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| Herring Gulls, American Oystercatcher, Marbled Godwit, Beach at A21 |
BVD! While on Scott's trip up and down Island Beach SP we stumbled upon a couple of Lincoln's Sparrows. However, a combination of narrow trails and a large group, along with the essential shyness of the birds, made getting a decent look at them near impossible. The first one, at the end of the Johnny Allen Cove trail, I missed completely. The second one, on the entrance path at Spizzle Creek, I caught glimpses of, mostly of the head, but if you put all my glimpses together, you'd probably have a whole bird. It isn't like the bird would pop up and perch on a tree top. Instead, we kept pushing it along and it kept diving into "deep" grass (compared to the bird) or else into the shrubbery lining the path. It was my first year bird of the month. Not that unusual I suppose, given how far into the year we are, but it feels odd to go a couple of weeks without adding anything to the list.
It's a difficult time of the year to find places to bird. While the crowds have left the beaches of Sandy Hook and Island Beach, the hunters have started to take over the WMAs and while I'm not that scared of being shot, persistent gun fire can make the birding experience very unpleasant.
The two most "interesting" birds to me on Sunday, leaving aside the frustrating Lincoln's, were the Eastern Meadowlark off the dune crossover at the first bathing beach that Scott speculated had been blown in off the ocean and the continuing Marbled Godwit on the southern end of the park. A few in our group had never seen a Marbled Godwit and it was fun to get them on this rather impressive sandpiper.
Other "rarities" for the day included a singing White-eyed Vireo on Reed's Road and a Bay-breasted Warbler along with a Northern Waterthrush at Spizzle Creek. Their rarity is based on their lateness, not their scarcity.
We birded the place hard, starting around 9 and finishing up around 4, looking around at almost all the hot spots in the park from Reed's Road down to the Winter Anchorage. In that time I listed 66 species and I missed at least 5 that Mike saw.
Surf Scoter 1 Off first bathing beach
Black Scoter 10
American Oystercatcher 4
Black-bellied Plover 5
Semipalmated Plover 1 Heard flyover
Marbled Godwit 1 Continuing large cinnamon colored godwit with bicolored bill.
Laughing Gull 15
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 100
Lesser Black-backed Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 15
Caspian Tern 1
Royal Tern 2
Double-crested Cormorant 200
Brown Pelican 25
Great Egret 6
Tricolored Heron 1 Winter Anchorage
Northern Harrier 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Cooper's Hawk 1
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 5
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 2
Eastern Phoebe 2
White-eyed Vireo 1 Heard, clearly, on Reed's Road. Singing multiple times
Blue Jay 1 Heard
Carolina Chickadee 2 Heard
Tree Swallow 500
Golden-crowned Kinglet 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Brown Creeper 1 Spizzle Creek
Carolina Wren 2 Heard
European Starling 5
Gray Catbird 6
Brown Thrasher 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
Hermit Thrush 1 Spizzle Creek
American Robin 10
House Sparrow 2
House Finch 25
Chipping Sparrow 20
Field Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 1
White-crowned Sparrow 1 Road to Winter Anchorage
White-throated Sparrow 20
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 40
Lincoln's Sparrow 1 Spizzle Creek
Swamp Sparrow 1 Spizzle Creek
Eastern Towhee 3
Eastern Meadowlark 1 Off boardwalk of first bathing beach
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Boat-tailed Grackle 6
Northern Waterthrush 1 Spizzle Briefly seen heard chip note multiple times
American Redstart 1 Interpretive Center
Northern Parula 2 Spizzle Creek
Bay-breasted Warbler 1 Fat warbler, wing bar, still had some color Spizzle Creek
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1 Female, Johnny Allen trail
Palm Warbler 2
Pine Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
Prairie Warbler 1 Spizzle Creek
Black-throated Green Warbler 1 Reed's Road
Northern Cardinal 1 Heard
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