February Review--15 Year Birds

Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich ssp), Barnegat Light SP, with bling

Birding as a hobby: I go out and I walk around and I look for birds. I enjoy the birds for themselves--I watch crows mob first a Red-tailed Hawk, then a Northern Harrier at Manasquan River WMA; or I notice the bands on an Ipswich Savannah Sparrow; or I just admire how clean and crisp the Herring Gulls suddenly look as spring get closer.

Birding as a game: How many birds can I see today? This month? This year? In this county? In that county? Am I wasting my time in that county when I could be building up my list in this county?

This month it seemed like I alternated the hobby with the game every other day, although the game is always being played at some level. It is most satisfying when the hobby finds a bird I "need" for the game. The least satisfying is when I deliberately go looking for one bird for the game...and don't find it. Those are the times I have to remind myself, forcefully, that it's just a game, it is just a bird.

Northern Saw-whet Owl

With all that said, it was a pretty good month for the hobby and the game. Birds I wasn't expecting turned up, like the Barred Owl Mike and I heard at Eno's Pond on Sunday in the middle of the afternoon. We were just looking around there (hobby) and heard "Who cooks for you!" three times, adding the bird to our state and county lists (game). And it was a pretty good month for owls with a count of 4 species for the month: Barred, Saw-whet, Long-eared, Short-eared. Now, if we could only figure out where there's a Barn Owl in the state (hobby), preferably in Ocean County (game).

Now for some arithmetic: the 15 birds I added to my year list bring me up to 151 in two months. That's half of what I hope to see in NJ for the year. For the remaining 10 months of the year I will have to average 15 new birds a month--that should be easy in April and May during warbler migration and maybe in August during shorebird migration, but difficult the rest of the year, especially since I don't do pelagics so all the birds I see will be from land. That means I better enjoy the hobby because the game gets much more challenging hereon in.

Counties birded: Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Warren
127 species:

Species            First Sighting

Snow Goose   Brig

Ross's Goose   Cream Ridge

Greater White-fronted Goose   Conine’s Millpond

Brant   Manasquan Inlet

Cackling Goose   Etra Lake

Canada Goose   Bamber Lake

Mute Swan   Waretown

Trumpeter Swan   Stone Tavern Lake

Tundra Swan   Bamber Lake

Muscovy Duck   Fletcher Lake

Wood Duck   Little Silver Lake

Northern Shoveler   Lake Takanassee

Gadwall   Lake Takanassee

Eurasian Wigeon   Fletcher Lake

American Wigeon   Lake Takanassee

Mallard   Marshall's Pond

American Black Duck   Barnegat Beach

Northern Pintail   Forsythe-Barnegat

Green-winged Teal   Brig

Canvasback   Riverfront Landing

Redhead   Lake Takanassee

Ring-necked Duck   Marshall's Pond

Greater Scaup   Waretown

Lesser Scaup   Lake Takanassee

Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Surf Scoter   Point Pleasant Beach

White-winged Scoter   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Black Scoter   Manasquan Inlet

Long-tailed Duck   Waretown

Bufflehead   Waretown

Common Goldeneye   Cloverdale Farm

Hooded Merganser   Bamber Lake

Common Merganser   Marshall's Pond

Red-breasted Merganser   Waretown

Ruddy Duck   Riverfront Landing

Wild Turkey   New Egypt

Pied-billed Grebe   Lake Takanassee

Horned Grebe   Barnegat Municipal Dock

Rock Pigeon   New Egypt

Mourning Dove   Waretown

American Coot   Lake of the Lilies

American Oystercatcher   Brigantine Island

Killdeer   Cape May Point SP

Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Sanderling   Manasquan Inlet

Dunlin   Manasquan Inlet

Purple Sandpiper   Manasquan Inlet

American Woodcock   Crestwood Village

Greater Yellowlegs   Eno’s Pond

Bonaparte's Gull   Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal

Ring-billed Gull   Waretown

Herring Gull   Bamber Lake

Iceland Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Lesser Black-backed Gull   Lake Takanassee

Great Black-backed Gull   Waretown

Red-throated Loon   Brigantine Island

Pacific Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Common Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Northern Gannet   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Great Cormorant   Sayreville Marsh

