February Review

The beach at Barnegat Light SP

February was not nearly as dramatic as January. No life birds, no new visitors from another continent. There were a lot of ducks and a few shorebirds, the best being American Woodcock found in the seemingly unlikely suburban environs of Horicon Lake--though I do have a report of timberdoodles not far from here near the Crestwood Village Community Gardens. One of these dusks Shari & I will have to get over there to see if we can catch an aerial display.

Red-breasted Merganser, Long-tailed Ducks, Barnegat Light SP

I'm doing all right in my Bird A Day contest, but I've already had to use up some "easy" birds like Rock Pigeon, House Finch, and Carolina Wren. Starting the contest in winter complicates the strategy, because, while you want to list the winter ducks, geese and swans before they migrate, you don't want to use them all have and have nothing left over for the cold months at the end of the year. For instance, I'd like to keep Brant for the end of the year--it's an easy get--but I don't know if I'll find enough birds through the Spring to do it. Brant hang around through June and it might get tempting. I'm hoping for an early migration in March, not only for B.A.D. purposes but to relieve the winter monotony of chickadees, titmice and nuthatches.

For the month I saw/heard 90 species--10% below my arbitrary target of 100--but hey, I only had 28 days. 13 First of Year birds--4 ducks, 3 shorebirds, a woodpecker, a comorant, a couple of sparrows, a crow and a thrush.
The month list:

Species        Location

Brant       Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Canada Goose        Crestwood Village

Mute Swan        Cattus Island County Park

Tundra Swan        Colliers Mills WMA

Gadwall        Marshall Pond

American Wigeon        Marshall Pond

American Black Duck        Horicon Lake

Mallard        Crestwood Village

Northern Shoveler        Barnegat Beach

Northern Pintail        Cedar Run Dock Rd.

Green-winged Teal        Mercer Corporate Park

Canvasback        Riverfront Landing

Ring-necked Duck        Horicon Lake

Greater Scaup        Riverfront Landing

Lesser Scaup        Riverfront Landing

Common Eider        Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Harlequin Duck        Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Surf Scoter        Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Long-tailed Duck        Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Bufflehead        Riverfront Landing

Hooded Merganser        Horicon Lake

Common Merganser        Conines Millpond

Red-breasted Merganser       Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Ruddy Duck        Riverfront Landing

Wild Turkey        Crestwood Village

Red-throated Loon        Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Common Loon        Barnegat Beach

Pied-billed Grebe        Horicon Lake

Horned Grebe        Cedar Run Dock Rd.

Double-crested Cormorant        Riverfront Landing

Great Cormorant        Cattus Island County Park

Great Blue Heron       Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Black Vulture        Crestwood Village

Turkey Vulture        35 Sunset Rd

Northern Harrier        Brynmore / Big Woods Rd. fields

Cooper's Hawk        Riverfront Landing

Bald Eagle       Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Red-shouldered Hawk        Horicon Lake

Red-tailed Hawk        Stafford Forge WMA

American Coot        Marshall Pond

Sandhill Crane        Brynmore / Big Woods Rd. fields

êNorthern Lapwing        Brynmore / Big Woods Rd. fields

Killdeer        Brynmore / Big Woods Rd. fields

American Oystercatcher        Bayview Marina

Greater Yellowlegs        Stafford Forge WMA

Sanderling        Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Purple Sandpiper        Barnegat Lighthouse SP

American Woodcock        Horicon Lake

Ring-billed Gull        Crestwood Village

Herring Gull        Horicon Lake

Great Black-backed Gull        Horicon Lake

Rock Pigeon        Brynmore / Big Woods Rd. fields

Mourning Dove        35 Sunset Rd

Belted Kingfisher       Eno's Pond

Red-bellied Woodpecker        35 Sunset Rd

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker        Heritage Park, Allentown

Downy Woodpecker        Crestwood Village

Hairy Woodpecker        35 Sunset Rd

Northern Flicker        Horicon Lake

Merlin        Mercer Corporate Park

Blue Jay        35 Sunset Rd

American Crow        Crestwood Village

Fish Crow        Heritage Park, Allentown

Carolina Chickadee        35 Sunset Rd

Tufted Titmouse        35 Sunset Rd

Red-breasted Nuthatch        Crestwood Village

White-breasted Nuthatch        35 Sunset Rd

Brown Creeper        Crestwood Village

Winter Wren        Horicon Lake

Carolina Wren        Crestwood Village

Golden-crowned Kinglet        Heritage Park, Allentown

Eastern Bluebird        Crestwood Village

Hermit Thrush        Crestwood Village

American Robin        35 Sunset Rd

Northern Mockingbird        Crestwood Village

European Starling        Crestwood Village

Yellow-rumped Warbler       Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Savannah Sparrow        Stafford Forge WMA

