Island Beach SP 9/7--Marbled Godwit

Marbled Godwit

Luck was with me today.

I've been out to Island Beach on several occasions this last month, once even in a canoe with Greg, looking for my year Marbled Godwit--supposedly rare in the county but an annual occurrence at the south end of the park--usually out on the Sedge Islands. Until today I hadn't found one, but when I saw yesterday that my friend Steve had had one on the beach, I decided to schlep out there one more time.

First I was lucky in that the tide was low out at the boat launch of the Winter Anchorage, so there was a sand bar I could scope.  More luck when it didn't take but a moment for me to find two godwits out there with a slew of oystercatchers. I digiscoped some photos and if my luck hadn't continued, one of those terrible pictures would be illustrating this entry.

So I had the bird for the year list, but what I really wanted was an up close view like Steve had, which meant a walk on the beach. The weather was cool enough for that but the prospect of looking for just one bird wasn't that enticing. Beaches can tend to be deserts. I was about to make the turn south out of the parking lot when I car slowed up and stopped. I thought he was just letting me exit but then, more luck, I saw that it was Steve himself.

Steve has a "beach buggy" permit, meaning he can drive on the beach and he invited me along. Normally, when I walk down to the inlet, I make a right a walk west for about a quarter of mile to view the rocks and beach where sometimes birds roost. I don't got farther because it is a long way back as it is. But since we drove, Steve showed me how far back you can walk and along the way we picked up some interesting birds, like my first Palm Warbler of the season, a single Black Scoter, a Common Eider, solo, the only straggler remaining of the flock of 7 that spent the summer there, and, always fun to see, 36 Brown Pelicans.

Lesser Black-backed Gull

On the way out Steve had driven high up on the beach; on the way back he drove close to the surf and along the way we had turnstones, plovers, sandpipers, and Willets (likely the western subspecies as the eastern ones migrated about a month ago) mixed in with hundreds of Sanderlings. And in the first group of Willets, almost in exactly the same spot he saw it yesterday, was another Marbled Godwit, beautifully colored cinnamon on the breast and flanks.

The last interesting bird we found was a little north of the road to the parking where we came across two adult and one immature Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Not rare, but always a good find.

New year bird, new spot to look at, beach not a desert at all...all in all a very satisfying morning of birding.

The day list:

Common Eider   1

Black Scoter   1

Mourning Dove   3

American Oystercatcher   25

Black-bellied Plover   16

Semipalmated Plover   6

Marbled Godwit   3

Ruddy Turnstone   10

Sanderling   500

Semipalmated Sandpiper   5

Spotted Sandpiper   2

Willet   15

Laughing Gull   60

Ring-billed Gull   1

Herring Gull   70

Lesser Black-backed Gull   3

Great Black-backed Gull   40

Caspian Tern   6

Common Tern   50

Forster's Tern   100

Royal Tern   6

Double-crested Cormorant   84

Brown Pelican   40

Great Egret   3

Osprey   7

Northern Flicker   1

Merlin   1

White-eyed Vireo   1

Marsh Wren   1

Carolina Wren   1

Gray Catbird   3

Northern Mockingbird   2

American Goldfinch   2

Song Sparrow   5

Palm Warbler   1