Officer, We Just Saw a Wolverine

Right, so the title of this post comes from an actual story,  but if you want to skip the rest just know this: if you saw it, and if you know you saw it, go ahead and report it and damn the torpedoes. Yes, of course, document, and get photos if you can (sometimes you cannot).  I recently posted a working breeding bird  list for New Jersey and people have been hitting me up like, where the hek was Bachman's sparrow? Where the hek are the Swainson’s warblers? Where the hek is the Merlin?

In the late 90’s or thereabouts I took my first trip to Colorado with my dear friends Dave Womer and Rex Miller. In theory we are three New Jersey boys, but in practice we are all three well travelled professional wildlife biologists and at least fairly good birders.

So we’re on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mount Nationsl Park and Rex says, and I quote,   (using the first amendment), “Holy shit that’s a fucking wolverine!“ And it was, unknown in Colorado at the time. It was during the transition from film to digital and I literally didn’t have any kind of camera at all on me and my friend Dave Womer had his but it was in the car and we’re watching this wolverine stalk across a cirque…

So that afternoon we stop in at the visitor center at Endovalley and report what we had seen and basically got totally laughed off.  I don’t blame the people, I mean we were from New Jersey right , so maybe we know how to fight (that will be another story for another time) but not how to identify a wolverine. But I did get annoyed when I said look, let’s  go to where we saw it, hike back in off the road, and photograph the track. They totally blew us off. Big mistake.

Because two years later a wolverine with a radio collar, from Wyoming , wandered into northern Colorado. It was happening, we saw a Wolverine and nobody believed us and to tell you the truth I’m still kind of aggravated about that.

Like I said at the start of this blog, I recently floated that that Merlin, Swainson’s Warbler, and Bachman’s Sparrow were either breeding in New Jersey or trying to. For concern of them being harassed, can't say exactly where.

A Working List of NJ Breeding Birds

New Jersey, New Jersey, US

Jun 1, 2020 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM

Protocol: Historical

Checklist Comments: Working list of New Jersey breeding bird species.

218 species (+10 other taxa)

Canada Goose 1

Mute Swan 1

Wood Duck 1

Blue-winged Teal 1

Northern Shoveler 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Gadwall 1

Northern Shoveler x Gadwall (hybrid) 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

American Wigeon 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Mallard 1

American Black Duck 1

Green-winged Teal 1

Hooded Merganser 1

Common Merganser 1

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Ruddy Duck 1

Northern Bobwhite 1

Ring-necked Pheasant 1

Ruffed Grouse 1

Wild Turkey 1

Pied-billed Grebe 1

Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 1

White-winged Dove 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Mourning Dove 1

Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1

Black-billed Cuckoo 1

Common Nighthawk 1

Chuck-will's-widow 1

Eastern Whip-poor-will 1

Chimney Swift 1

Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1

King Rail 1

Clapper Rail 1

Virginia Rail 1

Sora 1

Common Gallinule 1

American Coot 1

Yellow Rail 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Black Rail 1

Sandhill Crane 1

Common Crane 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Sandhill x Common Crane (hybrid) 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Black-necked Stilt 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

American Avocet 1

American Oystercatcher 1

Wilson's Plover 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Piping Plover 1

Killdeer 1

Upland Sandpiper 1

American Woodcock 1

Wilson's Snipe 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Spotted Sandpiper 1

Willet 1

Laughing Gull 1

Herring Gull 1

Great Black-backed Gull 1

Least Tern 1

Gull-billed Tern 1

Common Tern 1

Forster's Tern 1

Royal Tern 1

Sandwich Tern 1

Black Skimmer 1

Double-crested Cormorant 1

Brown Pelican 1

American Bittern 1

Least Bittern 1

Great Blue Heron 1

Great Egret 1

Snowy Egret 1

Little Blue Heron 1

Tricolored Heron 1

Cattle Egret 1

Green Heron 1

White Ibis 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Glossy Ibis 1

White-faced Ibis 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Black Vulture 1

Turkey Vulture 1

Osprey 1

Mississippi Kite 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Northern Harrier 1

Sharp-shinned Hawk 1

Cooper's Hawk 1

Northern Goshawk 1

Bald Eagle 1

Red-shouldered Hawk 1

Broad-winged Hawk 1

Red-tailed Hawk 1

Barn Owl 1

Eastern Screech-Owl 1

Great Horned Owl 1

Barred Owl 1

Long-eared Owl 1

Short-eared Owl 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Northern Saw-whet Owl 1

Belted Kingfisher 1

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1

Red-headed Woodpecker 1

Red-bellied Woodpecker 1

Downy Woodpecker 1

Hairy Woodpecker 1

Pileated Woodpecker 1

Northern Flicker 1

American Kestrel 1

Merlin 1 Second hand report of breeding.