Fox Sparrow        Stafford Forge WMA

Song Sparrow        Crestwood Village

White-throated Sparrow        35 Sunset Rd

White-crowned Sparrow        Brynmore / Big Woods Rd. fields

Dark-eyed Junco        35 Sunset Rd

Northern Cardinal        35 Sunset Rd

Red-winged Blackbird        Brynmore / Big Woods Rd. fields

Common Grackle        Brynmore / Big Woods Rd. fields

Boat-tailed Grackle       Great Bay Bvld. WMA

House Finch        Crestwood Village

American Goldfinch        35 Sunset Rd

House Sparrow        Horicon Lake

Gadwall, Toms River

Barnegat Light SP 2/24--Surf Scoter, Purple Sandpiper

Almost a Spring-like day at the beach. With Shari spending the weekend in NYC, I took the opportunity to go to Barnegat Light SP--site of the dreaded jetty. I lucked out--I didn't have to rock hop to see the Harlequin Ducks--there were four right at the end of the concrete walkway.  One of the first ducks I saw today an FOY that I used for BAD (Bird-a-Day), a hen Surf Scoter very far up the inlet, near the lighthouse, an unusual spot for scoters which tend to be out closer to the waves. And it was the only scoter I saw there. I guess it's getting late in the winter (yippee) and the winter ducks are moving north.  The duck with largest numbers was Long-tailed Duck, followed by Red-breasted Merganser. There were a few Common Eiders out in the ocean.

Surf Scoter (hen)

Another interesting sign that we're late in the winter game (again, yippee), is that the gull population on Long Beach Island seems to have suddenly transitioned from Ring-bill Gulls to Herring Gulls. I saw well over a thousand Herring Gulls, nary a one of Ring Bill.
                                                                                       

I walked along the beach to the ocean, occasionally peering over the jetty to see if any interesting ducks or loons were on the other side. Another birder told me that Purple Sandpipers were at the end of the jetty, but you had to find them from the beach because the surf was crashing over the rocks there. I looked for a long time before I finally found a few in the crevices of the boulders--not very satisfying looks, but then one sandpiper flew right in front of me and by stepping up onto a rock I got the "field guide" look at it.

Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich)

That birder also alerted me to the presence of a an Ipswich Sparrow which is a subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow.  I don't usually get too excited about subspecies, but the Ipswich variety is a pale copy of the nominate form. But I didn't see it going out. Coming back, another birder mentioned the Ipswich, so now I decided to really look for it--because they're so pale they blend in very well with the sand and light colored rocks. However, I did finally see it and was even able to photograph it.

Long-tailed Ducks

After 3 1/2 hours walking the beach, the walkways, the forest trail, and occasionally jumping up onto the jetty, I left to have a look at the bay side of the Island. At the Bayview Marina I found a couple of American Oystercatchers, so the day was pretty much complete in terms of favorite birds.

My last stop of the day was Double Trouble SP. Since I had the scope with me I thought I'd take a look at the lake--I always have the feeling I'm missing something when I scan it with just binoculars. I was also hoping the Tundra Swans were still there; they weren't, but I did turn up some distant ducks (Bufflehead, Ring-neck, and hen Hooded Mergansers) as well as a Pied-bill Grebe. Probably would not have seen any of them with just my bins.

Sanderlings

For the day I had 38 species with 2 FOY, got my Ocean County year last up to 96 birds to vault into first place in the county listings and got a taste of what its like to bird without wearing gloves.

