Adrian Binns writes:

Hi Laurie,

Bert Filemyr and I just returned from a morning's birding round the Johnson Sod Farm. All we had of note were 2 BB Plovers, 2 Pectorals and a male Harrier.

We did come across the Cranes on Harmony Road, in 2 groups - one consisted of 2 adult Sandhills, both these birds had small amounts of brown markings on the wing, as well as a red crown and blackish forehead. One of these birds had a little more red on top, therefore less of a blackish forehead.

The other group consisted of 1 adult Sandhill, 1 juvenile Sandhill and 1 adult Common Crane. This adult Sandhill differed from the other 2 adults, as it had more extensive brown markings over the wings and breast. It also had a full red crown and forehead. The juvenile had a pale head. The Common Crane did not walk with any kind of limp! We saw all 5 birds flying together, sometimes splitting up into their respective groups, before getting back together as one group. We lost them as they flew north along the Cohansey.

Adrian

In response to a request for more detailed directions, Adrian wrote:

We first saw them in the cut corn field on the south side of Harmony Road (the east-west Harmony Road, that is called Walters Road in the NJ Atlas & Gazetteer P. 61 M26), just to the west of Seeley Road. Then they flew into a wet gully/depression just to the west of the house that is at the end of the corn field. We could only see them if we went about 150 yards beyond the house and over the rise in the road, to the big horse farm. From that vantage point we could get a view into the gully. They then flew off to the south east, over Seeley Road and basically circled over the fields, the Cohansey River and the large pond, i.e., all around P.61 N27 on the map.

After that, they headed north along the Cohansey and we lost sight of them. We drove in that direction and found 2 circling and coming in to land at Bostwick Lake, which is along the Alloway-Friesburg Rd , P.61 L26. The lake did not seem to have much water in it, and since they were out of view, and we felt we did pretty well, we called it a day!

A suggestion: Since the New Jersey Atlas & Gazetteer is current, detailed, very good, an easy to use/handle map-book and readily available to everyone, it may be an idea when listing bird reports to add the page and grid coordinates to make it easy for people to locate the site!