January Wrap-up--135 Species

Ash-throated Flycatcher, New Egypt

I finished off the month today with one new year bird--Eastern Phoebe, one of those half-hardy species, in New Egypt--and one new county bird--a Red-headed Woodpecker that I tracked down in the woods east of the police shooting range at Colliers Mills. When I was out in New Egypt this morning, I thought I spotted the phoebe but it turned out to be the Ash-throated Flycatcher that has been there since Sunday. I'd already seen that bird. In fact, I've seen Ash-throated Flycatchers 6 times this month in 3 places two times each--Sandy Hook, LBI, and New Egypt. I did see the phoebe about two minutes later, but it shows how jaded you can become when a rarity is not the bird you "need" for the month.

Black Guillemot, Island Beach SP

Of course, probably the biggest rarity in the county this month was the Black Guillemot that spent a couple of weeks at Barnegat Light.  I was glad I saw that one early and avoided the birding frenzy. I was lucky enough to come across that bird twice more, both times from the Island Beach side, where the viewing was much better though the walking was much longer. Yesterday's Northern Shrike was also a bird that created pandemonium among twitchers, mostly because of the logistical problems of parking and access. Not many birders go into those bogs, so they don't know the way around. I don't go there as often as I'd like because I either don't like where I have to park, or don't want to risk dealing with the adjacent landowner's wild dogs, or don't feel like walking around in my knee-high boots to wade through the flooded entrance. To give an idea of how little birded that hot spot is, I have 105 species listed there. The next person on the list has 49.

Savannah Sparrow, Ephraim P Emson Preserve
The newest refuge in Ocean County

I did all right with owls this month finding 4 species. I hid my Long-eared Owl sighting for a week to avoid calumny from the owl police, so it didn't appear in the rare bird alerts and I didn't write about finding one in full view staring at me eye level in the middle of a branch while I tried to softly call Mike over to where I was, but it really doesn't matter. That owl roost is now well-known and the owls have been there for 7 or 8 years and don't really seem to care who knows where they are. Still, it's the principle of the thing.

If my goal is to list 300 species in New Jersey, in one month I got 45% of the way to that target. But now each addition becomes incrementally more difficult. In February it will be hard to add many birds to the list. It won't be until spring that the list can start to balloon. I better just go out and enjoy the one I find.
This month's list:
Counties birded:
New Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean
New York: New York

Species             First Sighting

Snow Goose   Sandy Hook

Brant   Sandy Hook

Cackling Goose   Conines Millpond

Canada Goose   Lake Takanassee

Mute Swan   Oceanic Bridge

Trumpeter Swan   Stone Tavern Lake

Tundra Swan   Bamber Lake

Muscovy Duck   Fletcher Lake

Wood Duck   Lake of the Lilies

Northern Shoveler   Brig

Gadwall   Lake Takanassee

Eurasian Wigeon   MacLearie Park

American Wigeon   Lake Takanassee

Mallard   Jackson Woods

American Black Duck   Sandy Hook

Northern Pintail   Ocean Acres

Green-winged Teal   Brig

Canvasback   Mathis Veteran's Memorial Park

Ring-necked Duck   Stone Tavern Lake

Greater Scaup   Oceanic Bridge

Lesser Scaup   Riverfront Landing

Common Eider   Sandy Hook

Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Surf Scoter   Sandy Hook

White-winged Scoter   Sandy Hook

Black Scoter   Sandy Hook

Long-tailed Duck   Sandy Hook

Bufflehead   Jackson Woods

Common Goldeneye   Bamber Lake

Hooded Merganser   Lake Takanassee

Common Merganser   Stone Tavern Lake

Red-breasted Merganser   Sea Bright Pavilion

Ruddy Duck   Lake Takanassee

Wild Turkey   Brig

Pied-billed Grebe   Bamber Lake

Horned Grebe   Sandy Hook

Rock Pigeon   Brick

Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd

American Coot   Lake Takanassee

American Oystercatcher   Brigantine Island

Black-bellied Plover   Brigantine Island

Killdeer   New Egypt

Marbled Godwit   Brigantine Island

Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Sanderling   Sandy Hook

Dunlin   Brigantine Island

Purple Sandpiper   Deal

American Woodcock   Beach Ave

Greater Yellowlegs   Brig

Willet   Brigantine Island

Razorbill   Manasquan Inlet

Black Guillemot   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Ring-billed Gull   Lake Takanassee

