Saturday, September 10, 2011

Island Beach SP / Cattus Island County Park 9/10

I've been building up the Ocean County list for the last month or so. Today I logged my 100th bird for the county, Hairy Woodpecker, at Cattus Island County Park. Four new county birds altogether for the day.

I've been very impressed with the county park system here--lots of them and in varied habitat. Cattus Island looks very promising for bay ducks and geese in winter and I imagine a lot of passerines could be found in the wooded sections.

We also birded Island Beach State Park this morning. We haven't been there in 6 or 7 years. It has both bay and ocean habitats. We found Sanderlings & one Semipalmated Plover on the beach along with all 4 common gulls. We tried to bird the bay side but the mosquitoes were ferocious--haven't had swarms like that since we were in the Camargue in France. It didn't help that our can of Off gave out before we could thoroughly protect ourselves, though how effective it would have been with those monsters is an open question. Still, we managed to catch a Tricolored Heron flying over the marsh.  Before we went to Cattus Island we stopped at a drug store and bought more Off and some anti-itch cream. Happily, there were no bugs at the county park.

Island Beach SP
21 species
Double-crested Cormorant  50
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  4
Tricolored Heron  1
Osprey  4
Semipalmated Plover  1
Sanderling  13
Laughing Gull  10
Ring-billed Gull  2
Herring Gull  20
Great Black-backed Gull  25
Mourning Dove  3
Belted Kingfisher  1
American Crow  2
Gray Catbird  10
Northern Mockingbird  1
European Starling  1
Eastern Towhee  1
Red-winged Blackbird  3
House Finch  5
American Goldfinch  1

Cattus Island County Park
15 species
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  2
Osprey  2
Herring Gull  2
Mourning Dove  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Carolina Chickadee  10
Gray Catbird  10
Common Yellowthroat  1
Yellow Warbler  1
Palm Warbler  2
Eastern Towhee  1    Feeders
Northern Cardinal  2    Feeders

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