October 26 - Common Greenshank

I took the day off from work today to see if the Common Greenshank was still at "Brig", a/k/a the auto-loop of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.
The bird was first reported on Monday about mid-day but  I could not make the 2-hour drive at that time. On Tuesday it was a very stormy day and the bird was not reported. Yesterday, Wednesday, my friend Bill E. went down and was able to see the bird briefly and confirm that it had not left due to the storm.
So this morning I left the house at 5 am and made the trek down south.  The bird was located by others just before 9 am, and a group of 7 cars then caravaned over the the East Dike and saw the bird.
We had fairly close views of the bird including nice look at it's namesake legs, and later when the bird took flight we saw the white-stripe up it's back.

Here's a view of some of the hundreds of birders that came the following Saturday:

October 21 - Sparrowing and a surprise Wren

I went out today with friends Andy E. and Jennifer C. to the sparrow hotspot of Glenhurst Meadows that is located in New Jersey's Warren County.
We had a nice diversity of birds here but the volume was down.  The highlight was a Clay-colored Sparrow that we all had good looks at several times each. We also saw the local specialty, Red-Headed Woodpeckers, along the river at the back of the park.

Next we made a stop at Cold Brook Park out in Hunterdon County. Here we had several dozen American Pipits but only in flight, and 3 of the Vesper Sparrow.

We then traveled back home to Garret Mountain because our friend Bill E. had located a very uncommon Sedge Wren earlier in the day.  Luckily we all were able to hear & then see the Sedge Wren.