Sunday in Sussex

On Sunday morning I did a few hours of scouting in High Point and Stokes State Park, and man was it cold!

Beyond the frigid temperature, though, it was really nice to finally get out and check a few locations along our WSOB route (and yes, it did eventually warm up). I forget how beautiful it is in the northwest corner of the state, and right now at the end of winter, it's alive with the new sights and sounds of spring. Doing a little recon on my own I trekked around the Cat Swamp area looking for any signs of nesting raptors. I found none, but I did get to watch Tree Swallows foraging over fields of tussocks, and pairs of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers courting and chasing each other to and from various dead hemlocks. The sapsuckers would become the common theme through the morning, with their loud "waa" call and drumming being heard at almost every stop. It's great to see them in such high numbers during migration, but by the time the WSOB rolls around, we better have a pair staked out as they rarely breed in the state.

The strangest encounter of the day was definitely a dead porcupine at the base of a hemlock tree in Cat Swamp. Being from Florida, these creatures are totally "outside of my reality" (a phrase commonly used by the late and great Ted Stiles), and therefore I never expect to run into them. Once I saw it, thought, I immediately thought of our teammate Charlie Kontos, who studies carnivorous mammals in New Jersey. This carcas was pretty hefty, I'd say at least 15 lbs, and yet Charlie tells me that they're a delicacy for Fishers, his current research focus. I don't think this particular dead porcupine had anything to do with a Fisher, but man what a confrontation that would be!

Later in the morning I met up with fellow teamate Brian Clough and his better-half, Amy Manning, to do some more sleuthing for signs of spring fever in raptors. We encountered more Wood Ducks, both Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal, and several pockets of mixed passerines such as Golden-crowned (very common) and Ruby-crowned (less common) Kinglets, and some downright specky breeding plumaged Palm Warblers. At several stops we heard the distant high stacatto song of recently returned Pine Warblers. These encounters remind me that It won't be long now before the dawn chorus expands to include dozens of breeding birds. By the end of the day we found a single nest that looked promising but we could not confirm whether it was currently occupied. During the next week one of us will have to go back with a spotting scope... and maybe a camp chair and a thermos of coffee (it's a rough life, I know).