Like a champagne supernova in the sky the whinny of the Sora Rail pierced the calm night air. It was midnight on Saturday 12 May 2007 and team 1000birds.com had begun the 24 hour birdrace that was the World Series of Birding 2007 . We were at the Great Swamp west of Newark airport in northern New Jersey (NJ), though it could have been half a world away from the bright lights of nearby New York. Nick, Art, Bob, Corey and myself comprised the team - a collection of birders from PA, NJ and the UK. We were taking part in the Full Monty of WSB – birding the entire state of New Jersey from midnight to midnight. Our aim was to see as many species of bird as possible, and in so doing raise lots of money for conservation. This was the 24th annual WSB - 2nd for 1000birds.com, but my first. I was very proud to be part of the team.
So we were at the Great Swamp, a long with quite a few other carloads of competitors jockeying for position to hear the next species. Virginia Rails call, Marsh Wrens drown them out, an American Woodcock spits into life. Around a couple of hours or so later we leave and head west towards Vesper Hill a famous hill in birding terms in the Wantage Grasslands that would get us grassland species. First light on top of the hill and Grasshopper Sparrows call but we couldn’t pick out a Vesper Sparrow. From here we could see High Point State Park to the west, the highest point in NJ, an area we would spend the net few hours. In the meantime the sun rise around 5am brought us to life and walking back down Vesper Hill we were greeted by Eastern Phoebes calling their name and a few other commoner species including Mourning Dove, American Robin and Kildeer were added to our list as well.
High Point State Park and its surrounds including Culvers Lake to the south west. Wow! Warbler central! Bay-breasted, Cerulean (OK this one frustrated me), Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Greens. Ruffed Grouse drumming, Least Flycatcher chipping and the distinct call of the immaculate Yellow-throated Vireo greeted us. Pileated, Downy and Hairy Peckers were heard only but we had an excellent flyby of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. A Woodpecker with a funny name. We got some good raptors here, Bald Eagle, Broad-winged and Red-shouldered Hawks. Belted Kingfisher (yes the species that I drove all the way from London to miss in Scotland in April 2005!) showed well. The cracking Louisiana Waterthrush held territory, looking very much like a beefed-up Northern Waterthrush. This was one of 18 new birds for me seen in 10 days across the pond. Ravens and (Winter) Wrens eluded us but this place was alive early in the morning, finding birds was as easy as finding haystacks in a bunch of needles. Culvers Lake held a pair of Lesser Scaup (my first ever in the USA, have actually seen more in the UK!), and a group of lakeside Warblers included an immaculate male Black-throated Blue. Nearby a Barred Owl called.
We needed to get to the Pennsylvania/New Jersey boundary by 10:30. Our stops on the way to the border saw us, with other teams in a Benny Hill chase style, log a few staked out birds. Highlights included a Golden-winged Warbler (singing like a Blue-winged Warbler), Cliff Swallow (fortunately en route we recognised a Depot with a big barn and this proved to be the site we were unsure of the location of), Northern Rough-winged Swallow and Goosander (Common Merganser) on the Delaware River. There may have been a few birds that we missed out on so far in the day, but the quality was good and we kept on adding new species to the list. Good quality birds included Black-capped Chickadee (remember the north south NJ divide!), White-breasted Nuthatch, Purple Finch, Bald Eagle, the Belted Kingfisher and a distant singing Hermit Thrush.
So over to Pennsylvania we went closing in on 100 species for the day, we shot down on the freeways (via a Service Station stop) to rejoin New Jersey at the Commodore Barry Bridge to the South west of Philadelphia, leading over to Gloucester County, NJ. In Pennsylvania we couldn’t count any birds seen - chance for a kip in the car! On entering NJ we headed east checking out a few hot-spots and connecting with good quality birds such as Northern Harrier, Snow Geese, Bobolink, Eastern Meadowlark and Bluebird. This area was agricultural land, looks like the other side of Donny back home!
We continued heading east and visited Heislerville Impoundments on the Delaware Bayshore for a shorebird spectacular, travelling via the Dividing Creek area. At the latter we caught up with a speciality that was Summer Tanager and at the Impoundment twitched the Curlew Sandpiper, also logging commoner shorebirds such as Semi-palmated Sandpipers and Plovers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Dunlin (the big and brightly coloured hudsonia race), Grey (Black-bellied) Plovers, Ring-billed Gull, Ruddy Ducks and Red-breasted Merganser. Next to Cape May County but time was against us – what do we go for?
Cape May County. The Cape May Bird Observatory Centre at Goshen yielded Carolina Chickadee and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Nearby Beaver Swamp saw us log Gull-billed Tern, but no White-faced Ibis. We then drive to the east coast area - Nummys Island overlooking the inshore side of Stone Harbour. Highlights include Whimbrel, American Oystercatchers, and staked out Great Northern Divers (Common Loon) and (the rather late) Long-tailed Duck. A drive down to Cape May State Park and a walk along the beach saw us net Red-throated Diver (Loon), Least Tern, Sand Martin (Bank Swallow) and Piping Plover. The beautiful and endangered Plover was our last and 156th bird of the trip, as a jaunt up to Jakes Landing Road on the Delaware Bayshore provided us with nothing further. This was disappointing but the lightning storms to the north lit up the sky. We were tired and the weather was closing in, so we headed back into Cape May City at 10pm to the finishing line, just as the heavens opened.
We had done it, a brilliant day, and we had 156 species in the bag (not literally). Chicken Wings and potatoes warmed us up at the finishing line reception, and National Geographic took a photo of our ugly mugs. But, it was not all over. The following morning, 9am saw the finale in which competitors were invited to the Awards Brunch. The Yanks know how to do breakfasts!!! Pete Dunne, a founding father of WSB and a local legend, led proceedings. This was true Americana. Awards were given, stories swapped and photos taken. This was the birding Oscars. It was brilliant, some great speeches with excellent accounts of the day. Some teams even came across Brown Bears in the north, and in the south at Cape May, a spectacular fallout of migrants occurred leading to day records being broken! Wow. To me the most important information was of the conservation success stories resulting from the work of NJ Audubon and the impact that the sponsorship from the WSB birdraces has brought into saving flora and fauna in this state. I like the idea of an Awards brunch, it gives you a chance to savour the day. A big thank you to everyone who helped me raise money through sponsorship of this event. As you may know I’ve been to NJ many times, and from the attitude to conservation over there, our sponsorship money will certainly be put to a good cause both in New Jersey and neighbouring Pennsylvania.
I had a brilliant time and enjoyed being part of team 1000birds.com, meeting new birders who share the same passion. It was great to see a variety of habitats, and to visit new birding areas. A big thank you to all for their efforts in making the day a success, and especially to Team captain Nick for the organisation and superb effort in driving during the race. Next year lads lets do it again! Bring it on!
Final word. Please take a look at the Captains report to be found at 1000birds.com . Here you will find some photos from the bird race and our route is highlighted on a map of New Jersey.
If you are interested to take part in, or find out more about next years event, click the link given at the start of this report.
Jonathan Wasse (Herts, UK 03/07/07)