Double-crested Cormorant   Riverfront Landing

Great Blue Heron   Cloverdale Farm

Black-crowned Night-Heron   Brig

Black Vulture   Pinehurst Rd

Turkey Vulture   Pinehurst Rd

Northern Harrier   Barnegat Municipal Dock

Sharp-shinned Hawk   Lake Takanassee

Cooper's Hawk   Colliers Mills WMA

Bald Eagle   Waretown

Red-shouldered Hawk   Cape May Point SP

Red-tailed Hawk   New Egypt

Rough-legged Hawk   BC Fairgrounds

Barred Owl   Eno’s Pond

Long-eared Owl   Assunpink WMA

Short-eared Owl   Pole Farm

Northern Saw-whet Owl   Pole Farm

Belted Kingfisher   Cattus Island County Park

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Downy Woodpecker   Collinstown Rd

Hairy Woodpecker   New Egypt

Pileated Woodpecker   Assunpink WMA

Northern Flicker   New Egypt

American Kestrel   Plumsted

Merlin   Cranberry Bogs

Peregrine Falcon   Sayreville Marsh

Eastern Phoebe   Assunpink WMA

Blue Jay   Poplar St Boat Ramp

American Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Fish Crow   New Egypt

Common Raven   Cranberry Bogs

Carolina Chickadee   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Black-capped Chickadee   Merrill Creek Reservoir

Boreal Chickadee   Merrill Creek Reservoir

Tufted Titmouse   Collinstown Rd

Red-breasted Nuthatch   Collinstown Rd

White-breasted Nuthatch   Cloverdale Farm

Brown Creeper   Colliers Mills WMA

Carolina Wren   Collinstown Rd

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Brig

Eastern Bluebird   Cloverdale Farm

Hermit Thrush   Collinstown Rd

American Robin   Bamber Lake

Gray Catbird   Assunpink WMA

Northern Mockingbird   Collinstown Rd

European Starling   Barnegat Municipal Dock

House Finch   Collinstown Rd

Pine Siskin   Cloverdale Farm

American Goldfinch   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Chipping Sparrow   Manasquan River WMA

Field Sparrow   New Egypt

American Tree Sparrow   Shelter Cove Park

Fox Sparrow   Collinstown Rd

Dark-eyed Junco   Collinstown Rd

White-throated Sparrow   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Savannah Sparrow   Pole Farm

Song Sparrow   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Swamp Sparrow   Whitesbog

Eastern Meadowlark   Pole Farm

Red-winged Blackbird   Barnegat

Brown-headed Cowbird   New Egypt

Rusty Blackbird   Oros Wildlife Preserve

Common Grackle   New Egypt

Boat-tailed Grackle   Manasquan Inlet

Pine Warbler   Colliers Mills WMA

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Northern Cardinal   Poplar St Boat Ramp

House Sparrow   Barnegat

Common Goldeneye, Cloverdale Farm

Merrill Creek Reservoir 2/25--Black-capped Chickadee, Boreal Chickadee

Boreal Chickadee
Photo courtesy and copyright Ernest P. Hahn

There are parallels between the stock market and birding. In the stock market, you invest money and the payoff is...more money. In birding, you invest time and the payoff is...birds. Of course, it doesn't always work out this way. Sometimes you lose money. Sometimes you don't get the bird. These thoughts started to occur to me on Saturday when I got the first alert that a Boreal Chickadee, a bird of the northern forests and a bird that hadn't been seen in NJ in over 30 years, was at the Visitor's Center of Merrill Creek Reservoir up in Warren County, a 4 hour round trip drive from my house. I didn't, as they say in investing, like the risk/reward of driving over 100 miles for a tiny bird that might not stick around.

On Sunday it was still there. I felt like a good stock was getting away from me, getting too expensive because now the drive was the same but the risk of it leaving was even more. When more and more reports kept rolling in the concept of "capitulation" came into play. When a stock is rocketing (or in the other extreme, dropping like a falling knife), even though you know it is a bad idea to chase it (or dump it) you do it anyway. When Mike, on Sunday afternoon, suggested we go up to Merrill Creek on Monday morning, I capitulated.

There is also a concept in technical investing called "The Three Day" rule which goes roughly like this: On the first day the smart money buys, on the second day, the semi-smart money buys, on the third day, the dumb money buys (or the inverse). The weather forecast for today was for high winds--gusts of 40 to 60 mph. The last thing Shari said to me last night before we fell asleep was "You know, when it's windy, birds hunker down." I was afraid we were going to be the birding equivalent of dumb money.