Herring Gull   Sandy Hook

Great Black-backed Gull   Sandy Hook

Red-throated Loon   Sandy Hook

Common Loon   Monmouth Beach

Northern Gannet   Sandy Hook

Great Cormorant   Island Beach SP

Double-crested Cormorant   Oceanic Bridge

American Bittern   Brig

Great Blue Heron   Sylvan Lake

Great Egret   Brig

Black-crowned Night-Heron   Brig

Black Vulture   Sandy Hook

Turkey Vulture   Toms River

Northern Harrier   Beach Ave

Sharp-shinned Hawk   Brig

Cooper's Hawk   Beach Ave

Bald Eagle   Sandy Hook

Red-shouldered Hawk   Manahawkin WMA

Red-tailed Hawk   Wawa Lakewood

Eastern Screech-Owl   Manahawkin WMA

Great Horned Owl   Collinstown Rd

Long-eared Owl   Assunpink WMA

Short-eared Owl   BC Fairgrounds

Belted Kingfisher   Lake Takanassee

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Sandy Hook

Red-headed Woodpecker   Brig

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Wawa Lakewood

Downy Woodpecker   Whiting WMA

Hairy Woodpecker   Manahawkin WMA

Northern Flicker   Sandy Hook

American Kestrel   BC Fairgrounds

Peregrine Falcon   Beach Ave

Eastern Phoebe   New Egypt

Ash-throated Flycatcher   Sandy Hook

Northern Shrike   Cranberry Bogs

Blue Jay   Jackson Woods

American Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Fish Crow   Manahawkin WMA

Common Raven   New Egypt

Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd

Black-capped Chickadee   Sandy Hook

Tufted Titmouse   Whiting WMA

Horned Lark   Harvey Cedars--Sunset Park

Tree Swallow   Holgate

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Whiting WMA

Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Cattus Island County Park

White-breasted Nuthatch   Whiting WMA

Brown Creeper   Colliers Mills WMA

Winter Wren   Great Bay Blvd

Carolina Wren   Jackson Woods

European Starling   Howell

Gray Catbird   Island Beach SP

Northern Mockingbird   Sandy Hook

Eastern Bluebird   Whiting WMA

Hermit Thrush   Sandy Hook

American Robin   35 Sunset Rd

Cedar Waxwing   Sandy Hook

House Sparrow   Riverfront Landing

House Finch   Whiting WMA

American Goldfinch   Lake Takanassee

Snow Bunting   Island Beach SP

Chipping Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Field Sparrow   Stone Tavern Lake

Lark Sparrow   Plainsboro

American Tree Sparrow   Holgate

Fox Sparrow   Whitesbog

Dark-eyed Junco   Sandy Hook

White-crowned Sparrow   New Egypt

White-throated Sparrow   Jackson Woods

Savannah Sparrow   Brig

Song Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Swamp Sparrow   Beach Ave

Eastern Towhee   Manahawkin WMA

Eastern Meadowlark   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-winged Blackbird   Sandy Hook

Brown-headed Cowbird   New Egypt

Common Grackle   Oxycocus Bog

Boat-tailed Grackle   Manahawkin WMA

Orange-crowned Warbler   Holgate

Pine Warbler   Whitesbog Road

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Sandy Hook

Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Cranberry Bogs Dover Road 1/30--Northern Shrike

Northern Shrike
Photo © Dianna Lieter

I was standing on line at the PABT, waiting for the bus to Toms River when the alert came in: Northern Shrike in the old cranberry bogs along Dover Road. Since these bogs are not heavily birded, there was some confusion as to where they were and how to access them. The land is state land, officially part of the Double Trouble SP, but because the access to the main path in is adjacent to private property, and the property owner is not friendly, a place to park and way in is tricky. You can park across the street from an unmarked trail and wind up pretty close to the where the bird's location was pinned, but unless the weather has been exceptionally dry, you better be wearing high boots. You can also park around the power line cut and walk over the hill past a huge sand pit and and get to the bogs that way, but it isn't the ideal place to park on busy CR 530.

As everyone was going back and forth on the logistics, I boarded the bus. I thought if the bus didn't get caught in traffic, I'd have a shot at getting in there before sun down. Then my phone rang and it was Bob D asking me for directions to the spot, since his Waze wasn't working. (Waze, by the by, is the app that was bringing people to the middle Colliers Mills when they wanted to go to the Borgata, so maybe he was better off.) I gave him directions from Exit 80 on the Parkway. The woman on my right glanced up when she heard, "Park at the power line cut."

