November Wrap Up

American Bittern, Brig

7 year birds added this month, a few of them oddballs. But as the year draws close to an end, I would expect to be only able to fill in around the edges until we take our Florida trip in a couple of weeks.

Black-headed Gull, Brig

I made more trips to Brig than I would have expected and they turned out to be fruitful with the American Bittern showing nicely twice and the Black-headed Gull lingering past Thankgiving.

The Ring-necked Pheasants I saw on the off ramp of the Parkway and the Muscovy Ducks in Ocean Grove are slightly sketchy but
a) eBird accepts them and
b) it's my list.

The Greater White-fronted Goose at Etra Lake, while not a year bird, was the one find I'd consider an accomplishment, since I went in search of rare geese and found one. Finding a Eurasian Wigeon instead of chasing one was also a positive for the month.

On the negative side are two chases that didn't work out. A couple of weeks ago I was walking around Manahawkin WMA on an extremely windy day when I got an alert that Becky had found a Harris's Sparrow at Double Trouble. In February that was a life bird. Now, it would have been a spectacular county bird to add to the list, but, it took me an hour to walk back to my car and drive up the Parkway and by that time the bird had disappeared into the brush and despite many good birders bushwhacking around the bogs it never turned up again. I went back two days later (the day after the winds were even more ferocious) but only one other birder was lucky enough to get a brief look at it.

Then on Saturday, while I was down at Brig on Mike's trip, an alert came through of a Northern Shrike at the Barnegat impoundments. I added shrike to the list this month at Sandy Hook, but this, again, would have been a county bird (though not a life county bird, since there was one a couple of years back at Whitesbog.)  It was all I could do not to abandon the trip and run up there as my phone kept pinging every other Ocean County birder's sighting of the shrike, but I didn't chase until the mid-afternoon post-trip and by then it was nowhere in sight. Nor was it the next day.

Red-tailed Hawk about to jump at Jumping Brook Preserve

Why my home county list obsesses me so I can't really say. Perhaps the "big frog in a little pond" theory.

I also added a new spot to bird, Jumping Brook Preserve, an old cranberry farm in New Egypt, smaller than Colliers Mills but similar habitat and with the advantage of no hunting.

One brief trip into NYC yielded me my FOS Fox Sparrow. Other than that, all the other birding was done in NJ. A count for the month of 136 species.

Counties birded:
New Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean.
New York: New York

Species                                    First Sighting

Greater White-fronted Goose   Etra Lake

Snow Goose   Brig

Brant   Sunset Lake

Canada Goose   Marshall's Pond

Mute Swan   Marshall's Pond

Tundra Swan   Bridge to Nowhere

Muscovy Duck   Fletcher Lake

Wood Duck   Lily Lake

Gadwall   Cape May Point SP

Eurasian Wigeon   Bridge to Nowhere

American Wigeon   Bridge to Nowhere

American Black Duck   Bridge to Nowhere

Mallard   Marshall's Pond

Northern Shoveler   Cape May Point SP

Northern Pintail   Cape May Point SP

Green-winged Teal   Bridge to Nowhere

Canvasback   Brig

Ring-necked Duck   Brig

Lesser Scaup   Brig

Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Surf Scoter   Avalon Seawatch

Black Scoter   Avalon Seawatch

Long-tailed Duck   Sandy Hook

Bufflehead   Assunpink WMA

Hooded Merganser   Brig

Red-breasted Merganser   Sandy Hook

Ruddy Duck   Assunpink WMA

Ring-necked Pheasant   GSP MM 48

Wild Turkey   35 Sunset Rd

Red-throated Loon   Avalon Dunes

Common Loon   Sunset Lake

Pied-billed Grebe   Whiting WMA

Horned Grebe   Sands Point Preserve

Northern Gannet   Avalon Seawatch

Great Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Double-crested Cormorant   Marshall's Pond

