Great Bay Blvd 3/15--Great Egret, Peregrine Falcon

Great Bay Inlet

Winter waterfowl aren't going to be around much longer--except for Brants, they'll be here 'til June--so I drove down to Tuckerton this morning to see some with an eye to getting another seasonal Bird A Day.  The bird of the day turned out to Horned Grebe. I saw one grebe in the inlet that I tried to turn into an Eared Grebe, which would be very rare, but upon consulting my big Sibley, I saw that this time of year Eared and Horned Grebes look very much alike, so I counted it as the 3rd HOGR of the day.

And as if to emphasize the change of seasons, I came upon my first two Great Egrets of the year. A few hang around all year, especially down in Cape May, but somehow I hadn't turned up any until today. Also a happy first sighting of the year was the Peregrine Falcon I saw perched on a telephone at the first bridge. I got a good look at it before it flew off, low over the water and disappeared.

Fools me every time

It is always a good idea to check the poles and wires along the road down there. Hawks, gulls, grackles, blackbirds, swallows and more can all be found.  But not all lumps and bumps on the poles are birds. There is one set of poles with a crossbar that fools me every time. Even today, when I reminded myself not to get taken in, I still automatically put up my binoculars when I saw this.  You'd think that after a couple of years I would just know that isn't a hawk perched on the crossbar but some ancient metal transformer or the like cocked at an angle. But it fools me every time.

20 species for the day plus scaup that were far enough away that I wasn't willing to "call" them either greater or lesser.

Brant  300
American Black Duck  25
Mallard  2
Greater/Lesser Scaup  4    First bridge
Long-tailed Duck  2    Inlet
Bufflehead  25
Hooded Merganser  6    five @ first bridge, one before fifth bridge
Red-breasted Merganser  25
Red-throated Loon  1    Inlet
Common Loon  3
Horned Grebe  3
Great Blue Heron  3
Great Egret  2
American Oystercatcher  2

American Oystercatcher & Brant

Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  6
Peregrine Falcon  1    Pole at first bridge
European Starling  30
Song Sparrow  2
Red-winged Blackbird  3
Boat-tailed Grackle  75