February Wrap-up

Northern Pintail, Shelter Cove Park

It was a tough month of birding. While I added 20 species to the year list and while some of them were exciting birds to find (particularly the Ross's Geese at Whitesbog, the Pink-footed Goose at Warinanco Park, and the Long-eared Owl at Pole Farm), there were many days of remarkably crappy birding, where I would find very few species on my walks through the woods and fields and on the beaches of the Garden State. Granted, I have been going to some out of the way spots in an attempt to add variety to my walks; some of these locations seem underbirded to me. Perhaps not. There may be a reason not many birders go there--there ain't no birds. Or it's the wrong time of year for where I'm walking. Manasquan River WMA is a for instance: great spot in the spring; in the winter, something of a bird-free zone, though, I have to remember that I did get my FOY Hermit Thrush there.

Whatever the reasons I'm not getting more birds this year, I'm way behind last year's list, when, at this time I had 10 more species than my current 127.

The highlight of the month, however, only had to do with birding tangentially. Last Saturday, Shari & I went on the first of Mike's Birds of Jackson trips, as we do each year. It's a great concept: Go to the same locations 5 times from mid-winter to mid-spring and watch how the bird populations change with the season. There's usually a core group of local birders who do this trip, but on Saturday, we had a new addition in Cheryl, who has recently taken up this hobby/obsession.

And it seems it is already something of a fever for her, because she went out to Minnesota to join Mike and Kim's trip out there and birded in 25 degrees below zero. When Shari & I made the trip a few years ago we were lucky and never had temperatures approaching that. Cheryl is soon to retire from her job in IT at...WAWA! Mike, of course, informed her of my, let's call it, deep, abiding interest in all things Wawa, so when we met on Saturday, Cheryl came with a couple of Wawa gift baskets for Shari & me containing valuable Wawa accessories like mugs, cups, and lunch bag. She made the delightful presentation in the Jackson Memorial High School parking lot. She also told us there is a new, two-story Wawa in Media, Pennsylvania. Media is only about 2 hours from here. Road trip!

For the month I finished with 114 species. I'm hoping to get back on track in March.
Counties birded: Atlantic, Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean, Union

Species            First Sighting

Snow Goose   Brig

Ross's Goose   Whitesbog

Pink-footed Goose   Warinanco Park

Brant   Manasquan Inlet

Cackling Goose   Assunpink WMA

Canada Goose   Horicon Lake

Mute Swan   Lake of the Lilies

Trumpeter Swan   Assunpink WMA

Tundra Swan   Whitesbog

Wood Duck   Bunker Hill Bogs

Northern Shoveler   Lake Como

Gadwall   Lake of the Lilies

American Wigeon   Lake of the Lilies

Mallard   Horicon Lake

American Black Duck   Horicon Lake

Northern Pintail   Forsythe-Barnegat

Green-winged Teal   Brig

Canvasback   Assunpink WMA

Redhead   Lake of the Lilies

Ring-necked Duck   Assunpink WMA

Tufted Duck   Wreck Pond

Greater Scaup   Manasquan Inlet

Lesser Scaup   Lake of the Lilies

Common Eider   Island Beach SP

Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Surf Scoter   Manasquan Inlet

Black Scoter   Manasquan Inlet

Long-tailed Duck   Manasquan Inlet

Bufflehead   Manasquan Inlet

Common Goldeneye   Maclearie Park

Hooded Merganser   Horicon Lake

Common Merganser   Horicon Lake

Red-breasted Merganser   Lake of the Lilies

Ruddy Duck   Lake of the Lilies

Ring-necked Pheasant   New Egypt

Wild Turkey   35 Sunset Rd

Red-throated Loon   Barnegat Municipal Dock

Common Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Pied-billed Grebe   Ocean County Parks Offices

Horned Grebe   Manasquan Inlet

Red-necked Grebe   Manasquan Inlet

Great Cormorant   Manasquan Inlet

Double-crested Cormorant   Maclearie Park

Great Blue Heron   Meadowedge Park

Black Vulture   Brig

Turkey Vulture   Horicon Lake

Northern Harrier   Brig

Sharp-shinned Hawk   Motts Creek

Cooper's Hawk   Horicon Lake

Bald Eagle   Brig

Red-shouldered Hawk   Whitesbog

Red-tailed Hawk   Brig

American Coot   Lake of the Lilies

Sandhill Crane   New Egypt

American Oystercatcher   Brigantine Island

Killdeer   Shelter Cove Park

Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Sanderling   Shark River Inlet

