Great Bay Blvd 4/8--Black-bellied Plover & Don't Tell Me About Eagles

Black-bellied Plovers (digiscope)

I had to hang around the house until around 10 so I didn't get down to Manahawkin until mid-morning. I was hoping for some herons or shorebirds down there and found nothing new. I drove down to Great Bay Blvd in Tuckerton hoping for the same thing. Pretty disappointing. No Barn Swallows by Capt. Mike's or at the Rutgers facility yet. Nothing at the boat launch before the 2nd wooden bridge. I was walking around looking into the cedars, thinking maybe I'd find a night-heron, when I looked into the marsh to the north and saw some shorebirds with Brant. I figured they were just more yellowlegs, but diligence required that I go back to the car and get out the scope. Glad I did because they turned out to by FOY Black-bellied Plovers. Too far away for anything but a crappy digiscope but at least it was something new.  New for the county was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet down at the end of the road. I thought I'd have to wait around for the cold weather to get another chance to see this species so I was happily surprised.

The eagles are their usual nest down at the end of the road. I was a birding ambassador again this afternoon when I saw a couple looking into the marsh. Since the woman had binoculars, I thought she was looking at the eagle and that they might be interested in seeing it in the scope. They weren't even aware that there was an eagle there and were very pleased to see it sitting on the crossbars of a pole one over from the gigantic nest that is going on two years old.

So, I can be a nice guy but Zirlin's First Law of Birding which states, "If a guy in a pick-up truck asks you if you've seen any interesting birds, he doesn't care, all he wants to do is tell you about eagles he has seen," was on full display today while I was along Stafford Avenue toward the Bridge to Nowhere. A couple of workers for the Ocean County Water Utility (in a county pick-up, of course) stopped me and the driver, with the butt of an unlit cigar in his mouth, asked me the First Law's question verbatim and, since I could tell what was coming, I said, "Don't tell me about eagles!"

He was a little taken aback, since that was exactly what he intended to do. He also had a trove of stories about Ospreys and Red-tailed Hawks he had intended to trot out. I recited the Law to him and his buddy. They allowed as how it was probably true. We then went out to discuss the location of mysterious freshwater pond that the driver hadn't been able to locate, the size of crabs in the impoundments, and the sad history of the Bridge to Nowhere itself and parted amicably.

On my way back up the road I saw a guy in a pick-up truck getting in and out of it every 100 feet or so. He'd go into the marsh, look around, then return to the truck, drive a bit, and repeat his quick dash into the marsh. At first I thought he was looking for a spot to dump illegally but since he didn't have anything in the back of the pick-up, I thought he might be doing some sort of survey but I don't know. His truck was unmarked. I passed him on his third or fourth foray into the marsh. He pulled up to me just as I was about to go back on the trail, rolled down his window, told his barking dog to hush and then asked me if I'd seen "the" eagle. I only wish Mike was with me to experience this. Unbelievable.

Yes, I saw it. "He's beautiful, isn't he?" he remarked. So I knew we weren't looking at the same eagle, because the one I saw was an immature. "Oh, I wouldn't know what that looked like," he said, and drove back up the road.

Franklin was right. The turkey would have been a much better national bird.

The list for Great Bay Blvd:

24 species

Brant  25

Surf Scoter  1

Bufflehead  3

Red-breasted Merganser  2

Black-bellied Plover  6    

Greater Yellowlegs  2

Herring Gull  25

Great Black-backed Gull  3

Common Loon  2

Double-crested Cormorant  25

Great Egret  12

Snowy Egret  1

Osprey  10    

Bald Eagle  1    

Northern Flicker  1

Tree Swallow  5    Have nested in hole in pictured piling in previous years. 

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1

American Robin  3

Chipping Sparrow  1

Dark-eyed Junco  2

Song Sparrow  3

Red-winged Blackbird  5

Common Grackle  1

Boat-tailed Grackle  15

Tree Swallow on piling. Nest hole at left.