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