November Wrap-up

Trumpeter Swans, Stone Tavern lake

Seven new birds for the year in November, compared to the 300 something we had in Australia might seem like quite a comedown, but it didn't really feel that way. I was happy to be in New Jersey, semi-chasing birds I hadn't seen yet for the year in my favorite and familiar spots like Sandy Hook, Brig, and Cape May. You can't keep up that frantic pace we had in Australia all the time. Well, maybe you can, but I can't.

Although I will admit that as the weather gets colder, a kind of ennui sets in with me where I really have to motivate myself to go out and just bird. I have to convince myself that it isn't just about new birds, that birding in itself is the pleasure. But 30 mph winds off the ocean, or a "real feel" of single digits, or hunters precluding me from birding some areas, makes it harder each day to give myself that pep talk.

I find I need a goal. Today I had one, on the last day of the month. I saw that the Trumpeter Swans had returned to Monmouth County. For the last few years they have been on Assunpink Lake, but yesterday three were found on Stone Tavern Lake, which is very close by. So, even though I "have" them for the year, in the spirit of "go seek a cool bird," I drove up there early this morning and found two of them immediately. But even more pleasing to me was the lone Canvasback hen I found on the lake, especially since that was a bird I looked for yesterday at Riverfront Park in Toms River where a flock usually spends the winter. Canvasback is a "hard" bird for Monmouth County

For the longest time, Trumpeter Swans were not accepted as countable in NJ, because they were thought to be either escapees or vagrants from a NY flock that hadn't yet established itself a viable population, but somehow the thought has gotten around that these birds are legit, though how anyone can say for sure I don't know. It isn't like they're tagged. But there were 7 or 8 of them earlier this year at Assunpink, and a juvenile was with the two adults yesterday, so they seem to be breeding somewhere and wintering here.

The same thing use to happen with Barnacle Goose. For the longest time it was not accepted in NJ and then someone did a study and figured out that they actually do wander over from Greenland (or in the case of the one Shari & I saw years ago in the Bronx, which was banded, Scotland) and now it is a common rarity, if you'll accept that oxymoron, like Eurasian Wigeon (which I also finally managed to see this month).

In fact, all the new birds I added this month, with the exception of Pine Siskin, were rarities. Relatively easy rarities, true, but birds that are exciting to find.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

The two disappointments of the month have been that Pine Siskins are not showing up at our feeder and that I have had no luck running into either Red Crossbill or Evening Grosbeak, both of which seem to be having an irruption year all over the state except where I am at any particular moment.

In the winter I participate in FeederWatch so I spend more time than usual staring out the window. Our backyard has been very productive this month and some days that productivity coincides with the 2 days of the week I count birds at the feeders. We've had Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Brown Creeper, Fox Sparrow, and both Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawk along with the usual gang at the feeder. It is also an irruption year for Red-breasted Nuthatch and they, at least, have found our feeders--we had three at one time last week.

For the month I had 124 species.
Counties birded: Atlantic, Burlington, Middlesex, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean

Species              First Sighting

Snow Goose   Brig

Brant   Cedar Bonnet Island

Barnacle Goose   Mercer Corporate Park

Canada Goose   Iselin

Mute Swan   Silver Lake

Trumpeter Swan   Stone Tavern Lake

Tundra Swan   Cape May Point SP

Wood Duck   Whitesbog

Northern Shoveler   Brig

Gadwall   Brig

Eurasian Wigeon   Cape May Point SP

American Wigeon   Silver Lake

Mallard   Silver Lake

American Black Duck   Silver Lake

Northern Pintail   Brig

Green-winged Teal   Cloverdale Farm

Canvasback   Stone Tavern Lake

Redhead   Marshall's Pond

Ring-necked Duck   Brig

Greater Scaup   Cattus Island County Park

Lesser Scaup   Lake of the Lilies

Common Eider   Island Beach SP

Harlequin Duck   Island Beach SP

Surf Scoter   Island Beach SP

White-winged Scoter   Island Beach SP

Black Scoter   Island Beach SP

Long-tailed Duck   Island Beach SP

Bufflehead   Cedar Bonnet Island

Hooded Merganser   Silver Lake

Red-breasted Merganser   Sands Point Preserve

Ruddy Duck   Silver Lake

Wild Turkey   Whiting WMA

Pied-billed Grebe   Brig

Horned Grebe   Island Beach SP

Rock Pigeon   Shark River Inlet

Mourning Dove   Shark River Inlet

American Coot   Brig

Black-bellied Plover   Whitesbog

Killdeer   Whitesbog

Ruddy Turnstone   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Sanderling   Shark River Inlet