Peregrine Falcon 1

Monk Parakeet 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Eastern Wood-Pewee 1

Acadian Flycatcher 1

Alder Flycatcher 1

Willow Flycatcher 1

Least Flycatcher 1

Eastern Phoebe 1

Great Crested Flycatcher 1

Eastern Kingbird 1

White-eyed Vireo 1

Yellow-throated Vireo 1

Blue-headed Vireo 1

Warbling Vireo 1

Red-eyed Vireo 1

Loggerhead Shrike 1 Extirpated?

Blue Jay 1

American Crow 1

Fish Crow 1

Common Raven 1

Carolina Chickadee 1

Black-capped Chickadee 1

Carolina x Black-capped Chickadee (hybrid) 1

Tufted Titmouse 1

Horned Lark 1

Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1

Purple Martin 1

Tree Swallow 1

Bank Swallow 1

Barn Swallow 1

Barn Swallow (American) 1

Cliff Swallow 1

Golden-crowned Kinglet 1

Red-breasted Nuthatch 1

White-breasted Nuthatch 1

Brown Creeper 1

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1

House Wren 1

Winter Wren 1

Sedge Wren 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Marsh Wren 1

Carolina Wren 1

European Starling 1

Gray Catbird 1

Brown Thrasher 1

Northern Mockingbird 1

Eastern Bluebird 1

Veery 1

Hermit Thrush 1

Wood Thrush 1

American Robin 1

Cedar Waxwing 1

House Sparrow 1

House Finch 1

Purple Finch 1

Red Crossbill 1 Exceedingly rare breeder. Flight years.

White-winged Crossbill 1 Exceedingly rare breeder. Flight years.

Pine Siskin 1 Exceedingly rare breeder. Flight years.

American Goldfinch 1

Grasshopper Sparrow 1

Chipping Sparrow 1

Field Sparrow 1

Dark-eyed Junco 1

White-throated Sparrow 1

Dark-eyed Junco x White-throated Sparrow (hybrid) 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Vesper Sparrow 1

Seaside Sparrow 1

Saltmarsh Sparrow 1

Savannah Sparrow 1

Henslow's Sparrow 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Song Sparrow 1

Swamp Sparrow 1

Eastern Towhee 1

Yellow-breasted Chat 1

Bobolink 1

Eastern Meadowlark 1

Orchard Oriole 1

Baltimore Oriole 1

Red-winged Blackbird 1

Brown-headed Cowbird 1

Common Grackle 1

Boat-tailed Grackle 1

Ovenbird 1

Worm-eating Warbler 1

Louisiana Waterthrush 1

Northern Waterthrush 1

Golden-winged Warbler 1

Blue-winged Warbler 1

Golden-winged x Blue-winged Warbler (hybrid) 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Brewster's Warbler (hybrid) 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Lawrence's Warbler (hybrid) 1 Exceedingly rare breeder.

Black-and-white Warbler 1

Prothonotary Warbler 1

Swainson's Warbler 1 Exceedingly rare breeder. Locations should be kept confidential to keep people from taping them.

Nashville Warbler 1

Mourning Warbler 1

Kentucky Warbler 1

Common Yellowthroat 1

Hooded Warbler 1

American Redstart 1

Cerulean Warbler 1

Northern Parula 1

Cerulean Warbler 1

Magnolia Warbler 1

Blackburnian Warbler 1

Yellow Warbler 1and 

Chestnut-sided Warbler 1

Black-throated Blue Warbler 1

Pine Warbler 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 Exceedingly rare breeder. Highlands.

Yellow-throated Warbler 1

Prairie Warbler 1

Black-throated Green Warbler 1

Canada Warbler 1

Summer Tanager 1

Scarlet Tanager 1

Northern Cardinal 1

Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1

Blue Grosbeak 1

Indigo Bunting 1

Painted Bunting 1 Apparently bred ocean county, no proof at hand.

Dickcissel 1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S70430052

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)