Great Bay Blvd 10/22--Some Pix

I took a trip down to Tuckerton today, again hoping to find a Nelson's Sparrow. Hope is a thing without feathers. Which is to say I didn't find a Nelson's Sparrow. I did, however, find a few interesting birds along the way.

The most interesting, by far, was this very late juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. It was just north of the 5th bridge, in a little stand of trees. I almost walked right by it, pishing for sparrows.

Shari has a great mnemonic for distinguishing Yellow-crowned juvies from Black-crowned: You just have to remember that the bill is the opposite color of the bird's name, i.e. Yellow-crowned have black bills, while Black-crowned have yellow bills. Also, Yellow-crowned juvies have exclamation points on their wings, while Black-crowned just have periods. Identification by punctuation. This, by the way, was my 203rd Ocean County species this year.

Not only did I almost walk by that heron, I also almost missed this one:

This Great Blue was about 20 feet over from the other bird. They both stayed on their roosts for the more than 3 hours I was there, as I passed them 3 or 4 times.

While watching a puddle that attracted sparrows and Yellow-rumps, I caught sight of this bird behind bars: juvenile Cedar Waxwing. A lot of people think their masks make them look like bandits anyway. I think of them more as space cadets out of 1950's sci-fi movies.

Not much going on by the inlet, the tide was too high for shorebirds, though the 2nd look did turn up about 100 American Oystercatchers across the water at Holgate and one Semipalmated Plover. No beach sparrows at all, but I did see my FOS Dark-eyed Junco jumping around in the sand.

Boat-tailed Grackles and starlings were abundant. Big flocks were attracted to the puddles at the end of the road.

Yellow-rumped Warblers were all over the place, as they seem to be everywhere I go this month.

Some of them will stick around this winter, maybe more than "some" judging from the numbers I've seen the last week or so. Finally, on my way out, I saw a couple in a car scanning the marsh just north of the 4th bridge. Look for the birders, not the birds. I got out the scope one more time and found a large flock of Greater Yellowlegs sitting low in the marsh presumable trying to stay out of the wind.

So, a decent selection of birds, even if there was no lifer, again. Which I guess is okay, since I would probably feel bad (but not that bad) if I saw a lifer that Shari needs too.
25 species for the day:
Common Loon  1
Double-crested Cormorant  10
Great Blue Heron  6
Great Egret  30
Snowy Egret  3
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  1    
Osprey  1
American Oystercatcher  100    2 on GBB inlet side, large flock on Holgate beach
Semipalmated Plover  1
Greater Yellowlegs  39
Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  5
Mourning Dove  1
Gray Catbird  1    Heard
European Starling  150
Cedar Waxwing  1    
Common Yellowthroat  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  20
Savannah Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  8
Swamp Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  2
Dark-eyed Junco  1
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Boat-tailed Grackle  250