Dunlin   Whitesbog

Semipalmated Sandpiper   Whitesbog

Greater Yellowlegs   Whitesbog

Laughing Gull   Silver Lake

Ring-billed Gull   Shark River Inlet

Herring Gull   Shark River Inlet

Lesser Black-backed Gull   Island Beach SP

Great Black-backed Gull   Shark River Inlet

Royal Tern   Island Beach SP

Red-throated Loon   Island Beach SP

Common Loon   Cedar Bonnet Island

Northern Gannet   Shark River Inlet

Great Cormorant   Sandy Hook

Double-crested Cormorant   Silver Lake

Great Blue Heron   Whitesbog

Great Egret   Whitesbog

Snowy Egret   Manahawkin WMA

Little Blue Heron   Cattus Island County Park

Black Vulture   35 Sunset Rd

Turkey Vulture   Whitesbog

Northern Harrier   Cedar Bonnet Island

Sharp-shinned Hawk   Cape May Point SP

Cooper's Hawk   Cedar Bonnet Island

Bald Eagle   Whiting WMA

Red-tailed Hawk   Cedar Bonnet Island

Belted Kingfisher   Whitesbog

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   35 Sunset Rd

Red-headed Woodpecker   Cattus Island County Park

Red-bellied Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd

Downy Woodpecker   Whitesbog

Hairy Woodpecker   Assunpink WMA

Northern Flicker   Whitesbog

Merlin   Cedar Bonnet Island

Peregrine Falcon   Cedar Bonnet Island

Eastern Phoebe   Cedar Bonnet Island

Blue Jay   Wawa Rt 70 & CR 530

American Crow   Whitesbog

Common Raven   Whiting WMA

Tree Swallow   Whitesbog

Cave Swallow   Sandy Hook

Carolina Chickadee   Whitesbog

Black-capped Chickadee   Sandy Hook

Tufted Titmouse   Whitesbog

Red-breasted Nuthatch   Whitesbog

White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

Brown Creeper   35 Sunset Rd

Carolina Wren   35 Sunset Rd

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Whitesbog

Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Whitesbog

Eastern Bluebird   Brig

Hermit Thrush   Island Beach SP

American Robin   Cedar Bonnet Island

Gray Catbird   Whitesbog

Northern Mockingbird   Cedar Bonnet Island

European Starling   Iselin

Cedar Waxwing   Brig

House Finch   35 Sunset Rd

Pine Siskin   Cape May Point SP

American Goldfinch   Whitesbog

Lapland Longspur   Brig

Snow Bunting   Sandy Hook

Chipping Sparrow   Cape May Point SP

Clay-colored Sparrow   Sandy Hook

Field Sparrow   Cedar Bonnet Island

Fox Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd

White-crowned Sparrow   Sandy Hook

White-throated Sparrow   Whitesbog

Savannah Sparrow   Cedar Bonnet Island

Song Sparrow   Whitesbog

Swamp Sparrow   Whitesbog

Baltimore Oriole   Sandy Hook

Red-winged Blackbird   Cedar Bonnet Island

Common Grackle   Sandy Hook

Boat-tailed Grackle   Brig

Orange-crowned Warbler   Manahawkin WMA

Common Yellowthroat   Manahawkin WMA

Blackpoll Warbler   Cedar Bonnet Island

Palm Warbler   Whiting WMA

Pine Warbler   Cape May Point SP

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Shark River Inlet

Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

House Sparrow   Shark River Inlet

Mercer Corporate Park 11/28--A Very Odd Goose

You Tell Me!

Mike and I stopped by Mercer Corporate Park to see if there were any oddities about and we indeed did find one odd goose. At first we thought it was the Barnacle Goose from last week, but the all white head put the kibosh on that idea. Then we thought Snow Goose, blue morph, but the bill plus its large size made that idea seem wrong. After that, we didn't know what we had, speculating on various plumage aberrations and then, after a run to Wawa to get coffee and warm up a bit, since the goose was originally in this position:

This is called the "no help" pose

 we started trying to figure out what kind of hybrid it might be once we saw it fully when we returned. Another birder told us that there had been a couple of Barnacle Goose hybrids in the area recently, but, once I looked at it more closely on my computer screen I could see some pink in the bill and called it a Snow Goose x Canada Goose, based on the bill and size. But I really don't know. Any ideas will be appreciated.

