New Egypt, NJ 1/14--Northern Lapwings, Sandhill Cranes

Northern Lapwing
Photos: Shari Zirlin

There is a phenomenon in birding known as the "Patagonia Picnic Table Effect," that originated near  the Sonoita-Patagonia Refuge in Arizona, in which birders, while looking for one rare bird (originally a picnic table was the landmark), come up with another, even rarer species. We imported that effect to NJ today.

The last couple of days I'd seen reports of Sandhill Cranes on eBird in New Egypt, about a 20 minute drive from our house. Scott Barnes had seen them there on Saturday and yesterday, while on field trip with him, he told me that fields around there were muddy pasture and that he'd been looking carefully through the Killdeer flocks for a certain rarity. Yesterday, the cranes were reported again, so I suggested to Shari that during her lunch hour we drive over there and try for them. It's better than driving up to Somerset County, fruitlessly searching Randolph Road's corn stubble fields.

Twenty minutes away from our house looks a lot different. This is what we came upon. Driving along Inman Road toward its intersection with Big Woods Road, we stopped to check out what turned out to be an immature Bald Eagle sitting in a tall tree. The farm owner came by in his tractor and asked me if that bird was indeed an eagle and when I confirmed it he said, "Good, I like to keep track of my stock." I asked him about the Sandhill Cranes. He knew that they'd been there yesterday, but didn't know if they were today. He directed me to the fields we should check.

We drove along looking at the muddy fields, very impressed with the size of the horns on the bulls but coming up empty on the cranes. At one particularly muddy field Shari said she saw birds moving in the back. "Get out the scope." She spotted the birds and at first we were puzzled. Larks? I thought, maybe I haven't seen Horned Larks in winter plumage, but these don't look like larks. Meanwhile, Shari was making sweeping gestures over her head, indicating a crest, what's the bird with a crest? Remembering a sighting by Sam Galick from November not too far from where we were and Scott's admonition to check those Killdeer flocks, I looked up Northern Lapwing in Sibleys and the three birds in our scope were a dead on match! Northern Lapwing is a mega rarity in North America--it is a European plover. A few have been reported on the east coast the last few months (including one Sam saw in Mercer County briefly) and when you see one (or three) you better start getting the word out. Especially if you only have a lousy camera with you and after one shot its battery dies!

Shari sent an email message to Jerseybirds and really lit up the board. Within 20 minutes the birders started rolling in. Some had been in Monmouth County checking out the Pink-footed Goose that's up there. One couple was on their way to Pennsylvania after a somewhat disappointing trip to Cape May. The first birder to stop though hadn't seen her email. He was also looking for the cranes. When he asked what we had and we told him lapwings, he thought, he admitted later, that we didn't know what we were talking about. I would have probably thought the same. After about an hour the road was lined with cars and crazed birders.

Happily, Scott Barnes arrived. The bird was a lifer for him. (We saw lapwings on our honeymoon in France.) After about an hour I looked up and saw two Sandhill Cranes flying in. My first thought was, "Don't disturb the lapwings!" but fortunately they flew into the next field, where we were all able to get good looks at them. The only downside in the cranes, for me, was that they were sort of wasted for my Bird A Day list. But the farmer claims they're pretty steady visitors, so I'll have to go back, when the excitement over the lapwings dies down, and try for them again.

Other birds we picked up there, that would have been exciting on any other day, were three Black Vultures and an American Kestrel.

I saw the farmer on his tractor backing through a gate to pick up a trailer and walked down the road to speak to him. "Thanks for the cranes," I said, " and by the way, you have three really rare birds in your fields." He seemed only mildly interested in them, wondering what European birds found so appealing about his pasture. When I gently warned him that the next few days would probably see an influx of cars on the road, he shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't care. I hope he maintains that sang froid.

Sam Galick posted that this sighting was the fourth New Jersey record and the first record with multiple individuals, so it is quite a find for Shari. I'm lucky to have a wife who can spot birds in the back of a pasture, but we'd never have been in that field had it not be for the reports and advice of Sam, Scott and Gregory. If this were a game (this isn't a game?), they'd get assists.

The way I feel tonight is that I can stop birding now, because I'll never have a better day than today. I'll most likely feel differently tomorrow.

The list from this amazing day when Shari's lunch hour turned into a lunch afternoon:

13 Species
Snow Goose  50    f/o
Black Vulture  3
Turkey Vulture  3
Bald Eagle  1    In tree on Inman
Sandhill Crane  2    Large gray birds, long necks stretched straight in flight, unlike herons.. Definitely not GBHE. The reason we were searching field when we found lapwings. In field to east of field that had lapwings. flew in around 2:15, stayed in field for about an hour.
Northern Lapwing  3    Mega. 
Killdeer  10    Associating with lapwings.
Rock Pigeon  10
Mourning Dove  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Heard
American Kestrel  1
European Starling  50
Northern Cardinal  1    Heard