Brigantine 5/25--White-rumped Sandpiper, Least Tern, Black Skimmer

Black Skimmers are back!

I felt like we were back  in the early days of our Ohio trip as blustery temperatures in the mid-40's settled over New Jersey. We headed down to Brigantine, expecting cool temperatures, which are good to keep the bugs away, but not expecting the wind to be as ferocious as it was. It made the idea of scanning a thousand sandpipers, looking for the oddball, ludicrous. Usually, your car acts as a mobile blind. Today, on the Wildlife Drive, it was more like a shelter. Still, we managed 47 species, including some favorites, like the above Black Skimmers (2nd only to American Oystercatcher in the favorite non-passerine category).                                                                                                                      

Obligatory American Oystercatcher shot.
Photo: Shari Zirlin

The shorebirds numbered in the thousands today. You couldn't drive 50 feet without encounter another pod of Semipalmated Sandpipers--my estimate of 7000 is exactly that. There were so man peeps too far out to scan (especially with the wind) that the number could be twice or thrice that. Mixed in with them were Dunlins, a few Least Sandpipers (probably more, but with all the mud, it was hard to distinguish the easy field mark--yellow legs), a few White-rumped Sandpipers we could i.d. based on their long wings crossing at the tail, and another crowd favorite, Ruddy Turnstones.

Photo: Shari Zirlin

Photo: Shari Zirlin

A good find by Shari was of this Least Tern sitting on the mud flats near one of the sluice gates. Note the white forehead and yellow bill. In the photo, of course, with nothing for comparison, you can't see how tiny this guy is compared to other terns. There were a few other terns around, not as many as one would expect, but we did get a few Gull-billed Terns along with the ever-present Forster's Terns.

Not much in the way of passerines--they were, I suppose, "hunkered down" in the wind. We did manage a Field Sparrow atop a blade of high grass.

At the exit ponds, a drake Wood Duck was a good capper for the day. The weather didn't look like it was going to improve (in fact, it was deteriorating) so we only did one circuit of the drive whereas usually we feel we haven't really completed the day without at least two. But that's the good thing about living so close to Brig now--we don't feel we have to torture ourselves to justify the trip.
47 species
Canada Goose  50
Wood Duck  1    Exit Pond on left
Mallard  6
Double-crested Cormorant  2
Great Egret  25
Snowy Egret  5
Glossy Ibis  4    f/o
Osprey  3
Black-bellied Plover  25
Semipalmated Plover  10
American Oystercatcher  2
Greater Yellowlegs  8
Willet  20
Whimbrel  4
Ruddy Turnstone  50
Semipalmated Sandpiper  7000
Least Sandpiper  50
White-rumped Sandpiper  5
Dunlin  200
Short-billed Dowitcher  4
Laughing Gull  300
Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  5
Least Tern  1
Gull-billed Tern  4
Forster's Tern  10
Black Skimmer  55
Eastern Phoebe  1    Picnic tables
American Crow  1    Heard
Fish Crow  2    Parking lot
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  3    Gull Pond
Purple Martin  10
Tree Swallow  15
Barn Swallow  100
Tufted Titmouse  1    Heard
American Robin  2    Picnic tables
Gray Catbird  2
Common Yellowthroat  2    Heard Gull Pond road
Yellow Warbler  2    Heard upland part of trail
Chipping Sparrow  2
Field Sparrow  1    Across from Jen's Trail
Seaside Sparrow  1    Heard
Song Sparrow  2    Heard
Northern Cardinal  1    Heard picnic tables
Red-winged Blackbird  100
Brown-headed Cowbird  1    Upland part of trail
House Finch  1    Heard, picnic tables.