Butler Beach 4/10--Forster's Tern

Forster's Terns

I had just about finished kicking around Colliers Mills this morning, walking my usual route around Turnmill Pond and then to a little pond past the power line cut. Nothing new for the morning--no early Prairie Warblers as I was hoping. There were a lot of Palm Warblers about in an almost 1/1 ratio with the Pine Warblers. I was on my way back, about 1000 feet from the car when I got a text from my friend Dianna that again this year a Barred Owl had returned to the box in the woods behind her house.

Even though I have heard Barred Owl this year (at Eno's Pond in February), there's nothing like seeing one, so I drove over to her house (an undisclosed location) and saw the bird (at least it's top half) in the box, eyes open. Owls do not look like they're happy to see you, so we kept our distance and kept our visit brief.

Dianna has been investigating some of the little known and less birded areas of Berkeley. I haven't spent much time there, despite these spots being closer to my house than Barnegat or Manahawkin. A lot of the area was swamped by Sandy and it is only now that some improvements have been made. She offered to show me some of her spots so off we went.

Before she had texted me I had been considering driving down to Eagleswood or Tuckerton to see if I could find "a" Forster's Tern, since there have been scattered reports of them recently. I didn't relish the idea of all that driving from Colliers Mills. So I was very happy when we drove to the end of Butler Blvd, which ends at the bay, when Dianna looked at a bulkhead on the right and asked, "Are those terns?" They surely were. 31 Forster's Terns by our count.

We then drove and walked a few more places on the bayshore and marshes. Some of the places I'd investigated briefly a long time ago. The most interesting place, I thought, is another Forsythe outpost called Murray Grove which is near Good Luck Point. There's an old AT&T building in the marsh and area has an air of desolation that I like. Last year, I walked along this road for a bit but the marshes were empty. Today we saw both egrets, a Tricolored Heron, a couple of Glossy Ibises, a Peregrine Falcon on a newly built nesting platform and the inevitable Bald Eagle flying over. A really interesting area with the water of the marsh about 1 inch below road level; I just wish there was a safer place to park and that the road construction in that area, which was going on last year too, was finally finished.

I wonder if that owl is hooting behind Dianna's house tonight.

Laughing Gull