Sandy Hook 8/21--Wood Stork

Wood Stork

Generally, I avoid Sandy Hook between Memorial Day and Labor Day and I especially don't want to go there on a hot, sunny day in August, so I just watched the alerts roll in yesterday from those brave souls who were willing to put up with the traffic (both to & fro), the possibility that the park would be closed when they got there (which it was for a while), and then the long, "death march" out to the tip area, to get the latest rarity to hit NJ.

Most of the time Wood Storks are reported as flyovers down in Cape May (there was a report just last week; who knows, it might be this bird), so one just feeding in a relatively small body of water was just too hard to resist, especially when I got an early A.M. text from Bob Auster who'd detoured on his way to work to get the bird. So, after I got rid of the sprinkler repairman this morning, I packed some water and an energy bar and drove up to the Hook. The trudge through the sand was as unpleasant as it always is, but, I was propelled forward when I met a birder coming out who confirmed that the stork was still present.

Not far from Raritan Bay

A lot of birders don't even know about this little pond. Until a few years ago, I didn't know about it either, but it is a great rarity spot--Soras are often spotted in there and in migration warblers pass through. When I made the left onto the obscure little path off the main trail I saw, in the distance, a couple of other birders high on the dune overlooking the pond. Of course, the bird was hidden, but it was very close--we just couldn't see it over the phragmites. We watched the vegetation move as it foraged its way eastward, sometimes catching a glimpse of its big white body. Then, suddenly, it moved to the center of the pond and then to the back shore and the drive and the walk became worth the trouble. You can't exactly say that this ungainly bird is a good looking one, but it is striking. Shifting into "bird watching" mode instead of just being a lister, I was interested to watch it feed, shaking a leg to stir up the fish in the water.

After about a half hour of observation, I started walking back. The eclipse, which didn't interest me much, was starting. Someone offered me glasses to look at it on my way to the parking lot, but I have enough trouble with my eyes without taking glasses from strangers. At the parking lot a couple of guys had set up a telescope and were projecting the eclipse onto a piece of cardboard. It was about 30% when I got there. That was neat and now I can say I saw the eclipse of 2017. By the time the eclipse was at its maximum in NJ, 75%, I was stuck in traffic in Long Branch.

But seeing my first New Jersey Wood Stork (unpredictable) was much more interesting than seeing a very predictable celestial event.