Just recently, migration has begun to heat up out of nowhere. In the past week or so, NJ has had two instances of fallout weather conditions, and species diversity is increasing daily. First Pine, then Yellow-throated, then Prairie, and now Palm Warblers and Louisiana Waterthrush--5 species of warbler have arrived and April just started! Migration heating up means my excitement heating up. This year, I'm going to try to get out as much as I can, as opposed to last year when I only did one trip to Garret Mountain. I hope to visit Garret at least once or twice, Celery Farm a couple times hopefully, and other migrant traps like Tenafly Nature Center. Fortunately, I have off on Fridays, which make for considerably smaller crowds of birders at the local traps and make finding birds easier.
Anyway, today I sort of scouted Van Saun Park, a couple miles away, to learn more about the birding situation there--I might bird there once or twice during migration. Being public school vacation, the park was thronged with people, and it was the afternoon, so today's birding wasn't so good--best bird was a female Hooded Merg and not much else. The park is definitely not a migrant trap, but there are some wooded areas and large trees that have potential to harbor migrant passerines. I located a small wooded stream that looks good for Northern Waterthrush, but other than that there are no unique woodland habitats in the park. It is unlikely the park will host a good variety of migrants unless there's a big fallout. Still, I hope to visit a couple times to see what I can find.
As most birders are, I'm in skywatch mode from now until June. After a Phoebe visited my yard last week, I'm under the impression that migrants pass over my house. Keep an eye out for those little feathered things!
Good birding!
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