I was also texting with my friend Steve, who just happened to be in the area, giving him directions as to where to park. Meanwhile, some intrepid--and fast out the door--birders had relocated the bird in a different park of the bogs. Frustration, on my part, mounted.

Bob D called me again. He had overshot the mark. I turned him around and again, the woman next to me looked up when I said, "Maybe park across the road by the No Dumping sign."

I was weighing the idea of just going home and trying for the bird tomorrow but the bus was making good time and we pulled into the Toms River Park & Ride just shy of 4 o'clock. From there, it is only about a 10 minute drive. When I got near the power line cut I saw 6 or 7 cars parked helter skelter, some of which I recognized, so I knew I just had to stop. I hustled up the hill and started walking the cut through some puddles on the trail until I realized that the bogs were overflowing and that I'd never get through just wearing my boots.

I turned around and walked through the old "village" which consists of a broken down barracks-like building, a cinder block building or two and something that might have been a barn. I walked over the trail where the bogs are nearly breached and thought the best idea would be a straight shot along the eastern edge of the bogs. It wasn't, because the that trail had grown up quite a bit more than the last time I was there. As I was half-running through shoulder high grass, Bob D called me, jubilant. He had seen the bird. I could see him across a bog, on the trail I should have taken. He told me that the bird was in sight and that A & B & D & D & D & V had it in the scope.

I turned the corner on to a more trampled down path and started running for real. My friends saw me and urged me on. I got a quick look at the bird in the scope and then it dove down. Well, I'd seen it, anyway.

My doc shot

However, patience paid off, because the bird popped up again (it was across yet another bog--I say bog, but technically it was probably a reservoir) and Dianna put it in the scope for me. Beautiful look. Then it flew around to a few more trees and, as the sky darkened, perched up in a bare tree, nicely silhouetted, showing its hooked beak. I took some photos just to document it. From the shape of the bird's beak you can tell it is a shrike, but you needed to see it in the scope to see the thin black mask to distinguish it from a Loggerhead Shrike.

This is the second time in a year that I've been on a bus back from New York and a rare bird has appeared in Ocean County. Last year it was a Summer Tanager on Cedar Bonnet Island. Since I only go to NYC about 3 times a year, those are pretty amazing odds.

And the guy who originally found the bird? What he was doing out there to begin with remains a mystery.

Manasquan Inlet 1/29--Razorbill

I had an appointment in Brick this afternoon, so I planned to spend the morning in Point Pleasant Beach, checking out its various hot spots. Lake of the Lilies had the usual ducks, including a huge flock of scaup, but the Redheads that had been mixed in with them were long gone. Little Silver Lake, nearby, was quiet, but a Pied-billed Grebe made it list-worthy.

Where I really wanted to go was the Manasquan Inlet, to spend a solid hour or so on the end of the jetty to see what ducks, loons, grebes, or alcids I could come up with. But, unlike the last few times when access to the jetty was difficult but not completely blocked, today the beach was overrun by gigantic Tonka Toys, digging huge holes in the sand, transporting boulders, all to some incomprehensible purpose. So all I could do was walk along the seawall at the inlet itself. A Laughing Gull, rare in January, has been reported there off and on the last few days, but I'm going to see a Laughing Gull this year, so I wasn't especially interested in finding it and I didn't. I walked as far west as I could and scanned the back of the inlet with my bins, finding Brant, both loons,  Red-breasted Mergansers, Long-tailed Ducks, and what at first looked to me like a really mottled Ruddy Duck. It was pretty far away and diving. On its second dive the big "duh" went off and I realized my ugly duck was actually a Razorbill. Now, of course, when I wanted to see it again, I couldn't find it.

Razorbill was the bird I was most hoping to find from the jetty, so to stumble across one deep in the inlet was a very happy surprise, though not unprecedented. I walked back east along the wall, thinking maybe it was heading back out to sea but didn't find, then returned to the my original spot. I had the feeling that it was probably farther down the inlet among the mergansers, but I didn't feel like hauling out my scope and have the tears from my wind-blown eye blur the lens. Fortunately, Carole came along and when I told her I'd seen a Razorbill, she was willing to get her scope. After a few minutes, fine birder that she is, she located the alcid where I suspected it was, in the flock of mergs. I got a good look in her scope and after comparing some notes, we went on to our separate endeavors.

