Cattus Island 4/4--Tricolored Heron

I took a walk around Cattus Island this morning while Shari was at the gym. Finally a fairly warm day but the winds were terrible--30 mph with gusts to 40 and any right-thinking bird would be hunkering down and most of them were. I did however get my FOY Tricolored Herons. Cattus Island is a great place to look for these birds because they favor the first couple of marshes as you come in and usually aren't hard to find. I saw my first one (top) from the observation deck behind the still-closed Sandy-damaged nature center and the second one popped its head up in the marsh on the left as you start to walk the path.
























There were white caps on normally placid Barnegat Bay, so I didn't attempt to walk out to the end of the sandy peninsula. There were no birds to be seen out there anyway. I was happy my  hat only got blown off my head once and I was able to retrieve it before it flew off into the marsh.

In the woods, where it was protected from the wind, it was a little more active, but most of the passerines I saw were concentrated around the feeders.
23 species
Canada Goose  4
Hooded Merganser  3     From observation deck
Great Egret  5
Tricolored Heron  2     
Osprey  5
Ring-billed Gull  2
Herring Gull  3
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Mourning Dove  6
American Crow  1     Heard
Fish Crow  1     Heard
Tree Swallow  5
Carolina Chickadee  6
Tufted Titmouse  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
American Robin  1
Pine Warbler  3     Heard
Song Sparrow  17
Dark-eyed Junco  1
Northern Cardinal  2     Feeders
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Brown-headed Cowbird  1     blue trail
American Goldfinch  8