Sandy Hook 1/7--Common Goldeneyes

Shari has a new bike and with the warm winter temperatures we've been having, she wants to ride it as much as possible. Sandy Hook has a bike path running the length of the peninsula, so we loaded the bike on the new bike rack (note to self, be careful closing the trunk when the bike rack is mounted--we've both clobbered ourselves by not standing to the side when we close it) and headed up the Parkway. I act as her support team. She rides up and down the path & I bird an area, then zip up the road to meet her with her coat, her keys, her lunch.

My first stop today was the best stop: Spermaceti Cove. No wind happily, so I was able to scope out the water comfortably. My first American Black Ducks of the year (missed them at Cape May) were on the water in good number, along with Brant and lots of gulls. Mixed in with some Greater Scaup (round heads) was a duck I didn't at first recognize. Brown head, gray body...and a distinctly golden eye--I hadn't seen a Common Goldeneye in so long that I wasn't sure if I was seeing a hen or something else until I saw the drake and with the round white patch on its face (not crescent-shaped--too bad, that would have been a Barrow's).

Nothing different was at Horseshoe Cove and the Boy Scout Camp had nil. Meanwhile, Shari was scooting up and down the hook, having a grand old time. We stayed in touch via cell phone. I scoped the water from in front of the former SHBO and found more black ducks plus a nice flock of Red-breasted Mergansers and a few Long-tailed Ducks. At the ferry slip, amid a ton of starlings, were 2 Brown-headed Cowbirds.

K-lot was empty of birds, but from the hawkwatch I saw, briefly, a flock of Snow Buntings, a Northern Gannet loping along, and Shari found 6 cormorants sitting on a tower in the water. Razorbills were reported yesterday off the Fisherman's Beach but of course, they weren't there today, just some more Long-tails, another gannet flying very low and close in, a flock of scoters flying south and a loon. By this time Shari had biked 10 or 11 miles, I'd seen 26 species and the temperature was a ridiculous 64 degrees.
List:
Brant  55
Canada Goose  190
American Black Duck  115
Greater Scaup  5    Spermaceti Cove
Black Scoter  20    Off fisherman's Beach
Long-tailed Duck  9
Bufflehead  6    Spermaceti Cove
Common Goldeneye  2    Spermaceti Cove
Red-breasted Merganser  14
Red-throated Loon  2
Common Loon  1
Horned Grebe  2
Northern Gannet  2
Double-crested Cormorant  6
Turkey Vulture  8
Ring-billed Gull  200
Herring Gull  10
Great Black-backed Gull  20
Rock Pigeon  6
American Crow  4
European Starling  250
Cedar Waxwing  5
Snow Bunting  20
Yellow-rumped Warbler  3
Brown-headed Cowbird  2    Ferry Slip mixed in with starlings
House Sparrow  1    Ferry Slip mixed in with starlings