North Shore 3/11--Northern Gannett, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Glaucous Gull

A somewhat impressionistic digiscope 

of a 

Black-crowned Night-Heron

at the Shark River

Scott ran a sort of "flash" trip of the ponds and inlets of the "North Shore," starting at the Manasquan Inlet (Ocean County side) today. I got a head start at Lake of the Lilies, which still has a substantial number of Redheads, as well as both scaup and a good number of coots. I'm always hoping for Ocean County "white-winged" gulls around the inlet. The best I could do for the county was a Lesser Black-backed Gull on the sand bar at the back of the inlet. I did eventually get a white-winged gull today, but it was in the "wrong" county.

After the group made a stop at Lake of the Lilies, where I was able, with some help and better lighting to distinguish Greater from Lesser Scaup, we began to wend our way along Route 35. It is only 4.1 miles from Lake of the Lilies to Wreck Pond--it feels like 20 when you're driving it. I found out today from Scott how Wreck Pond got its name. Before the outfall water control structure was put into place, Wreck Pond could be accessed from the ocean via a short inlet. To the navigationally challenged, it was sometimes mistaken for Manasquan Inlet, about 3 miles to the south. But the inlet was not for big fishing boats and they met their end as wrecks in the pond.

There wasn't much of note in the pond, but the boardwalk to the east had a few interesting birds, as well as a couple of juvenile Bald Eagles cavorting above

Great Cormorant on the Wreck Pond
outfall structure

Another interesting bird was a Great Cormorant on the outfall tower. I'd like to know the reason Great Cormorants seem to like to roost on big towers. You never see them, like their double-crested cousins, sitting on rocks, jetties, or wharves.

I got my first year bird of the day at the Shark River where one of our group pointed out a Black-crowned Night-Heron that she said was standing in the same spot she had seen it last week It took me a little while to locate the bird since it was fairly distant. I don't usually go this far into the year without a night-heron, but it was also a year bird for a lot of others in the group. Probably the unpleasant winter had discouraged  them, like a lot of other birds, from staying around these parts.

My second year bird was all the way up in Allenhurst at Corlies Avenue--some Northern Gannets flying just above the horizon--and I didn't even realize they were year birds until I got home and looked at my cumulative list. I guess I just assumed I'd seen gannets this year when probably the last ones were in December. Now I wish I'd looked harder at Manasquan Inlet when someone called one out--it would have been a county bird there too.

The final year bird for the day was probably the hardest one for me to get and one I don't think I've ever seen without company--a Glaucous Gull flew by just as we were leaving Pullman Avenue in Long Branch. Scott, naturally, saw it, called it out, and we were all able to get on the big white bird as it flew north. Glaucous Gull is "rare" in Monmouth County, not rare in Ocean, where I haven't seen it this year. Go figure.

In all I had 57 birds for the day, respectable for a winter's day birding.
The stops we made and day list:

Allenhurst; Deal; Lake Takanassee; Lake of the Lilies; Long Branch; Manasquan Inlet; Shark River; Shark River Inlet; Spring Lake; Sylvan Lake 

Snow Goose  3

Brant  390

Canada Goose  136

Mute Swan  80

Northern Shoveler  1

Mallard  38

American Black Duck  12

Redhead  39

Ring-necked Duck  1

Greater Scaup  5

Lesser Scaup  60

Surf Scoter  1

Black Scoter  12

Long-tailed Duck  14

Bufflehead  15

Hooded Merganser  5

Common Merganser  1

Red-breasted Merganser  21

Ruddy Duck  145

Red-throated Loon  3

Common Loon  19

Horned Grebe  2

Red-necked Grebe  1

Northern Gannet  7

Great Cormorant  2

Double-crested Cormorant  1

Great Blue Heron  3

Black-crowned Night-Heron  1

Black Vulture  2

Turkey Vulture  1

Bald Eagle  2

Red-tailed Hawk  2

American Coot  73

American Oystercatcher  1

Killdeer  5

Sanderling  50

Dunlin  1

Purple Sandpiper  10

Ring-billed Gull  142

Herring Gull  705

Lesser Black-backed Gull  1

Glaucous Gull  1

Great Black-backed Gull  42

Mourning Dove  1

Merlin  1

American Crow  2

Fish Crow  10

Tufted Titmouse  1

American Robin  1

European Starling  2

Song Sparrow  3

Northern Cardinal  2

Red-winged Blackbird  10

Common Grackle  10

Boat-tailed Grackle  6

House Finch  5

House Sparrow  3