American Bittern   Brig

Great Blue Heron   Bridge to Nowhere

Great Egret   Bridge to Nowhere

Snowy Egret   Bridge to Nowhere

Little Blue Heron   Brig

Black-crowned Night-Heron   Bayview Ave Park

Black Vulture   Crestwood Village

Turkey Vulture   Crestwood Village

Golden Eagle   Brig

Northern Harrier   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Sharp-shinned Hawk   Bridge to Nowhere

Cooper's Hawk   Sandy Hook

Bald Eagle   Brig

Red-tailed Hawk   Marshall's Pond

American Coot   Brig

American Oystercatcher   Brigantine Island

Black-bellied Plover   Bridge to Nowhere

Semipalmated Plover   Avalon Seawatch

Killdeer   Field next to Lakewood Wawa

Marbled Godwit   Brigantine Island

Ruddy Turnstone   Avalon Seawatch

Red Knot   Avalon Dunes

Sanderling   Avalon Seawatch

Dunlin   Avalon Seawatch

Purple Sandpiper   Avalon Seawatch

Long-billed Dowitcher   Brigantine Island

Wilson's Snipe   Brig

American Woodcock   Sandy Hook

Greater Yellowlegs   Bridge to Nowhere

Willet   Brigantine Island

Lesser Yellowlegs   Brig

Parasitic Jaeger   Avalon Seawatch

Bonaparte's Gull   Forsythe--Barnegat

Black-headed Gull   Brig

Laughing Gull   Toms River

Ring-billed Gull   Riverfront Landing

Herring Gull   Riverfront Landing

Great Black-backed Gull   Riverfront Landing

Forster's Tern   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Royal Tern   Avalon Seawatch

Rock Pigeon   Toms River

Mourning Dove   Assunpink WMA

Great Horned Owl   Sandy Hook

Belted Kingfisher   Bridge to Nowhere

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Bridge to Nowhere

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Bunker Hill Bogs

Downy Woodpecker   Bridge to Nowhere

Hairy Woodpecker   Central Park

Northern Flicker   Sandy Hook

Merlin   Sandy Hook

Peregrine Falcon   Brig

Eastern Phoebe   Jumping Brook Preserve

Northern Shrike   Sandy Hook

Blue-headed Vireo   Sandy Hook

Blue Jay   Whiting WMA

American Crow   Whiting WMA

Fish Crow   Bridge to Nowhere

Common Raven   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd

Tree Swallow   Cape May Point SP

Carolina Chickadee   Whiting WMA

Black-capped Chickadee   Sandy Hook

Tufted Titmouse   Assunpink WMA

Red-breasted Nuthatch   Whiting WMA

White-breasted Nuthatch   Whiting WMA

Brown Creeper   Sandy Hook

Winter Wren   Etra Lake

Marsh Wren   Forsythe--Barnegat

Carolina Wren   Lakewood

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Whiting WMA

Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Brig

Eastern Bluebird   Whiting WMA

Hermit Thrush   Avalon Dunes

American Robin   Lakewood

Gray Catbird   Lily Lake

Northern Mockingbird   Lakewood

European Starling   Lakewood

Cedar Waxwing   Assunpink WMA

Lapland Longspur   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Snow Bunting   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Common Yellowthroat   Forsythe--Barnegat

Palm Warbler   Avalon Seawatch

Pine Warbler   Whiting WMA

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Bridge to Nowhere

American Tree Sparrow   Sandy Hook

Chipping Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Field Sparrow   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd

Fox Sparrow   Central Park

Dark-eyed Junco   Whiting WMA

White-throated Sparrow   Whiting WMA

Savannah Sparrow   Avalon Dunes

Song Sparrow   Bridge to Nowhere

Swamp Sparrow   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd

Eastern Towhee   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Red-winged Blackbird   Assunpink WMA

Common Grackle   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Boat-tailed Grackle   Bridge to Nowhere

House Finch   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

American Goldfinch   Bridge to Nowhere

House Sparrow   Avalon Seawatch