Yesterday I woke up early and headed off for Jersey. First stop: Heislerville WMA. My buddy, Rob Fanning, and I were meeting up to try to find the Curlew Sandpiper in the morning, with a scheduled Black Rail vigil at night.

I arrived before Rob so poked around the impoundment. There were tons of Semipalmated Sandpipers, Dunlins, Short-billed Dowitcher, and a couple Red Knots. I made my way down to the other end and figured I’d hang out there waiting for Rob. Soon he called and was lost in the backroads, so I told him to hang tight while I came to where he was and to lead him to Heislerville. I found him and took him back to the front part of the impoundment I had started at. I figured the high tide was just about upon us and all the other birders were down at the other end. We pulled out our scopes and begun working the crowd. Shortly thereafter I saw a bird I didn’t recognize. I got Rob on the bird and, sure enough, it was a female Curlew Sandpiper! It wasn’t particularly far, but not close enough for great photos. I drove down to the other side to let everyone know we had the Curlew Sand and a group of about a dozen birders made their way up to view the bird.

We watched the Curlew Sandpiper for 20 minutes or so and decided to move on to Belleplain. Belleplain was hopping with activity. Some, however, we only heard. We heard 2 Kentucky Warblers but couldn’t get a view of them. We did see a Summer Tanager, Acadian Flycatcher, White-eyed Vireo, Prothonotary Warbler, and some more.

We did some popping around, but beach traffic was hell. So finally we ended up at Tom Reed’s house for him to take us out for a Black Rail. But first we made a quick jot to the end of Reed’s Beach to see some of the tons of Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, etc. that were there. And a second quick stop was made at some cemetery where we heard Chuck-wills-widow.

Finally, at Jakes Landing we stood and waited in the dark. It was a windy night, which was killing us from hearing things. It was cold, windy, and generally miserable. We listened. And we listened. Then we thought we might have heard one to our right. While we were focusing that way, one called from across the creek. Just once. I heard it and Tom heard it, but Rob didn’t. And it’s the only known breeder in New Jersey that he’s never had!! We tried one other spot for hopefully a better listen, but nothing. We crashed at Tom’s house and I slept like a baby.

We were up and out this morning decently early. We hit the back end of the Meadows where there is some mudflat/pondy area hoping for Phalarope, but no dice. We hit Higbee where we got awesome looks at a Yellow-breasted Chat and Blue Grosbeaks.

Back at the meadows we had some action. At first it didn’t seem like there was much for us. But as we were walking I saw a Least Bittern put down quick in some reeds. As I was looking back at Rob to tell him about it (he didn’t see it) I saw a big white bird put down. I would have passed it off as a Snowy Egret, but it had dark markings on it’s wings. We swung back and it was an immature Little Blue Heron in molt. And as we’re watching that a Tri-colored Heron made itself known.

We ended our birding at Brigantine where I picked up Whimbrel and Gull-billed Tern for my year. Other than those, it was pretty uneventful and windy.