Dunlin   Great Bay Blvd

Purple Sandpiper   Manasquan Inlet

Greater Yellowlegs   Brigantine Island

Willet   Brigantine Island

Ring-billed Gull   Horicon Lake

Herring Gull   Lake of the Lilies

Lesser Black-backed Gull   Sylvan Lake

Great Black-backed Gull   Lake of the Lilies

Rock Pigeon   Lake of the Lilies

Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd

Snowy Owl   Brig

Long-eared Owl   Pole Farm

Belted Kingfisher   Ocean County Parks Offices

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Cloverdale Farm

Downy Woodpecker   Cloverdale Farm

Hairy Woodpecker   Cloverdale Farm

Northern Flicker   Assunpink WMA

American Kestrel   Brigantine Island

Merlin   Highway 35, Wall

Peregrine Falcon   Brig

Blue Jay   Brig

American Crow   Horicon Lake

Fish Crow   Assunpink WMA

Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd

Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd

White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

Brown Creeper   35 Sunset Rd

Carolina Wren   Horicon Lake

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Cloverdale Farm

Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Ocean County Parks Offices

Eastern Bluebird   Brig

Hermit Thrush   Manasquan River WMA

American Robin   Horicon Lake

Brown Thrasher   Shelter Cove Park

Northern Mockingbird   Brig

European Starling   Manasquan Inlet

Cedar Waxwing   Riverfront Landing

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Cloverdale Farm

American Tree Sparrow   Assunpink WMA

Chipping Sparrow   Forest Resource Education Center

Field Sparrow   Assunpink WMA

Fox Sparrow   Shelter Cove Park

Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd

White-throated Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Savannah Sparrow   Shelter Cove Park

Song Sparrow   Cloverdale Farm

Eastern Towhee   Brig

Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Eastern Meadowlark   Pole Farm

Red-winged Blackbird   Brig

Brown-headed Cowbird   New Egypt

Common Grackle   Manasquan Inlet

Boat-tailed Grackle   Manasquan Inlet

House Finch   35 Sunset Rd

American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd

House Sparrow   Galloway

New Egypt 2/25--Ring-necked Pheasant

Ring-necked Pheasant photographed thru windshield

Since it finally stopped raining and the Mets were way ahead in a meaningless spring training game, I decided to get out of the house and do some mid-afternoon birding. I went out to New Egypt, hoping that the flooded fields out there would have attracted some early shorebirds like snipes or Pectoral Sandpipers, but nothing like that was evident--just longhorns up to their knees in mud and a big flock of Mallards acting like the puddle ducks they are. 

I did see the Sandhill Cranes again. Because they like to feed in the tall grass in the back of the corn stubble field, near the power line tower, they are devilishly hard to see--they blend in perfectly, especially on a gray day like today, but after a few sweeps of the scope I was able to find first one, then the other walking through the brown grass. Their red caps really stand out, even from a distance. I walked along the hedgerow, hoping for a new sparrow for the county, but all I came up with were Song Sparrows and a White-throated Sparrow, along with finches, blackbirds, and the resident mockingbird.

I was about to leave when I saw a couple of birders up the road getting out their scopes. Thinking I'd be helpful and tell them they were at a bad angle to find the cranes, I walked up there, only to find that they had the birds in their scope. At first I thought that there must be more than 2 cranes there, since the position they were in seemed so different than from where I saw the birds, but after I got back to my car I realized that the birds were more or less in the same place as I had seen them a half hour earlier--I was just looking at them from a more oblique angle. With all that, from the more straight-on viewpoint I had the second time, they are still hard to see, gray on gray in gray light; the red caps really help.

I drove away and about a half mile up Brynmore, I saw a bird on the side of the road which quickly resolved itself into a Ring-necked Pheasant. I am willing to count this bird on my year list for these reasons:

• It was not in or just outside a WMA
• It is not hunting season
• So any bird that has survived this long is wild enough for me.

I took some rather impressionistic photos through the windshield. Mostly the camera focused on the grass in front of the bird. By the time I got out of the car to try to take a cleaner picture, the bird has disappeared into the woodlot bordering the road.

Pole Farm | Whitesbog | New Egypt 2/19--Long-eared Owl, Red-shouldered Hawk, Sandhill Crane

Sign at Pole Farm--the "and so forth" includes the harassing of owls.

On the third day of Paul's Birding Jersey Jaunt, we covered a lot of ground, looking for interesting birds for him to see and perhaps even photograph. If there was one lesson that can be drawn from our birding today, it's "Look again."