Not a spectacular day of birding, but my goals are modest: one cool bird a day is sufficient for me.

Red-throated Loon

BC Fairgrounds 1/28--Short-eared Owl, American Kestrel

The big blob is a Short-eared Owl

In yet another proof of Zirlin's 2nd Law of Birding (You will not see the bird until you sincerely give up)...

I arrived at the Burlington County Fairgrounds at 4 PM. Sunset today was 5:11, but I wanted to give myself a little leeway. My mission was to get a Short-eared Owl. They don't come out until just before, or just after sunset. If they come out. I thought it might be a bit too windy for them to hunt, but seeing a couple of  Northern Harriers encouraged me. Harriers punch out at dusk and the shorties take the night shift.

My biggest worry was getting locked in. It isn't clear when the rangers lock the gates and while they're supposed to sweep the area before they do, suppose they don't? Standing there all alone was making me a little nervous.

American Kestrel

In the meantime, I had raptors to entertain me. Aside from the harriers, I had a Red-tailed Hawk, two Bald Eagles (on nest) and an American Kestrel. I've driven miles back & forth on Colliers Mills Road this month looking for a kestrel (everyone else has seen one), so of course, when I'm not looking for one I find a female perched up on stick. Nice, but not an Ocean County bird.

Just before 5 a couple of other cars pulled in to keep me company. In one was a birder I know (Terry), but the other birder was a stranger to me. He caught sight of the eagles in his little bins and was just hyperventilating about them. To do my good deed for the day, I put them in the scope for him and he just kvelled.  Meanwhile, Terry & I were going "huh huh, huh huh," where's the Short-eared Owls?

The sun set. The harrier was still roosting in a small tree. A 5:12 it was gone, but no owls replaced it. Terry & I waited. It was getting darker. And colder. Much colder than I expected. When do you give up? After all, I did have kestrel as a new year bird.

Finally, Terry & I gave up. We were turning toward our cars when she shouted out she had one. Where? Between the two trees. Lotta trees there. But, as luck would have it, I saw a bird with a moth-like flight just above the silhouetted trees then between the two trees. Then it alighted in the tree to the left where she & I were able to view it in the scope. I hope her photographs came out better than my digiscopes. In my defense, it was so cold I couldn't hold my hand steady of the scope's eyepiece with my phone.

We high fived and she high-tailed out of there. I was working on my list when I saw the park ranger's flashing lights behind me. Time to go. I finished my list in the Wawa parking lot.

Pinelands Winter Census

Tundra Swans on Union Pond at dawn

Because great swaths of the Pinelands (the real estate euphemism for the Pine Barrens) lie outside any Christmas Count circles, including such hot spots as the Parker Preserve, Budd's Bogs, Reeves Bogs and my own beloved Whitesbog, Jim Schill, about 5 years ago, organized an annual census of the heart of the area which falls on the weekend before the Super Bowl. My area, which the last couple of years I've done solo, comprises Whitesbog and a few nearby areas like Country Lake Estates, Whitesbog Road, and the private section of the cranberry bogs across Rt 530. In midwinter, it isn't necessarily the most productive area, but if the water isn't frozen, and if the roads are passable, conditions which pertained today, with some work I can do all right.

The highlights of the day were barbelled in between long stretches of ordinary birding. I started out owling predawn in Whitesbog Village. I try to be circumspect there because officially the area isn't open and people do live there, so I don't go hooting around the houses. I first tried for Great Horned Owl, which I've heard there a few times, but none were calling. I then walked the road almost out to the bogs where one of the great Burlco birders told me he'd reliably had screech owl. I played the call a couple of times and was almost immediately rewarded with a response--very clear and repeating. So, as far as I was concerned, the day was a success, this being my Burlco county lifer. But let's not end the paragraph without a complaint--how come I can get one or the other of the owls, but not both in the same morning?

By the time the skies were starting to lighten I was out on the bogs counting swans and geese. There were only 62 Tundra Swans spread among the the lower and middle bogs and Union Pond, a fairly low number for this time of year when the population is usually closer to 100. And I'm glad I counted when I did, because by 10 AM the count of Tundra Swans was zero. They all flew off, along with the geese, presumably to more congenial bogs where guys weren't firing shot guns to train their dogs.