Brant    50

Canada Goose    212

Mallard    8

Ring-necked Duck    35

Lesser Scaup    2

Common Eider    5

Harlequin Duck    4

Surf Scoter    1

Long-tailed Duck    154

Bufflehead    1

Hooded Merganser    6

Red-breasted Merganser    26

Red-throated Loon    1

Common Loon    26

Pied-billed Grebe    1

Great Cormorant    4

Turkey Vulture    1

American Oystercatcher    2

Sanderling    2

Purple Sandpiper    4

Herring Gull    1550

Great Black-backed Gull    110

Rock Pigeon    29

Mourning Dove    2

Belted Kingfisher    1

American Crow    10

Carolina Chickadee    2

Tufted Titmouse    5

White-breasted Nuthatch    3

Carolina Wren    1

Golden-crowned Kinglet    1

Northern Mockingbird    2

European Starling    10

Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich)   1

Song Sparrow    2

Northern Cardinal    5

Red-winged Blackbird    3

House Sparrow    20

Brants

Horicon Lake 2/22--American Woodcock

I have on my calendar a list of places I took from Howard Boyd's A Pine Barrens Odyssey where in early March we should check for woodcock courtship displays--Whitesbog, Atison, Medford. I guess we have to add Horicon Lake, much closer to home, to that list, because today I found an American Woodcock in among the tangles across the road from the lake. A couple of days ago in the same spot I flushed a bird and my first reaction was snipe, but it disappeared into the underbrush. Today I was lucky enough to come upon the bird and not scare it--I saw its big eye, the cryptic coloration, the long beak as it inched slowly away from me, walking under a bush and vanishing. Despite looking for 20 minutes, I never saw the bird again. If you look at where it hid, it isn't hard to see why I had no luck:

The last woodcock I saw was in Prospect Park about 2 1/2 years ago--I flushed that one on a hill--not a very satisfactory look. Before that we stopped one early evening in Cape May at the Beanery and watched 3 woodcocks go through their whirling, "peenting" courtship aerial dance. So I'm excited to have finally found one so close to home.

Earlier in the day--much earlier, Shari had to make a 6:45 bus to NY so I was looking at ducks as the sun came up--I stopped at Riverfront Landing. The usual ducks were floating among the piers, but I never get tired of looking at Canvasbacks.

After 15 minutes there I drove over to Double Trouble State Park to take my morning walk. The big surprise there was finding a couple of flocks of Tundra Swans on the bogs and on the lakes. I saw my first Ocean County Tundra Swans on Sunday at Colliers Mills WMA. There's no essential difference between the bogs at Double Trouble and the bogs at Whitesbog, yet Whitesbog is the "go to" hot spot for Tundra Swans in this area. Curious.

For the day, at the 3 sites, I had 25 species:

Canada Goose    175

Tundra Swan    30

Mallard    28

Canvasback    40

Ring-necked Duck    30

Greater Scaup    2

Lesser Scaup    15

Bufflehead    6

Hooded Merganser    5

Ruddy Duck    11

Pied-billed Grebe    1

American Woodcock    1

Ring-billed Gull    20

Rock Pigeon    1

Mourning Dove    1

Red-bellied Woodpecker    1

Hairy Woodpecker    2

American Crow    1

Tufted Titmouse    2

Carolina Wren    1

Song Sparrow    1

White-throated Sparrow    4

Dark-eyed Junco    20

Northern Cardinal    1

House Sparrow    15

Cattus Island 2/16--Great Cormorant

I was walking along the path at Cattus Island County Park this morning around 10, out past the woods where it opens up again to salt marsh and wondered if I could find any object not colored gray or brown. It was that bleak a morning. The best I could do was a white object, an incongruous one, in the middle of the marsh.

Mail Box in the Marsh

Who gets their mail out there I can't imagine.

I thought Cattus Island would be a good place to tick off Ruddy Duck for my Bird A Day contest/obsession, and I did find 5 of these winter ducks, but I'll hold off using them, because out in the bay, after I had walked out to the end of park's peninsula, I found a cormorant with an extreme amount of white on it's face, making it a Great Cormorant, another winter visitor to these parts, unlike the year-round double-crested. I hardly ever find these big birds--the most usual place is to see them from the jetty at Barnegat Light roosting on a tower in the inlet. I still have at least a month before the ruddies will be gone.

Other than that sighting, everything else was pretty common. Most passerines were in hiding. I suppose not having feeders because the Nature Center is closed due to Sandy damage has cut down on the bird diversity in the park. The sparse list for the day's  2 1/2 hour walk:

Even the greens are gray

15 species
Canada Goose  6
Mute Swan  3
American Black Duck  9
Bufflehead  50
Red-breasted Merganser  3
Ruddy Duck  5
Great Cormorant  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Ring-billed Gull  10
Herring Gull  2
Great Black-backed Gull  2
Downy Woodpecker  4
American Crow  1    Heard
Carolina Chickadee  4
Tufted Titmouse  3

Allentown 2/12--Green-winged Teal, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Fish Crow

The forecast for the day was pretty good, so after dropping Shari off at the Toms River bus station for her weekly trip to Hell (the office in NYC), I drove over to Riverfront Landing hoping once again to find a Redhead. And for the fourth and fifth time this year had no luck. I saw all the other four Athya species you'd expect: Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, Greater & Lesser Scaup, but the Redhead continues to elude me.