We started the day off at the Pole Farm in Lawrenceville, site of the old AT&T transmission station where 2000 telephone poles stood in what are now grasslands. We wanted to see a Long-eared Owl. The location was no longer a secret, as many owl roosts are. In fact, it is so well-known that barricades were in places, old AT&T signs had been repurposed to keep people away (apparently you can be arrested for a "so forth" violation), and park rangers were quite obviously keeping an eye on all who approached. We walked up the mud track, got to where the path was blocked by orange plastic fencing, peered deep into the cedar trees and found nothing. We figured that all the activity had scared the owls away. We retraced our steps and while we took turns making a pit stop, I saw a birder coming down the path. When he got closer I realized it was Bill, a fine birder from Mercer County with whom I've birded Assunpink a couple of times. I told him we'd missed the owls and he looked at me like that was impossible. He didn't really feel like walking back up the track, but he took pity on us and we trudged up to the little grove of trees. We hadn't been looking back into the woods far enough. Standing just so where Bill planted me, I put up my binoculars and there was an owl! It was like a magic trick. Paul got it, then Mike. Unfortunately, the modern camera focuses on the branches in front of the bird and not the bird, so none of us were able to get pictures. There were actually a couple of owls there; Paul saw two. I only need one.

Since no birding trip is complete without a visit to a waste treatment plant, our next stop was the Trenton Sewer Utility. This winter it has been disappointing in terms of warblers--where some years there have been as many as 5 species there at one time, this year there are only the ubiquitous Yellow-rumps.

On to Assunpink, where the only swan on the lake was a Mute. We swung by the muddy cattle fields in New Egypt, but didn't find anything of note, and then it was on to Whitesbog so Paul could photograph Tundra Swans. Lots of them there, but not as close as one would ideally like them to be. However, we did see a raptor flying low over the Upper Bog and when it landed in a tree we saw that it was a Red-shouldered Hawk, 2nd FOY of the day for me. But again, too far for photos. By then we felt we'd had enough of birding, so we headed back up toward Paul's hotel. We were about halfway there when I checked my phone and saw that the Sandhill Cranes, which have been seen on and off in New Egypt were in the "on" stage. We were just there!

"Should I turn around," Mike asked? Yes. I don't know how happy Paul was about that, Sandhill Cranes not being a big deal to him, but I definitely wanted those birds. I have an irrational proprietary feeling about the cranes in New Egypt, since they were the birds Shari & I were originally looking for 5 years ago when we stumbled upon the lapwings out there. It took us about 40 minutes to get there, just as a light drizzle began. And no cranes that we could see. I was getting mad, which is stupid, since these are only birds, but there it is. We drove around a little bit, then came back to the field where the cranes historically feed and Mike and Paul both spotted one. I, of course, looking through the smoked glass of the car into the evermore graying day, did not. I jumped out, trained my binoculars in the direction Mike told me and still came up empty. He got out his scope, looked around, and finally was able to spot some movement. They were feeding in high grass (and you know it is high grass if it can hide a crane) but eventually, after I had whimpered for a few minutes, one then the other stuck up their heads and I was able to get good views through Mike's scope. Photography was out of the question. They had probably been there the first time we went there, just hidden in the field. Again the lesson is look again.

Still, 3 year birds for the day is pretty good in late winter. In all a very satisfying weekend of birding. Our stops and list for the day:

Assunpink WMA; Lamberton Rd, Trenton; Mercer Corporate Park; New Egypt; Pole Farm; Trenton Sewage Ponds; Whitesbog

44 species

Canada Goose   172

Mute Swan   1

Tundra Swan   30

Mallard   5

Canvasback   8

Ring-necked Duck   19

Lesser Scaup   33

Bufflehead   30

Hooded Merganser   10

Common Merganser   52

Ruddy Duck   20

Red-throated Loon   1

Great Blue Heron   1

Black Vulture   7

Turkey Vulture   14

Northern Harrier   1

Red-shouldered Hawk   1

Red-tailed Hawk   2

Sandhill Crane   2

Killdeer   1

Ring-billed Gull   1

Herring Gull   1

Great Black-backed Gull   1

Mourning Dove   1

Long-eared Owl   1

Red-bellied Woodpecker   3

Downy Woodpecker   1

Blue Jay   2

American Crow   1

Carolina Chickadee   1

Carolina Wren   4

Golden-crowned Kinglet   1

Eastern Bluebird   2

American Robin   7

European Starling   16

Yellow-rumped Warbler   20

American Tree Sparrow   1

Song Sparrow   3

Northern Cardinal   4

Eastern Meadowlark   1

Red-winged Blackbird   1202

Brown-headed Cowbird   1

Common Grackle   10

House Finch   1

Lake of the Lilies 2/18--Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck, Lake of the Lilies

We were standing in the Visitor's Center at Brig, chatting with Ann Marie, when the alert came in on my phone. "Now I'm pissed," I told Mike. If the alert was that a Tufted Duck was being seen in Wreck Pond, up in Monmouth County, I would have been merely annoyed, since we had looked in there twice yesterday, trying to get a lifer for Paul. But the Tufted Duck was in the Lake of the Lilies in Point Pleasant Beach, making it a precious Ocean County check mark for me and not just a lifer for Paul and we were 50 miles away where all we had seen of note was a couple of more Snowy Owls (ho hum) and we had just looked into the lake late yesterday, so it was even possible that in the flock of scaup we had overlooked the bird in the gloaming. So I was pissed.

