A detour led me to a year bird today. I started out for Great Bay Blvd on Rt 539, probably the most ill-fated road around here. The road seems to be closed at least once a week due to a traffic accident--bad drivers and dump trucks don't mix.
Today's "detour" route took me east, then north, then west and back to where I started. In order to go south toward Tuckerton, I had to take Lacey Road which, if I drive it almost to its end, dumps me off at Eno's Pond, so I decided to go there first, figuring the woods might have some migrants.
The pond and inlet weren't as busy as I'd hoped, though the continuing hen Hooded Merganser was a nice find. There were warblers and woodpeckers scattered through the woods along with a Red-breasted Nuthatch, but the warblers weren't anything "exciting" until I returned to the first viewing platform. There was one oak tree in the sun that was particularly busy with birds flying in and out; again, mostly common species, but there was one warbler that was different--a deep orange-yellow throat and yellow surrounding a dark cheek patch--Blackburnian Warbler, probably a female, or else a male molting. Not only is Blackburnian a year bird, it is also an Ocean County lifer.
25 species
Canada Goose 18
Mallard 12
Hooded Merganser 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Snowy Egret 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1 Heard
Northern Flicker 1
Blue Jay 5
American Crow 1 Heard
Tree Swallow 1
Carolina Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 3 Heard
Gray Catbird 5
Northern Waterthrush 1
Black-and-white Warbler 4
Common Yellowthroat 1
American Redstart 2
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 5
Northern Cardinal 2 First platform
As long as I was "in the neighborhood," I decided to give the impoundments down in Barnegat a try. On Sunday, two American Avocets were in among the yellowlegs, but we were going to a hawk watch up in Somerset County, so I hoped that they would stick around. But on Monday morning, they were absent. Then on Monday afternoon I saw that they'd been observed again. I rushed down there only to come up empty again. And again today. I would really like to have avocets on my county list.
I did hear a Fish Crow while I was there--the first one this month which seems odd. And I did see a drake Northern Shoveler, which tells me "winter icumen in."
13 species
Canada Goose 8
Mute Swan 4 Seen from cut on Bayshore
American Black Duck 4
Mallard 1
Northern Shoveler 1 Seen from cut on Bayshore
Double-crested Cormorant 5
Great Egret 2
Snowy Egret 28
Tricolored Heron 1
Greater Yellowlegs 10
Lesser Yellowlegs 2
Laughing Gull 2
Fish Crow 1 Heard, Bayshore
Finally, I made it down Route 9 to Great Bay Blvd, about 2 1/2 hours later than I'd planned. Tide was low, yet aside from 16 Black-bellied Plovers, I saw no shorebirds. Good numbers for waders (wish I knew which night-herons I was inadvertently flushing) and 5 Yellow Warblers were a tiny bit surprising--they must be moving.
29 species
Double-crested Cormorant 115
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 50
Snowy Egret 40
Tricolored Heron 2
Turkey Vulture 5
Osprey 10
Black-bellied Plover 16
Laughing Gull 75
Herring Gull 50
Great Black-backed Gull 40
Caspian Tern 3
Forster's Tern 10
Royal Tern 1
Mourning Dove 2
Belted Kingfisher 3
Northern Flicker 1
Gray Catbird 2
European Starling 150
Common Yellowthroat 1
Yellow Warbler 5
Savannah Sparrow 1
Saltmarsh Sparrow 1
Seaside Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 6
Northern Cardinal 1 before 5th bridge
Red-winged Blackbird 1 Before 4th bridge
Common Grackle 2
Boat-tailed Grackle 10
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