700 Great Bay Blvd 11/14

I went down to Great Bay Blvd in Tuckerton this morning, more for the exercise than for the birds--I didn't expect to find anything new, but you can build up a pretty good list with a combination of stopping at certain spots, walking the beach and then walking from the inlet up to the first wooden bridge and back.

Crazy Mockingbird

My most interesting experiences were all around 700 Great Bay Blvd, which is just north of the second wooden bridge. This is the fenced off area with the mysterious beeping, solar-powered machinery. I usually stop here to check the boat launch mud flats and also to check for sparrows. Today, the entertainment was provided by a young mockingbird, who landed on my side view mirror (and crapped all over it) and then continuously attacked its image in the mirror and in the side window.

I'd seen this behavior before at this spot about a month ago, probably with the same bird, but it was attacking (and despoiling) my car. I first noticed it when I was looking out on the bay--I heard some scrabbling sounds coming from behind me, but didn't pay it much attention until I found the bird perched on my car. When I put my scope back in the car it flew off. However, that other bird was really bothering it, so as I walked toward the bridge to look for sparrows, it returned and really gave its image a walloping. Actually, it occurred to me that the bird may have thought it was in a gang fight, since it was attacking both the image in the mirror and the image in the window. I know turkeys will attack their images in shiny metal on cars, but I don't think of mockingbirds as being as stupid as turkeys.

700 Great Bay Boulevard

Perhaps the incessant beeping coming from behind the fence drove the mocker mad!

Black-crowned Night-Heron

On my walk north, I saw two guys inside the fence with clipboards and devices, so I asked them, what exactly they were monitoring here for the last 4 or 5 years. It turns out the whole apparatus is a wind monitor that works on sonar--the little beep is sending up a sound that measures the winds and is recorded by the machinery below. The constant beeping is"Why we don't put it near houses," one of the guys said. Seems like a lot of work just to get wind speed and direction in a remote area of Ocean County. Suspicions arise. But at least I know what the whole set up is for--if they were telling me true.

On my way back, I stopped in by the boat launch again--as the tides are ever-moving, so are the birds, so it is always worth a second or third look, which is why I saw this juvenile Night-Heron. My first reaction was that it was a Yellow-crowned, because the bill is big, thick and all black. But Yellow-crowned is rare this time of year, so even though I don't see any yellow on the bill, nor do I find any big white spots on the coverts, I'm listing it as a Black-crowned Night-Heron because it a) has some blurry lines on the breast, b) looks more squat (its tail comes almost to the ground where a Yellow-crowned would have a longer-legged look), and c) is expected. But I'm not entirely convinced. Just when I think I have these birds down cold, an example shows up that confounds me. (UPDATE: After consultation with my panel of experts, it is indeed a Black-crowned Night-Heron.)

For my efforts today I managed 25 species along the boulevard (plus a couple of duck species in Holly Lake and a few more waterfowl (geese, swans, Gadwalls, a Pied-billed Grebe) at Tip Seaman Park). The GBB list:
Brant 54
American Black Duck 11
Bufflehead 33
Red-throated Loon 1
Common Loon 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 5
Great Egret 20
Snowy Egret 2
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Northern Harrier 1
American Oystercatcher 2
Black-bellied Plover 13
Dunlin 305
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Herring Gull 100
Great Black-backed Gull 2
Mourning Dove 4
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 300
Yellow-rumped Warbler 7
White-throated Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 3
Red-winged Blackbird 3
Boat-tailed Grackle 150