Brig 11/26--Lapland Longspur

Lapland Longspur

We always talk about "chasing" a bird, but here's one where I really did go back and forth to find it. The forecast was for rain today but I thought I might be able to get a turn around the dikes at Brig before the weather got wet and if not...at least I'd be in the car.

I'd been seeing reports of a Lapland Longspur on the south dike for the past few days, but Thanksgiving visits and visitors precluded me from getting down there. The sightings seemed to be between goose markers 8 and 10, so my plan was to park the car just before 8 and walk the dike, looking for sparrows feeding on the side of the road. A combination of high tide and all the rain we've had lately put the marshes on both sides of the drive under water, which meant the only place for sparrows to feed would be on the road. I had walked from #8 to #9 when a birder I know pulled up in her car. She was very excited because she'd just seen a Horned Lark back by #8 (of course) and was talking to a mutual friend of ours on her phone to tell him about it. I told her (and him through her phone) that I was looking for the longspur. But he told me I was way too far up the road, that the bird was just past the observation tower.

Snow Geese

So I turned around. While the water, as I said, was very high, the variety of waterfowl was not. I did see my first Snow Geese of the season numbering in the hundreds, as well as Brant, Canada Geese and American Black Ducks, but other waterfowl was sparse, though I did get two species of grebe.

Horned Grebes

I was just about back to my car, looking at a couple of Horned Grebes, searching for the Horned Lark, when I heard a car approaching me from behind. Looking up I saw my friend backing up the road. "I found the bird," she said. It was, naturally, up the road, not far from where we'd been talking.

I got in her car and we hurried up the drive. On the side of the road were a few birds. In the murky light light it was tough to tell what was what and then one bird flew away. With my luck, I figured that would be the longspur, but we saw a couple of other birds a little further along and one of them, at least, was the longspur. She thought both were, but we never could get both birds to stand still at the same time. The one I was looking at, besides having the dark auriculars around the face, had chestnut coloring on the wings. The other didn't, though it did not appear light enough to be a Savannah Sparrow.

First longspur I saw, note the chestnut coloring on wing

                                                                                Thanking her for the ride, I turned around again toward my car, still hoping to snag the lark. I walked all the way back to the observation tower  and never found the lark, nor much of anything else new, though I did see one Savannah Sparrow that I though might possibly be the Ipswich subspecies but it flew off too quickly for me to decide. Just as I reached my car the rain started.

I drove very slowly up the drive, hoping to see the sparrows again and just before marker #10 I saw a bird on the left. I got out in the rain and took a photograph of it (the one above that starts this entry) and noticed that it didn't seem to have the same coloration as the first one I saw so who knows, maybe there are two there, or maybe it was just a trick of the lousy light.

Peregrine Falcon

The rain got heavier as I drove around the dikes, but I did manage a few more ducks and a couple of Peregrine Falcons, no longer a given there since their hacking tower was removed.   Since there was no mud, there were no shorebirds, but there were also no swans, no wigeons, no Wood Ducks. I only saw 32 species, but I did get one more year bird. I was surprised to find that it was the first longspur I'd seen in two years and even more surprised, when consulting my eBird list, to find that it was a new bird for me in Atlantic County. My little list follows.

Snow Goose 500
Brant 300
Canada Goose 200
Northern Shoveler 4 3 hens off south dike, 1 drake off east dike
Gadwall 2 Perch Cove
Mallard 60
American Black Duck 600
Northern Pintail 3 North dike
Ring-necked Duck 4 Exit and entrance ponds
Bufflehead 15
Hooded Merganser 2 Turtle Cove
Ruddy Duck 55 25 in overlook
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Horned Grebe 6 Turtle Cove
Ring-billed Gull 5
Herring Gull 150
Great Black-backed Gull 13
Great Blue Heron 2 SE Pool
Great Egret 1
Northern Harrier 2
Peregrine Falcon 2
Blue Jay 1 Heard
American Crow 2
Carolina Chickadee 2 Heard
Tufted Titmouse 3 Visitor's Ctr
American Robin 13
European Starling 50
Lapland Longspur 1
Savannah Sparrow 4
Song Sparrow 1
Red-winged Blackbird 2 Exit Pond