However, the dumb money can be successful (read: lucky) if it transacts its business early in the day before everything collapses, so Mike and I were on the road at 7 for the 2 hour drive to the reservoir. Halfway there we got an alert that the bird was still present. Upon arrival, instead of the mob scene of the weekend that had been described to me, there were only 4 or 5 old retired guys, like us standing beneath a Norway spruce. The bird had been seen very recently. Mike went off to the Visitor's Center. I stood with the guys, a couple of whom I knew (including Ernie, who provided the photo above). Within 5 minutes the bird flew into the spruce. I got brief, decent looks at it. Mike, however, was still inside. When he emerged, I told him I was ready to go. I am still alive.

We stood around some more, but not very long, as more birders arrived, more of whom we knew and then the bird, like a bullet, came out of the spruce and landed in a thicket behind us. Great naked eye looks at the bird.

Black-capped Chickadee

Oddly, I thought, the chickadee wasn't going to the feeders maintained by the staff of the very handsome and comfortable (and warm) Visitor's Center. Black-capped Chickadees, however, were, and these birds were also new state year birds for us. Amusingly, the other rare bird at the feeders was a Carolina Chickadee, identified by the small amount of white on its wings and not the "hockey stick" pattern of the black-capped. The ranges of Black-caps and Carolinas have been moving and merging and the birds do hybridize and probably if it weren't for the extensive DNA research done on these two species they'd be lumped as one.

Having two year birds, why not try for a third? A hen Barrow's Goldeneye has been present on the reservoir for a while. Not an easy bird to identify and though someone said there was one in his scope, Mike and I decided to get our scopes out of the car and walk closer to the water's edge (and out of the wind) to scan the goldeneye flock. Despite about an hour of serious scanning, we couldn't come up with the Barrow's. I should have looked in that guy's scope, but I doubt I would have found the duck from that distance. We did see a hen Long-tailed Duck, which didn't really register as anything special to us--we're from Ocean County--but on an inland body of water, that duck comes up as rare too.

So, one mega-rarity for the day and two very common south Jersey birds that were about 50 miles out of their range. The wind was, as forecast, brutal. That we lasted for over 2 hours is a testament to either our fortitude or silliness. But overall, I'd say it was a good investment of our time.

21 species

Long-tailed Duck  1    

Bufflehead  5

Common Goldeneye  30

Hooded Merganser  2

Common Merganser  3

Bald Eagle  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2

Downy Woodpecker  1

Hairy Woodpecker  1    Heard

Northern Flicker  1

Blue Jay  1    Heard

American Crow  1    Heard

Carolina Chickadee  1   

Black-capped Chickadee  5

Boreal Chickadee  1    

Tufted Titmouse  2

White-breasted Nuthatch  2

Eastern Bluebird  4

Dark-eyed Junco  6

White-throated Sparrow  1

Song Sparrow  2    Heard

Crestwood Village 2/22--American Woodcock

Last night, Steve texted me that he was listening to a woodcock "peenting" over in Toms River. This is a bird I missed all of last year through sheer pig-headedness. Since we moved here, I've been able to get American Woodcock about a mile away from the house, reliably. Except for last year, when I returned to my supposedly reliable spot a half dozen times with no results, all the while refusing to go to any of the other locations where they were being seen and heard, including the place Steve was in last night, because...I don't know... because I wanted the woodcocks to be where I was!

I texted back to Steve that this year I wasn't going to be stubborn and that I would get over to Toms River to listen and maybe even see the woodcocks display, but tonight I was stubborn and at 5:45, just after sunset, I was back at my spot, waiting. At 5:55 the church about a quarter mile away began playing its bells, drowning out any chance I might have of hearing woodcocks for 7 minutes (I timed it). I remember this drove me crazy last year. The bells would chime a tune for a minute or two then stop. For two seconds I'd think it was over, then another tune would start bonging out. Stop. Another song. Stop. Yet another tune.

At 6:02, with the music finally fading away, it was fairly dark but the only bird calls I was hearing came from a flock geese overhead. I had given myself an arbitrary deadline of 6:10. If I didn't hear a woodcock by then, I was abandoning the spot forever and driving to some unlikely soccer field in Toms River next chance I got. Then I heard "Peent!" Or thought I did. I walked in the direction of the sound and heard it again. Then again. Then I heard wings whistling above me, but I couldn't find the bird. After another couple of peents I was satisfied that my reliable spot was still reliable. It may be a bit early for the woodcocks to be displaying (I can return at my leisure to find out), but at least I know they're still there (or have returned after a one year, inexplicable hiatus) and I don't have to drive into Toms River during rush hour to get one.

