{"id":12346,"date":"2020-02-27T11:27:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T16:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/?p=12346"},"modified":"2021-01-29T11:37:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T16:37:31","slug":"assunpink-wma-february-26-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/assunpink-wma-february-26-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Assunpink WMA – February 26, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Assunpink WMA – February 26, 2020<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Common Mergansers<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Hooded Merganser<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ring-necked Duck<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A group of Lumberton birders made an impromptu trip to Assunpink Wildlife Management area on Wednesday 2\/26. A new destination for many of us, this is a fairly direct ride up the Turnpike then east to the Imlaystown exit on I-195. Threatened rain did not materialize and it was a calm and mild, if cloudy, day.<\/p>

A pair of Trumpeter Swans has spent several recent winters on the big lake here, and returned this year. This species has been re-introduced to the eastern part of the continent; they are larger than Mute or Tundra swans, with massive black bills. We found them immediately, and although too far away to photograph, their size and shape made them obvious. A young Bald Eagle was perched on a snag near our observation point; groups of beautiful Ring-necked Ducks and Common Mergansers were scattered around the lake. At another vantange we found an even younger eagle, Ruddy Ducks, American Wigeons, a Wood Duck, and Black Ducks, as well as a muskrat at its nest.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Bald Eagle<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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There are two other lakes on the tract and we visited all three, but the other two were not very productive. However, we encountered huge flocks of Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds feeding in the fields, which seemed to shimmer as they rose and flew all together. For lunch we went to Woody\u2019s Cafe in Allentown, which offers good hearty fare. On the way home we enjoyed a flock of Hooded Mergansers at Mercer Corporate Park, five migrant Kestrels at the Burlington County fairground, and thousands of Snow Geese on a farm on Rt. 537 nearby. We resolved to return to Assunpink in the summer, when it\u2019s good for butterflies and dragonflies as well as nesting birds.<\/p>

Participants:<\/strong>
Robert Koch, Ethel Cebra, Holly Hoffman, Jean and Chris Tindall, Suzan Prieskat and Mike DeLozier, Laurie Larson.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Bird list:<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Trumpeter Swan
Wood Duck
American Wigeon
Mallard
American Black Duck
Ring-necked Duck
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Wild Turkey
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Ring-billed Gull
Herring gull
Great Blue Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Am. Kestrel
Blue Jay
Am. Crow
Tufted Titmouse
Winter Wren
Carolina Wren
American Robin
European Starling
House Sparrow
House Finch
Field Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Com. Grackle<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Common Mergansers<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Common Mergansers<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pair of Trumpeter Swans has spent several recent winters on the big lake here, and returned this year. Although too far away to photograph, their size and shape made them obvious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-field-trips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12346"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13324,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12346\/revisions\/13324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}