My plan today was to scout out a new spot in Allentown in Monmouth County--Heritage Park. Shari & I had seen the entrance to the park a few times but we never investigated. Another birder had recently seen a Baltimore Oriole nearby at the mill pond; during an email correspondence she mentioned that the park was a great place to bird when the paths were clear of snow. The park reminded me a lot of Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Trails along the stream that comes out of the pond gave the illusion of isolation, as you get in places in Prospect Park, but walk a hundred yards up a trail and you come to an expansive lawn, very reminiscent of the great lawn in Brooklyn.

I started out on one of the trails alongside the creek. It was muddy and in a few places pretty slippery, but generally a pleasant walk. I wasn't in the park five minutes before I saw my first Yellow-bellied Sapsucker of the year, so already the excursion was a success. I found a lot of the usual winter birds in there, including a dandy little Golden-crowned Kinglet. While I was in the woods I thought I heard the hoarse call of a Fish Crow, but with all the gulls around I couldn't be sure. I walked out of the woods onto the lawn and there, in some bare trees across the way, was a small flock of about 10 crows. Good to finally see them this year.

Before I went into the park I stopped at the mill pond to scan the impressive large flock of geese for anything unusual. The best I came up with were 8 Northern Pintails. The oriole wasn't around the mill pond or in the park that I could find; I didn't really expect to.

A small part of the flock

Another nearby spot is the Mercer Corporate Center in Robbinsville (for an inexplicable reason, eBird lists it in Allentown, which is not even the right county). This is the site where the first Northern Lapwing was briefly seen by Sam Galick back in November after the first big snowstorm, and also the site where a Barnacle Goose was hanging out in December, so it's always worth checking. There weren't nearly as many geese there as in Allentown, but there were a good number of American Coots, Gadwalls, Ring-necked Ducks and one handsome drake Green-winged Teal (FOY). A Merlin swooped by.

I drove back to Allentown, had lunch at my new favorite diner (Woody's on Main Street), checked the mill pond again, then on the way home, I couldn't resist stopping in New Egypt to see the Northern Lapwings which have hung in there through frozen fields, snow storms, and birds of prey for nearly a month. Another month and their breeding season begins; that should be interesting. All 3 were hanging out near a mud puddle in the back of the cattle field. Good scope views, but I don't have the camera to take decent pictures of them.

For my wanderings in 3 counties I had 40 species on the day:

Locations:   Allentown—Conine’s Millpond; Robbinsville--Mercer Corporate Park; Allentown--Heritage Park; New Egypt--Brynmore / Big Woods Rd. fields; Riverfront Landing 

Canada Goose     1285

Gadwall     9

Northern Pintail     8

Green-winged Teal     1

Canvasback     43

Ring-necked Duck     37

Greater Scaup     2

Lesser Scaup     11

Bufflehead     15

Turkey Vulture     2

Bald Eagle     1

Red-tailed Hawk     1

American Coot     14

êNorthern Lapwing     3

Killdeer     3

Ring-billed Gull     6

Herring Gull     1

Great Black-backed Gull     1

Rock Pigeon     25

Mourning Dove     1

Red-bellied Woodpecker     2

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker     1

Downy Woodpecker     2

Northern Flicker     1

Merlin     1

Blue Jay     2

American Crow     3

Fish Crow     10

Carolina Chickadee     2

Tufted Titmouse     3

White-breasted Nuthatch     3

Carolina Wren     4

Golden-crowned Kinglet     1

American Robin     1

European Starling     30

Song Sparrow     5

White-throated Sparrow     4

Dark-eyed Junco     20

Red-winged Blackbird     1

Common Grackle     1000

Ocean County 2/10--Greater Yellowlegs, Fox Sparrow, NOPI, NSHO, SASP

We did some hit & run birding today, starting out at Stafford Forge WMA, which I wanted Shari to see. Still no Tundra Swans there (the impoundment looks to be about half frozen) but there were a couple of surprises. As soon as we parked it was evident that there were quite a few sparrows around. When I walked down the short path to the water I flushed a few Song Sparrows and juncos and one much bigger sparrow--our first Fox Sparrow of the year, a real beaut, very reddish and a bruiser compared to the other birds. Scanning the water we did find Ring-necked Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and one Bufflehead hen. We were looking in the trees and ground for more sparrows (and found a couple of Savannah Sparrows along the way) when we heard what we at first thought were goldfinches. Looking up in the trees we didn't see any activity and they didn't sound exactly right for goldfinches. Over our shoulders we heard the birds flying in and they turned out to be Greater Yellowlegs calling "do-do-do, do-do-do." They settled in open water on the far shore, but not too far way to see them well in the scope. Yellowlegs aren't an "alert the list" species, but they are unusual in the winter.