Oros Preserve 2/19--Rusty Blackbird

I was up in Woodbridge Township to visit my mother (she's fine, thanks) but before I arrived at the ancestral home, I stopped off at the Ernest L. Oros Wildlife Preserver in the Avenel section, within view of the green dome of Rahway State Prison (name now softened to East Jersey State Prison so that Rahway isn't stigmatized). It's an interesting plot, wetlands with Woodbridge Creek (a tributary of the Rahway River) running through it.

Each time I got there (which is usually in the spring) the habitat improves through whose efforts I'm not certain, but I appreciate it. Great spot for warblers in May. I first got to know it when Red-headed Woodpeckers were wintering there a few years ago. They seem to have disappeared, but the other specialty bird, Rusty Blackbird, can still be found there and it didn't take me long to find a small flock of these glossy, yellow-eyed birds, which, for your convenience, are not rusty in winter, although, when the light was right, I was able to see a little brown on the napes of their necks.

The trails there are rudimentary and can be muddy but today the ground was frozen as was some of the water. In the back there is a kind of pond with open water and it was there that I saw most of my waterfowl for the day. Including an American Wigeon and a couple of Gadwalls, both unusual for the area  and both new for me in Middlesex County.

In less than an hour and a half I thoroughly covered the preserve, which is a good thing when Mom is waiting. In that time span I had 19 species, not bad for a few acres enclosed by railroad tracks and truck routes.

Canada Goose  12

Gadwall  2    

American Wigeon  1    

Mallard  29

Mourning Dove  10

Herring Gull  1    Flyover

Great Blue Heron  1

Belted Kingfisher  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1

Downy Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  1

Blue Jay  7

American Robin  1

European Starling  1

Song Sparrow  7

Red-winged Blackbird  5

Brown-headed Cowbird  1    Front section, in thickets near gazebo

Rusty Blackbird  6    I.

Common Grackle  1    Near stream in front, with flicker, Red-bellied Woodpecker and jays

Conine's Millpond | Pole Farm 2/17--Greater White-fronted Goose, Short-eared Owl

Greater White-fronted Goose in the middle
(digiscope)

And sometimes it all works perfectly. Mike and I had a plan today and it worked better than we expected. We met at 1 in the afternoon instead of our usual morning rendezvous and headed up to the fields around Assunpink. We were looking for rare geese--both Barnacle and Greater White-fronted Goose have been in the area. We made a stop at a field where the GWFG had been reported yesterday but there was nothing there but standard-issue geese. "We should check the lake," Mike said, being Conine's Millpond in Allentown. All the geese there were at the back of the lake, away from the fishermen, so while they were a little jammed up, at least we didn't have to scan the entire body of water. We came up with quite few different species of ducks mixed in with the Canada Geese before Mike found the Greater White-fronted stuck behind a couple of larger geese. It was too far away for either of our cameras, but after much frustration because the goofy goose would drift behind another goose, it finally came out into a clear spot on the water and I was able to digiscope some truly terrible documentary photos. You can click on the photo above to make it larger and more awful.

We still had time before the main part of our plan kicked in, so we went up to Assunpink and scanned the lake with some other birders and came up with 10 species of waterfowl including a few Canvasbacks and Lesser Scaups. Then we went to the semi-secret spot to look the Long-eared Owl. I'd seen it last week. Funny story: When we first saw it in January, as I was being positioned by our friend into the exact spot I had to stand, my hat snagged on a twig and fell off. Last week, while kicking around in the same spot I couldn't find the owl. I was just about to quit when my hat snagged on a twig. I looked up. In a beam of sunlight, there was the owl. Today, I did not lose my hat. The owl (there is most certainly more than one in there) was in a different tree, even though the fresh pellets were scattered around the tree where we originally saw it.

This was all prelude to the main part of our plan, the reason we met so late. We drove over to the Pole Farm in Mercer County--crepuscular owls were our goal. As it seemed to be for many, because when we arrived at 4:15, the parking lot was more than half-full and photographers were assembling their artillery onto tripods while others were already set up on the muddy path between two grassy fields.

Northern Saw-whet Owl

Before stopping there though, we walked back to grove of trees and looked for the (again, "the" is a misnomer, there are more than one) Northern Saw-whet Owl and after a little searching, Mike found one about 10 feet off the ground. The photographers we'd asked, on our way in, seemed disappointed that only one owl was showing, but that's because it was so tucked in that getting a clean shot was for them impossible. However, since on my tombstone it will say "HE ONLY NEEDED ONE" I was perfectly fine with the owl we saw and perfectly satisfied (well, not "perfectly" with the photo it allowed me.