Northern Cardinal 2 Near exit pond           

Mercer Corporate Park 11/21--Barnacle Goose

Barnacle Goose 

Theories abound as to why Mercer Corporate Park, which is a small one story building at the back of a circular drive with two retention ponds in front, attracts some many rare birds.  Some think it is its proximity to Assunpink, yet the birds found at Mercer rarely show up at the much larger WMA. Others think that birds using I-195, which runs right next to the park, as navigational guide, see its little ponds as a natural place to plunk down for a rest. Some like the theory of observational bias--since one rare bird was found there, birders go there to look and find other rare birds--sort of the Patagonia Picnic Table Phenomena. Others like me, figure it doesn't take a long time to search, so why not search? So, the more coverage, the more rarities. But that doesn't explain why the "hit" percentage, even for me, is quite high.

So, when I was done with my wanderings in Assunpink today where I found nothing of note, I thought that as long as I was in the neighborhood, I may as well visit the park and see if any rare geese were around. It took less than 2 minutes for me to scan the 175 or so Canada Geese before I found the Barnacle Goose standing among them on the far shore.

The first Barnacle Goose we ever saw in NJ was at this park 6 years ago. We didn't know the area and made the mistake of following Google's directions, ending up in a residential neighborhood. It was only after Shari thought we'd passed a big flock of geese "way back there" that we retraced our steps and found the Barnacle in with a few hundred of the more standard geese.

With Barnacle Goose I now have, for the year, all the rare swans and geese commonly found in NJ in winter--Barnacle is usually the easiest one to find (Cackling Goose is probably more common but also much harder to distinguish and thus overlooked a lot), but it took until late November this year for me to stumble upon one. And it is always more satisfying to find one on your own than to chase the rarity.

Another theory just came in by email: the area use to be a wetlands and it is still part of the migratory route.

One more comes to mind: Magic.

Winner of "The Most Disingenuous Sign of the Year" Award

Click sign to enlarge

Scott told me a while ago about this sign which is scattered throughout Sandy Hook, but until yesterday I hadn't managed to run into it. It is as funny and as infuriating as Scott described it, a fine example of bureaucratic non-disclosure or "lying by omission."

Let's skip over the typographical errors--"one eight" and the ticks that are apparently brief cases (attache)--that battle is pretty much lost because copy editing and proofreading are non-existent these days since spell check is all you need, write? The much bigger issue is the text itself so let's unpack what it's trying not to say.

First there is the WARNING. That sounds bad. But that is immediately followed by the somewhat soothing reassurance that ticks are an "integral part of the environment," and we all know the environment is good so ticks can't be that bad. However, if all the ticks on Sandy Hook were suddenly to disappear, nothing bad would happen, unless the Gateway NRA management considers them their passive deer control system, in which case it isn't working anyway. Nothing on the Hook feeds on ticks and ticks, while feeding on mammals and birds, aren't keeping any nuisance populations under control. So that phrase is there to show you management's "green" credentials. The next phrase, "for the most part harmless," is where we start getting the real prevaricating. A lion is, for the most part, harmless--until it attacks you. A gun, is for the most part, harmless--until someone shoots it. A tick does no harm, most of the time, until it does and if they are for the most part harmless, then why is there this sign at all?*

And why do I want to prevent these mostly harmless "creatures" which is a word out of a storybook? Reread the sign. Does it  anywhere say anything about Lyme disease or any other tick borne diseases? No, because that would be a bummer and we only want to present a positive face to the public, don't we? Does it tell you that deer ticks are almost impossible to see? No, because virtually invisible, disease-carrying "creatures" is too malevolent a concept to put in a recreation area. Does it distinguish among the other species of ticks that you might find on Sandy Hook? No, because then you might get the idea that whole place is infested with all kinds of creatures carrying all kinds of diseases. Anyone want to talk about chiggers?

So instead, they warn you about ticks but don't really tell you why you should be warned. If you're going to omit the most salient fact about ticks--that they can give you a crippling disease--why put up the signs at all other than to stave off liability concerns?

I've been to lots of parks and refuges with warning signs about ticks. Nowhere else do they claim that they're essentially harmless and every place else they prominently mention Lyme disease. The irony of all this is that I've never picked up a tick at Sandy Hook. They're probably all attached to the deer that are running rampant throughout the peninsula and that have destroyed acres of nesting habitat for birds.

*The phrase "natural areas", on a spit of land that has been an army fort and proving ground, missile base, and now a recreation area paved with roads and bike trails, where the channel is constantly dredged and the beaches replenished, is using the word "natural" in its lightest sense.

