Great Bay Blvd 4/18--Willet, Whimbrel

A raw Spring day out on Great Bay Blvd.  Some winter hangers on: Brants, a single Red-breasted Merganser hen, and 4 beautiful Common Loons that had molted into beautiful full breeding plumage, looking like they were carrying checkerboards on their backs. But the accomplishment of the day was two fold. While approaching the inlet beach I thought I heard "pee-willet," over the call of a Greater Yellowlegs that I saw on the other side of the reeds. Scoping the beach I didn't see much at first, then saw, a quite a distance, one shorebird that was too big and too thick to be a yellowlegs. Willet, of course. Soon, two others came by, and as they chase each other around on the sandbar I saw the distinctive "W" on their raised wings. So I was pleased that I "heard, then found."

My routine is to drive down the road and get a general sense of what's around, stop before the 5th bridge and scope the marshes from both sides, then drive to the end of the road and check out the beach. After that I take my "vigorous" walk by walking back to the fifth bridge, a 2 mile round trip. On that walk I can scan the marshes for smaller birds than egrets. Afterward, I always like to return to the beach to for a second look. I almost always find something I didn't see the first time. Today, I was glad to see a single Barn Swallow come in off the water to add to the day list. I was about to leave when saw at the end of the mud flat a shorebird that I took to be another Willet. It turned sideways and then I saw its long decurved bill: An early Whimbrel. That was my 2nd accomplishment: Looking carefully something I have to remind myself to do instead of being impatient.

Not only was that my FOY Whimbrel, it was also my 200th Ocean County bird.

I've left the bird small in the picture to give you an idea of the distance at which I was seeing the bird.

26 species for the 5 miles up and the Boulevard.
Brant  50
Canada Goose  1
Mallard  2
Red-breasted Merganser  1    Inlet
Common Loon  4    Three in channel beneath last bridge, one in inlet.
Double-crested Cormorant  5
Great Egret  20
Snowy Egret  7
Osprey  6
Clapper Rail  1    Heard
American Oystercatcher  3
Greater Yellowlegs  4
Willet  3   Whimbrel  1   
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  5
Forster's Tern  6
Mourning Dove  7
Blue Jay  1    Heard
crow sp.  1
Barn Swallow  1
Tufted Titmouse  1    Heard
European Starling  1
Song Sparrow  3
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Boat-tailed Grackle  50