Finally, we were prepared to settle in for the main event. Sunset today was 5:35. We were back on the muddy path at just about 5:10. We figured a good half hour before we saw anything. Northern Harriers still had the field (including one beautiful Gray Ghost). They are supposed to punch out at sunset and leave the field for the night shift. But probably because the sky was overcast and the winds were calm, we hadn't been standing there for more than a few minutes when I spotted a raptor that was flying like a bat, not a harrier. It was the first of the 3 Short-eared Owls that we saw today. The harriers were not happy with the competition and there were a couple of skirmishes that we watched. A harrier and an owl were parrying low to the ground when they both disappeared into the high grass. Neither came back up, that we could see. Much speculation but who knows?

This was a much better result than we had anticipated--usually it is some dim by the time the owls make their appearance that they are merely silhouettes in the gloaming. Today we got to see them in graylight, with their rufous tails and buffy bodies. They were fun to watch as they flopped above the fields. Much too far for photography for us. I'd be curious to see what the artillerymen came up with.

On our way back to the parking lot we saw 5 Savannah Sparrows in the muddy path and just near the rudimentary restrooms, a few Eastern Meadowlarks finished the day for us.

Savannah Sparrow

Edison Boat Launch 2/16--Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull, middle

Well, if I can't find an Iceland Gull in my home county of Ocean, at least I can find one in my boyhood home county of Middlesex. Actually, I didn't find it, it was pointed out to me by Jason on his and Patrick's field trip to a couple of unpicturesque spots on the Raritan River where it flows past the Edgeboro Landfill and through the Sayreville Marsh, making it perfect habitat for gulls--lots of gulls.

When I arrived at the Edison Boat Launch, a spot I'd only heard about, there were, as advertised, thousands of gulls on the water, on the roofs of the warehouses behind me, and flying in great circles over the active landfill. Some people, like Jason, enjoy sorting through all the standard issue gulls looking for the rarity and, having spent hundreds of hours doing it, can pick out the "white-winged gull" from the mass very quickly. When I was in printing, after looking at copy for 20 or 30 years, typos would just jump out at me. Iceland Gulls, Glaucous Gulls, Little Gulls...these are the misprints of the Laridae.

Today, the only rarity were the two Iceland Gulls we saw at the boat ramp, one a glistening white gull, the other a first cycle, light coffee colored bird. Because the Iceland Gull is just slightly larger than a Ring-bill Gull and just slightly smaller than a Herring Gull, even when one was identified, it was awfully hard to pick it out from the ever-shuffling flock. A Glaucous Gull, being huge, at least would have stood out.

After about an hour and half in Edison, the group drove to the other side of the river to Ken Buchanan Park in Sayreville. While as the gull flies it is only a mile and half away, as the car drives it is a 12 mile, 20 minute ride, not including the Wawa stop (another new one for me!). In Sayreville, the river had comparatively few gulls, but the raptor show was better featuring Northern Harriers, a nicely perched Peregrine Falcon, and nesting Bald Eagles. A Common Raven was calling but I couldn't find it and there were 5 or 6 Great Cormorants affording nice looks of the brood patches on their flanks. Great Cormorant is usually a distant bird for me, so it was a treat to find them relatively close.

For the last stop of the day about half the group drove over to South Amboy's Raritan Bay Waterfront Park where we picked up Brant, Sanderling, Horned Grebe, and Red-throated Loon for the day.

Sanderlings on the rocky coast of South Amboy

35 species on the day

Species              First Sighting

Brant   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Canada Goose   Edison Boat Launch

Mallard   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

American Black Duck   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Greater Scaup   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Bufflehead   Edison Boat Launch

Common Goldeneye   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Common Merganser   Edison Boat Launch

Red-breasted Merganser   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Horned Grebe   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Rock Pigeon   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Sanderling   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Ring-billed Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Herring Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Iceland Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Great Black-backed Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Red-throated Loon   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Common Loon   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Great Cormorant   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Double-crested Cormorant   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Black Vulture   Sayreville

Turkey Vulture   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Northern Harrier   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Bald Eagle   Edison Boat Launch

Red-tailed Hawk   Edison Boat Launch

Belted Kingfisher   Edison Boat Launch

Peregrine Falcon   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Blue Jay   Edison Boat Launch

Fish Crow   Edison Boat Launch

Common Raven   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

European Starling   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

White-throated Sparrow   Edison Boat Launch

Song Sparrow   Edison Boat Launch

Red-winged Blackbird   Edison Boat Launch

House Sparrow   Edison Boat Launch