Island Beach SP 11/8--Deked Out

I birded the length (and for what it's worth, the breadth) of Island Beach State Park today and I was especially interested in birding a new trail for me, the Winter Anchorage that is on the bay side, almost all the way down on the end. Looking at Google Maps I could see that there was a relatively short trail that led to the bay, then a much a longer one that wended through the pines and came out across from Sedge Island. The first disappointment was that the longer trail is for "Official Use Only." There were no birds along the relatively short trail that led to the boat ramp on the bay, but when I put my scope on the water I got excited. The first ducks I saw were Canvasbacks, along with a Brant, then I noticed a Mallard, a few Black Ducks, some Buffleheads and even one Northern Pintail. Some mixed flock! They were pretty far out in the bay but with the scope at full power and the sun behind me I was getting pretty good looks.

The Brant looked weird to me--it was too high out of the water. Then I noticed that the Canvasbacks weren't going anywhere. Nor was the Mallard. And the Mallard was just too brilliantly green around the head and didn't change shades when it turned around in the water. Back to the Brant, it had an odd crook in its neck, like it was looking over its shoulder--permanently. And then I realized that of course, these were all decoys.

And based on my reading of the Ducks Unlimited magazine, not a very good "set" in that there weren't nearly enough decoys for the area covered and the fakes weren't set out in a pattern (you want to sort of make a visual arrow) that might persuade the ducks to fly in. They may have fooled me 100 yards away, but I doubt they'd trick a real duck.

Two more positive aspects of the day were seeing my FOY Ocean County Northern Gannets (always a joy to watch these big birds plunge dive), making 205 species for the year and getting my NJ senior citizen card which allows me into all "State Parks, Forests, Recreation Areas and Historic Sites" free along with my passengers (that would be Shari).

It was very windy today, which probably kept the passerines hunkered down. But gannets, a pelican, and 5 species of shorebird made it worth the all the hard walking through sand that I put in, plus the wet feet from the surf that snuck up on me while I was scanning the ocean.
26 species:

Black Scoter

Bufflehead

Red-breasted Merganser

Common Loon

Northern Gannet

Double-crested Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Cooper's Hawk

Black-bellied Plover

Ruddy Turnstone

Red Knot

Sanderling

Dunlin

Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Northern Flicker

American Crow

Carolina Chickadee

Carolina Wren

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

American Goldfinch