Every road in the area seems to be some derivation of either "Stafford" or "Forge": Forge Road, which we came in on, Stafford Forge road, on which we continued, Old Forge Road which looks to be a sand road, and Stafford Avenue, which leads to the Bridge to Nowhere. Stafford Forge Road on the Google maps looks like it runs through the woods but, after going under the Parkway, turns out to be a pleasant residential road which dumps you out on Rt 9. Our next stop was a little north on 9, Cedar Run Dock Road, which runs through marshes until it ends at Barnegat Bay. Some severe Sandy damage is still in evidence along this road, houses and a restaurant boarded up, and the end of the road where we used to park is flooded. The road must have subsided in the storm, allowing the bay to come up the past the boat ramp that used to be there. But we were able to scope the bay and found a couple of Horned Grebes, lots of Hooded Mergansers and Buffleheads, and our first Northern Pintails of the year.

Continuing north on Route 9 we took a right on Stafford Avenue and drove down to the Bridge to Nowhere. There were lots of birds to be seen from the ruins at the end of the road, but even with the scope they were too far to identify in the shimmering light on the water. There were 5 Great Blue Herons in the marshes.

Next we drove up to Barnegat Beach. More devastation, one  small house that had been right on the beach was completely off its foundation and looked like a demolition crew had had at it with sledge hammers. Scanning the bay (the marsh across the street was frozen) I saw a few ducks that for moment stumped me. Shari looked and said "Northern Shovelers" and, of course, she was right. I just hadn't seen them in so long and since I think of them as "puddle ducks," my mind wasn't ready for them on the bay.

Finally, after lunch, we took a walk around Eno's Pond. Lots of the usual winter passerines. The highlight there was two Belted Kingfishers. We watched one dive into the pond and immediately fly up to a branch shaking water out of its feathers and chattering, as if to say "What the hell did I do that for, the water is cold!"

Including the Red-breasted Nuthatch we had at the sunflower seed feeder this morning, we had 37 species for out day of wandering around Ocean County. I finally got my year total over 100.

Locations:   35 Sunset Rd; Barnegat Beach; Bridge to Nowhere; Cedar Run Dock Rd.; Eno's Pond; Stafford Forge WMA

Canada Goose     9 

Mallard     36

Northern Shoveler     9     

Northern Pintail     2          

Ring-necked Duck     4      

Lesser Scaup     2   

Bufflehead     41     

Hooded Merganser     62   

Red-breasted Merganser     2       

Common Loon     1 

Pied-billed Grebe     1         

Horned Grebe     2  

Great Blue Heron     6        

Turkey Vulture     1 

Northern Harrier     1           

Greater Yellowlegs     5    

Ring-billed Gull     10         

Herring Gull     20    

Belted Kingfisher     2         

Downy Woodpecker     1    

Blue Jay     3

American Crow     1

Carolina Chickadee     6    

Tufted Titmouse     2           

Red-breasted Nuthatch     1          

White-breasted Nuthatch     1       

American Robin     10        

Northern Mockingbird     2 

Savannah Sparrow     2    

Fox Sparrow     1    

Song Sparrow     10

White-throated Sparrow     2         

Dark-eyed Junco     7         

Northern Cardinal     4       

House Finch     1    

American Goldfinch     2    

House Sparrow     1

How to Humiliate a Squirrel

Shari bought me this early Valentine's Day gift--it is called on the box BIG HEAD SQUIRREL FEEDER. She figured that if I couldn't beat the squirrels in our battle to keep them from the bird seed, I may as well humiliate them.

The way this feeder is supposed to work is that you put seeds and nuts inside a shelf of the hollow head, smearing it with peanut butter to keep everything in place, then, when the squirrel comes to feed, it unknowingly dons the big head and much hilarity ensues.

Well, it seems like an amusing idea, but it will never work, will it? Think not?

Think again.

Our neighbor says the head looks more like a woodchuck than a squirrel. All right, isn't tricking a squirrel into wearing a woodchuck head even more humiliating?