Some minor surprises included 3 Field Sparrows near the Triangle Field (where the commercial high bush blueberry was developed more than 100 years ago), a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and 17 Ring-necked Ducks way back in Ditch Meadow. In the Ocean County section, I was able to locate the Red-shouldered Hawk that has been hanging out there for the last month or so on the Upper Reservoir.

Eastern Bluebird, Whitesbog Road

There were a couple of spots I couldn't check out, either because of dogs or because the water was too high. I drove over to Browns Mills to eat lunch at the Wawa there and then started doing my spots outside Whitesbog. Country Lake Estates didn't have much other than a Ring-billed Gull to add to my list and I thought Whitesbog Road was going to be a complete bust until after walking almost its entire length down to Rt 70, I saw two Pine Warblers (year bird!) and an Eastern Bluebird just as I was getting back to my car. The working cranberry bogs had zilch--not surprising considering how late it was in the afternoon.

I decided to do a "mop up" back at Whitesbog. There were still a couple of portions of the trails I hadn't walked on. When you're doing a survey like this, it is always perplexing how supposedly "easy" birds are nowhere to be found. Amazingly, I didn't have a House Finch. Or a Mourning Dove. Or a starling! I walked through the village and back out onto the bogs, circling the lower bog with little to show for it. Then I walked back onto a side trail (where a few years ago the police dug up a dead body) and came upon a small flock of sparrows zipping across the trail from one thicket to another. Song and White-throated it appeared, but as I glassed the bushes and branches one sparrow stood out--big and heavily striped. My year Fox Sparrow.

Back in the village I was about to call it quits, but looking through the huge robin flock one bird did not belong--finally, a Mourning Dove. And while checking out the feeder one more time, I glanced up at a bare tree and there at the very top was not a robin but a starling. Which made 40 species for the day which seemed like a reasonable mid-winter number and so I walked over the parking lot and went home, 11 hours after I started and 34,000 steps (13.4 miles) logged.

My list for the day:

Canada Goose 105

Tundra Swan 62

Mallard 24

American Black Duck 4

Ring-necked Duck 17

Hooded Merganser 4

Mourning Dove 1

Ring-billed Gull 1

Herring Gull 2

Turkey Vulture 11

Northern Harrier 1

Red-shouldered Hawk 1

Red-tailed Hawk 1

Eastern Screech-Owl 1

Red-bellied Woodpecker 1

Downy Woodpecker 4

Blue Jay 5

American Crow 10

Fish Crow 1

Carolina Chickadee 6

Tufted Titmouse 4

Golden-crowned Kinglet 5

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1

White-breasted Nuthatch 2

Winter Wren 1

Carolina Wren 3

European Starling 1

Eastern Bluebird 3

Hermit Thrush 3

American Robin 60

American Goldfinch 2

Field Sparrow 3

Fox Sparrow 1

Dark-eyed Junco 70

White-throated Sparrow 12

Song Sparrow 9

Swamp Sparrow 4

Red-winged Blackbird 150

Pine Warbler 2

Northern Cardinal 4

Swamp Sparrow, Whitesbog

The Wrong Way to Atlantic City

Success Road--NOT the way to AC

I was walking in the field on the south side of Success Road in Colliers Mills this morning, just as the snow was starting. If you've never been there, you should know that Success Road is is dirt and sand. A woman in a sedan with Pennsy plates stopped, rolled down her window and asked me if this road went anywhere.

"Depends on where you're going."

You can take Success for about 5 bumpy miles all the way out to Route 571.It's not a short cut, but you can do it if you have the right vehicle.  She did not have the proper vehicle to do so.

"The Borgata," she said.

"The casino?" I asked.
"Yeah."

For anyone reading this not in the Mid-Atlantic states (and all my Ukrainian bots), the Borgata is one of the few remaining casinos in Atlantic City. Atlantic City is over 60 miles away from where we were.

"You're lost," I said. I am a man of few words when I'm standing in a snowstorm.

Now, a little while before this, I'd been on Brynmore Road in New Egypt (added Killdeer and Brown-headed Cowbird to the year list) watching a florist's delivery van go up and down the road, making K turns in the driveway of Lone Silo Farm. He finally stopped and asked me to help. He was looking for an address that was about 80 numbers away from the address on the nearest mailbox, but his phone said he was already there. I pulled out my phone, looked at the map and sent him down around the curve.

