Manahawkin WMA 5/3--Black-necked Stilt

I headed to down Manahawkin WMA/Forsythe Bridge to Nowhere this morning. It's never been clear to me where one leaves off and the other begins, but I have been informed, after posting this question on Jerseybirds, that Manahawkin is on the right and the Bridge to Nowhere section on the left, as you approach the bridge.

It truly is a bridge into nothing. No one seems to have a good explanation as to where it was supposed to go or what it was supposed to do. There's nothing but wetlands across the channel.
Of course, it does make a great canvas for graffiti, that is when the local teenagers aren't setting fire to the structure.

Anyway, I've never had much luck birding this area, but then, it wasn't until started walking the road at Great Bay Blvd, instead of birding by car, that I had decent results there. The bird that drew me there was a reported Black-necked Stilt that a couple of people had seen on Wednesday. Stilts are vagrants to NJ--they're pretty easy to see at Bombay Hook in Delaware, but not a lot seem to make the flight over the bay to here and if you are going to see them, you'd expect it to be a place like Brigantine or maybe Heislerville.

I was also curious to walk the area--the stilt was said to be in "back impoundment" down a trail blocked to car traffic. I didn't have a whole lot of confidence in finding the bird, since someone on Thursday had not listed it there, but I hoisted the scope on my shoulder and walked about 1/4 mile down the road (picking up a tick in the process), turned left and, wow, there it was, a beautiful black and white bird with candy pink legs:

Black-necked Stilt, digiscoped photo

That pretty much made the day for me--not only is a great bird in itself, it's a great one to use for Bird A Day, it's an FOY and it's the first Ocean County listing for me.

I have to say that Stafford Avenue out in the marshes seems a slightly sinister place to me. Knowing the mischief created at the bridge probably adds to that aura and the cars and pick-up trucks slowly driving up and down the road, to no known purpose (they're not birding, they're not photographing, they're not fishing or crabbing, as on Great Bay Blvd) didn't make me feel comfortable just leaving the car on the side of the road for very long.

Then a helicopter landed.

A guy got out, stood looking down into the marsh for a few minutes and then got back in and off went the chopper. I noticed that a Mute Swan nearby didn't even look up as the copter nestled into the marsh grass.

The helicopter just added to the frisson of danger I was feeling, so I was fine with getting in the car, and heading back out to Route 9.

In the winter Stafford Avenue is a hot spot for Short-eared Owls. I don't know how much I'd like being there at dusk and later, when they start to hunt.

I found 21 species while there, plus some peeps on the wing I couldn't identify:
Canada Goose  6
Mute Swan  4
Mallard  3
Double-crested Cormorant  2
Great Egret  4
Snowy Egret  12
Little Blue Heron  1 Technically, this in the Bridge to Nowhere section
Glossy Ibis  24
Black-necked Stilt  1    Back impoundment off Stafford Avenue. 
Greater Yellowlegs  6
Willet  3
peep sp.  4  
Herring Gull  3
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Forster's Tern  5
Mourning Dove  2
Fish Crow  1
Tree Swallow  2
American Robin  5
Ovenbird  1    Heard in woods
Common Yellowthroat  2    Heard
Red-winged Blackbird  15