facebook page is located here and also posts timely information not found on the mocosocoBirds web site.

Finis