I can understand being a half mile off on Brynmore Road. As I stood there in the snowstorm, I could not imagine how any GPS device could send you up a dirt road in a WMA to get to a major destination in New Jersey.

I told her to turn around, go back out to 539, make a left and take it about 20 miles down to the Parkway. She cursed, but made a U turn and sped off. It occurred to me a moment later that it was probably more like 30 miles down to the Parkway from there, but anyone so oblivious who would, if she wasn't lucky enough to meet a birder, drive up a dirt road thinking it was a route to a fancy casino, would probably not notice an additional 10 miles tacked on to her journey.

Conine's Millpond | Lenape Trail 1/12--Cackling Goose, Lark Sparrow

Lark Sparrow, Lenape Trail, Plainsboro

The day started to get a little out of control toward the middle of the afternoon. Scott & Linda had an Assunpink trip this morning and we birded the hell out of the place without much to show for our efforts, besides the continuing Trumpeter Swans. I did get my year Field Sparrow over at Stone Tavern Lake, but that's not exactly a momentous find. The lake at Assunpink was virtually empty of ducks and geese, and Stone Tavern was worse with only two Mute Swans floating around. The weather was warm, which was great, but the weather is probably warm(ish) up north, so ducks and geese don't feel compelled to head south.

Scott suggested we try nearby Mercer Corporate Park and Conine's Millpond. There were a smattering of geese at the Corporate Park, so we didn't bother to check them out, but on the millpond we found out where all the geese in the area were. We figured 2500 of them honking their hearts out. Among them were a 4 Ring-necked Ducks, 4 Mallards, and 2 Common Mergansers, but best of all, and finally, a Cackling Goose which Scott was able to tease out of the flock. It's a talent that I do not possess, the ability to look at every goose thoroughly but quickly and find the one or two that are different.  In a flock of that many geese, Scott figures the odds are with you to find a cackler, but in flock that size they all quickly blur into "goose" to me.

A Cackling Goose and a new sparrow would have been good enough for me for one day and as I was just about to leave for home one of our group received a text that there was a Barnacle Goose and 3 hybrids at Thompson Park. I had no idea where Thompson Park was. When I Googled it, I came up with a park in Monmouth County which I remembered going by a few years ago. However, there is another Thompson Park, in Middlesex County, which is where the geese were. I was reluctant to head north so late in the day, but Barnacle Goose isn't exactly a gimmee in the state, so off I went with the correct GPS coordinates in my phone. It was about a half hour drive. The park itself seemed like nothing but a big lake, full of Ring-billed Gulls and Canada Geese. We located a couple of birders we knew, got on the geese and, disappointingly, the geese in question turned out to be four hybrids of, presumably, Barnacle Goose and Cackling Goose. Some people find hybrids fascinating. Some people like teasing out the various genetic strains. I'm not one of those people. I have a hard enough time identifying full species, I don't want to spend my energy figuring out if this goose is the product of a coupling of Barnacle Goose with Canada Goose or Cackling Goose, or what sub-species of either of those geese. I just spent close to an hour with a Cackling Goose and it wasn't until the end of the 50 minutes we were there that I was able to really convince myself that I had seen enough of the goose to say it was really a Cackling Goose. So, I felt like I'd been enticed to Middlesex County until false pretenses. I wasn't angry, exactly, but I wasn't happy. I suppose if there had really been a Barnacle Goose up there and I'd missed it, I'd be unhappy, but as it was a phantom goose, I was...just ready to quit for the day.

But wait, as they used to say in the infomercials, there's more! Wherever the hell we were in Middlesex County, nearby in Plainsboro, which was, according to who you were talking to was either 10 or 20 minutes away, there was a Lark Sparrow that was very cooperative. Lark Sparrow is bird that you don't get too often and as I was up there anyway and the whole gang was going for it, I followed them to the Lenape Trail in Plainsboro near a shopping center and power line cut. It was getting late and we were in danger of losing the light, but, as advertised, the bird was very cooperative. It took me a bit longer than everyone else to find on the construction planking next to the trail, but when I finally go the right angle I saw it well. They are neat little birds, with a harlequin facial pattern and a big dot in the middle of the breast. The photo below shows the unlikely habitat it has found to its liking for the last two weeks.

If a Cackling Goose hadn't been found at Deerhead Lake in Ocean County I would have counted the day a complete success. But, as the Third Rule of Birding states Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else. However, I understand there were approximately 500 geese on Deerhead Lake. My chances of finding the Cackler?