Instead of going up to Barnegat Lighthouse SP, as we had planned, we called an audible, went outside, told Paul the news, and hurried back north. You know it was serious when I agreed to skip a Wawa stop. I was thinking, as we drove up the Parkway at perhaps a tad over the speed limit, that Scott had told me that the only Tufted Duck he had ever seen in Ocean County was in this very spot. Coincidence, of course, because that sighting was almost twenty years ago.

As we drove up to the west side of the lake we saw the expected line of cars there and the expected local birders, who all looked at me with amusement as if to say "What took you so long." It was almost like I had to apologize for being at extra-county at Brig.

The duck wasn't too hard to fine though it had the aythya habit of constantly diving. Paul was able to get on the bird in Mike's scope, so that made his 5th lifer of the trip and 2nd one (Pink-footed Goose yesterday) that was completely unexpected. I was able to get decent-enough photographs showing the little tuft. This is possibly the same bird (which was thought to be a hen) that was only a few miles north) or perhaps a 2nd bird that was an immature male. Very hard to say and I'll let the experts examine much better photographs than mine to make that determination.

After about a half hour we got back in the car and drove back south to Barnegat Light. I was under the misapprehension that Harlequin Duck would have been a lifer for Paul--it wasn't. Purple Sandpiper, which is easy to find there, would have been the target bird if we hadn't knocked that one off yesterday a half-mile away from Lake of Lilies on the jetty at Manasquan Inlet. However, Paul did want better looks and possibly photos of Great Cormorant which we only saw poorly yesterday at Sandy Hook. After a long, arduous, walk to the end of the jetty at Barnegat he accomplished both goals, as well as getting the expected close looks at the very tame Harlequins. Just as a by-the-by we had four species of shorebirds there: Purple Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, a big flock of Dunlins, and a small flock of Sanderlings.

Harlequin Ducks, Barnegat Lighthouse SP

For the day we had 53 species among the 3 locations. An odd day when Brig is the least interesting spot birded. 

Snow Goose   2000

Brant   225

Canada Goose   85

Mute Swan   16

Northern Shoveler   7

Gadwall   5

American Wigeon   2

Mallard   21

American Black Duck   105

Northern Pintail   17

Redhead   25

Tufted Duck   1

Greater Scaup   20

Common Eider   12

Harlequin Duck   15

Black Scoter   1

Bufflehead   14

Hooded Merganser   4

Red-breasted Merganser   6

Ruddy Duck   100

Red-throated Loon   2

Horned Grebe   2

Great Cormorant   4

Double-crested Cormorant   1

Great Blue Heron   3

Turkey Vulture   3

Northern Harrier   1

Red-tailed Hawk   1

American Coot   2

Ruddy Turnstone   5

Sanderling   8

Dunlin   50

Purple Sandpiper   40

Ring-billed Gull   100

Herring Gull   2062

Great Black-backed Gull   9

Mourning Dove   1

Snowy Owl   2

Red-bellied Woodpecker   1

Hairy Woodpecker   1

Blue Jay   1

American Crow   2

Carolina Chickadee   1

Tufted Titmouse   3

White-breasted Nuthatch   3

Carolina Wren   1

Eastern Bluebird   1

Cedar Waxwing   10

Yellow-rumped Warbler   10

Song Sparrow   1

Northern Cardinal   1

Red-winged Blackbird   2

House Finch   3

Snow Goose   2000

Brant   225

Canada Goose   85

Mute Swan   16

Northern Shoveler   7

Gadwall   5

American Wigeon   2

Mallard   21

American Black Duck   105

Northern Pintail   17

Redhead   25

Tufted Duck   1

Greater Scaup   20

Common Eider   12

Harlequin Duck   15

Black Scoter   1

Bufflehead   14

Hooded Merganser   4

Red-breasted Merganser   6

Ruddy Duck   100

Red-throated Loon   2

Horned Grebe   2

Great Cormorant   4

Double-crested Cormorant   1

Great Blue Heron   3

Turkey Vulture   3

Northern Harrier   1

Red-tailed Hawk   1

American Coot   2

Ruddy Turnstone   5

Sanderling   8

Dunlin   50

Purple Sandpiper   40

Ring-billed Gull   100

Herring Gull   2062

Great Black-backed Gull   9

Mourning Dove   1

Snowy Owl   2

Red-bellied Woodpecker   1

Hairy Woodpecker   1

Blue Jay   1

American Crow   2

Carolina Chickadee   1

Tufted Titmouse   3

White-breasted Nuthatch   3

Carolina Wren   1

Eastern Bluebird   1

Cedar Waxwing   10

Yellow-rumped Warbler   10

Song Sparrow   1

Northern Cardinal   1

Red-winged Blackbird   2

House Finch   3