Sandy Hook 11/14--Cave Swallow, Clay-colored Sparrow

Mike and I went to Sandy Hook today and given the weather--cold and very windy--I didn't have high expectations for our birding, but it is Sandy Hook and you never know. We started by scanning the ocean from the Lot B area and while Mike got his year Northern Gannets, the wind was brutal and the birds few.  We crossed the road to walk on Plum Island, sans scopes, and ticked off a lot of the expected birds, but again, it was really windy, so the chances of finding a Nelson's Sparrow, for instance, were nil.

But, as we were heading back Mike spotted a swallow. Tree Swallows are not abundant this time of year but they're not rare--however, this stocky bird with a square, very unswallow-like tail, wasn't a Tree Swallow, judging from color, shape, and flight. Instead, it was a Cave Swallow, which is rare, but reported often  enough at Sandy Hook to be a bird you look for. With that we both had a year bird.

We proceeded north and walked the bike trail around Lot E, where, out of the wind, there were lots of sparrows, kinglets, mockingbirds, and a few Black-capped Chickadees. The latter made me very happy to see because it is probably the most common bird in New Jersey that I hardly ever see as I don't bird north of the Raritan River very often and this population on Sandy Hook is an anomaly, since you are still supposedly in Carolina Chickadee territory.

White-crowned Sparrow, immature

We kept going up the hook, staying out of the wind as much as possible and continued to build up the list. Sparrows were certainly the family of the day and when we got to J lot along the fence line there was the proverbial mixed feeding flock of juncos, White-throated Sparrows, Song Sparrows, and mixed in with them, both an immature White-crowned Sparrow and what at first we took for both a Field Sparrow (but no eye ring) then a Chipping Sparrow (but much too pale) and realized it was a Clay-colored Sparrow. Mike managed one blurry unusable photo and the whole flock shuffled and moved 50 yards away, the Clay-colored diving back into the brush. A phoebe and some Yellow-rumped Warblers hung around while we waited for it to re-emerge but it never did.

We did eventually get both Chipping and Field Sparrows, at North Beach, along with a little flock of Snow Buntings. About the only sparrow left we could reasonably expect was Savannah Sparrow and we found one along Hartshorne Drive as we drove south past the old officers' quarters. An eight-sparrow day is pretty impressive.

Also impressive and also along Hartshorne Drive was the feeding flock of 14 Golden-crowned Kinglets we found in the grassy edge near the curb, along with a few Palm Warblers and a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Golden-crown Kinglets are the perfect bird, being oblivious to birders. We watched them for as long as we could until a Park Ranger's vehicle was approaching from behind.

We ended up with 48 species for the day at the Hook, an excellent number with the windy conditions. We continued birding some of the lakes as we headed south and managed to pad the list for the day to 64 species, ending up with a pair of Redheads (hen and drake) at Lake of the Lilies in Point Pleasant Beach, but the bulk of our "work" was done at the Hook.

Brant 350
Canada Goose 35
Mallard 5
American Black Duck 10
Common Eider 1 Fisherman's Beach
Surf Scoter 20 Fisherman's Beach
White-winged Scoter 1 Fisherman's Beach
Black Scoter 35
Bufflehead 3 Plum Island
Hooded Merganser 5 Plum Island
Red-breasted Merganser 1 Plum Island
Mourning Dove 9
Herring Gull 35
Great Black-backed Gull 20
Red-throated Loon 2 Fisherman's Beach
Northern Gannet 15
Great Cormorant 1 On tower off North Beach
Double-crested Cormorant 1 North Beach
Great Blue Heron 1 Plum Island
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 3
Eastern Phoebe 2 J lot
Tree Swallow 5
Cave Swallow 1 Short square tail. Plum Island
Black-capped Chickadee 4
Carolina Wren 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 17
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 20
House Finch 15
Pine Siskin 3 Plum Island
American Goldfinch 3
Snow Bunting 10 North Beach
Chipping Sparrow 2 North Beach
Clay-colored Sparrow 1 J lot
Field Sparrow 2 North Beach
Dark-eyed Junco 35
White-crowned Sparrow 1 J lot.
White-throated Sparrow 15
Savannah Sparrow 1 Fort Hancock
Song Sparrow 15
Common Grackle 1 Bike path
Palm Warbler 3 Fort Hancock
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
Northern Cardinal 1