Registrar: Lisa Kroop
Participants: 15
Weather: 40°F – 57°F, sunny, no wind
Bird Species: 53
Mill Creek Marsh is a remediated wetlands habitat in the New Jersey Meadowlands that long ago was a freshwater swamp with stands of Atlantic white cedar. Today it is a brackish marsh, with vestiges of the Atlantic white cedar seen as stumps, particularly at low tide; a mixture of water pools and mud flats; and native vegetation growing in a landscape once dominated by phragmites. It is a prime birding location year-round with 228 species on the eBird Field Checklist.
We began our walk on the edges of the parking lot at the trailhead looking especially for sparrows; there were many in the grass, and in the trees we saw Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rumped Warblers. While we were surveying the scene, a Carolina Wren popped up close to us and perched in the open on a dead branch long enough for all to see.
The Mill Creek Marsh Trail passes through mud flats, impoundments, marshy areas and uplands. Among the highlights during our walk were a Sora that had emerged from the grasses and for an appreciable time stood along the water’s edge; a Northern Harrier that landed, and then perched facing us on the far shore of the North Tidal Pool, showing its facial disc and brown chest plumage; a late-in-the-season Indigo Bunting moving low in the underbrush and between the trees shading the path, amid the sounds of the NJ Turnpike; and an unexpected large group of Tree Sparrows actively feeding over the water.
This being October, sparrows were a focus of our walk. A few weeks earlier, at this very park, our leader had come upon a Brewer’s Sparrow – a first-time record for New Jersey – and he showed us the exact spot. While the Brewer’s had yet to be seen again, we did see many other sparrows including several White-crowned and numerous White-throated, Swamp and Song Sparrows.
A big thank you to Rick for a terrific walk and for sharing with us his knowledge and experiences of birding at Mill Creek Marsh.
Species Lists
Birds
Canada Goose
Northern Shoveler
Mallard
American Black Duck
Green-winged Teal
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Mourning Dove
Sora
Greater Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Double-crested Cormorant
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Belted Kingfisher
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Peregrine Falcon
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tree Swallow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Carolina Wren
European Starling
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
House Sparrow
House Finch
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Common Yellowthroat
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Butterflies
Cabbage White
