Shark River 1/8--Eurasian Wigeon

Eurasian Wigeon

Mike & I birded the North Shore today, working our way south from Seven Presidents Park. The weather started drizzly, was misty and foggy for a good portion of the day, which made the viewing conditions less than ideal in some spots. The ocean was rough even though there seemed to be no wind to speak of. The ponds and "lakes" were very smooth. Some places had a lot of birds, some places had zero and there didn't seem to be any easy explanation for either condition.

Our main target was at the Shark River, where a Eurasian Wigeon has been reported off and on for what seems like years now. Individually and together we've tried for that bird a number of times in the last year or so and never found it. I got so disgusted last year that I drove all the way to Cape May just to get an "easy" one.

Many of the reports said that it could be seen from the 7-11 parking lot, which we couldn't understand because the 7-11 we knew about was across the street from the marina and there was no way you could see into the water from there. We knew more or less the section the bird was supposed to be in, so, instead of driving and stopping here and there, we left the car in the marina parking lot and walked through MacLeare Park to the cove on its west side. With our bins we could see some wigeons, so we continue the walk on the other side of the guard rail along Rt 35 until we were on top of the birds and thank you very much there was the Eurasian Wigeon. An  excellent view, not one of those birds far away that you have dither and debate about: Red head, gray body. Looking around, trying to figure how anyone saw this bird from half a mile away at the 7-11, we saw a gas station, which was mentioned in some reports and the station's convenience store was also a 7-11. Mystery solved. I'm still happy we made the walk instead of parking and either scoping from the lot or having to dodge traffic to cross the highway.

My only other new bird for the day was a Lesser Black-backed Gull that we found in Lake Takanassee where the Cackling Goose of the 1st was not to be found but we both have that bird for the year, the state, and Monmouth County, so we weren't let down.

We were let down late in the day at the Manasquan Inlet where once again we dipped on Black-headed and Iceland Gull, both of which were there yesterday, neither of which were there today, despite our waiting out the tide and scanning a bazillion boring gulls.

Still, we had one cool bird for the day and if you could have one cool bird every day you'd have quite the birding year.