Brigantine 8/17--Cattle Egret, Red Knot

We returned to Brigantine today for what has become our almost weekly field trip with NJ Audubon. If you want to see great birds, learn something about identifying the tricky ones, and have lots of good company while you sort through thousands of shorebirds, there's no better way than to go out with Pete, Scott, Linda, Mike, and Lloyd along with all the other great "amateurs" who come along.

We hadn't even left the parking lot before we saw our first great bird of the day--a Cattle Egret loping along the road next to the Visitor's Center. Someone mentioned that it walked like Groucho Marx--hadn't thought of that connection, but this image by Shari backs up that observation pretty well, I think.

Photos: Shari Zirlin

A few minutes, later with the caravan more or less organized, we drove down the road to the Gull Pond tower, where we encountered our 2nd cool bird of the day, Blue Grosbeak. However, along this road, one of the disadvantages of a long caravan reared up (literally) when Scott, at the back of the line heard a Dickcissel. He and Linda and others couldn't find the bird and we in the front were unaware of their search until they showed up 10 minutes later. An even more spectacular miss occurred on our 2nd trip around the dikes when a flock of 50 Hudsonian Godwits split the caravan, flying over it to the delight of those in cars toward the back, while those of us in front were oblivious to the show in the rear. 50 Hudwits! I haven't seen 50 Hudwits in the aggregate, never mind in one flock. However, we found this out while we were all looking at a huge flock of Red Knots, that terribly endangered species that was stopping over on their return flight from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego.  In the Spring these birds stop over on Delaware Bayshore in the thousands to gorge on Horseshoe Crab eggs, but find them in the dozens in late summer at Brig is very unusual.

A personal, disconcerting miss for us was American Oystercatcher. A few people saw them but somehow we managed to overlook them. Oystercatcher is usually a "gimme" at Brig--not finding Shari's favorite was a little disappointing.

However, not to dwell on the negative, At the same stop on the north dike where we had the knots, a call went up the line that a Wilson's Phalarope had been spotted, so we all trotted back down the road where Scott pointed out the one bird acting craziest, running left and right while leaning down and looking like it was trying to imitate a Northern Shoveler. The bird moved around so fast and erratically that it was difficult to keep in the scope, and a couple of Greater Yellowlegs in the vicinity added to the confusion as they were hopping around almost as frantically as the phalarope, but eventually, everyone who wanted to see this rarity got a chance to view it. I thought it was a year bird for us, but checking the records I see we had one in Heislerville in May on an earlier trip with Pete.

We also had a beautiful close-up look at a Pectoral Sandpiper, great for locking in the salient field marks, and some decent looks at distant Western Sandpipers, birds that I wouldn't call with any confidence on my own. Also, happily, at least one very obvious Long-billed Dowitcher among the hundreds of short-bills.

In all the group tallied 102 species. I saw/heard 70 and Shari had a couple of more, like Bald Eagle and Marsh Wren. And the greenhead flies were only mildly annoying.
List:
Canada Goose  200
Mute Swan  4
American Black Duck  20
Mallard  10
Blue-winged Teal  7
Green-winged Teal  5
Double-crested Cormorant  10
Great Blue Heron  3
Great Egret  75
Snowy Egret  25
Little Blue Heron  3
Cattle Egret  1
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1    f/o Visitor's Ctr
Glossy Ibis  18
Black Vulture  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  10
Cooper's Hawk  1    Upland portion of drive
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Clapper Rail  1
Black-bellied Plover  50
Semipalmated Plover  100
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Greater Yellowlegs  20
Lesser Yellowlegs  5
Whimbrel  2
Ruddy Turnstone  3
Red Knot  40
Semipalmated Sandpiper  2000
Western Sandpiper  2
Least Sandpiper  1
White-rumped Sandpiper  1
Pectoral Sandpiper  1
Dunlin  1
Short-billed Dowitcher  200
Long-billed Dowitcher  1
Wilson's Phalarope  1    North dike.
Laughing Gull  200
Ring-billed Gull  2
Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  2
Least Tern  1
Gull-billed Tern  1
Caspian Tern  3
Forster's Tern  50
Black Skimmer  25
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  3
Peregrine Falcon  2
Great Crested Flycatcher  1    Heard, upland portion of drive
Blue Jay  1    Heard
American Crow  1    Heard
Fish Crow  1    Heard
crow sp.  2
Purple Martin  1
Tree Swallow  50
Bank Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  10
Carolina Wren  2    Heard
Cedar Waxwing  3
Common Yellowthroat  2
American Redstart  1    Picnic tables
Pine Warbler  1
Chipping Sparrow  2    Picnic tables
Field Sparrow  1    Heard, upland portion of trail
Song Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  1    Visitor's Ctr
Blue Grosbeak  1    Road to Gull Pond
Red-winged Blackbird  100
Boat-tailed Grackle  1
American Goldfinch  2
House Sparrow  1