February--11 Year Birds

Ruddy Turnstones, Barnegat Light SP

February is an historically slow month for birds. After the New Years rush of January, when almost every day brings new year birds onto the list, February tends to be deja vu all over again. So with that consideration, 11 year birds, with almost half of them considered "rare" is not bad, plus I had quite a few repeat rarities for the month, like Cackling Goose, Eurasian Wigeon, and Ash-throated Flycatcher, along with 3 separate sightings of Eastern Phoebe, which sure won't be rare in a month or so. When I saw the Ash-throated Flycatcher again in New Egypt, I wasn't even looking for it. I was passing by the area it and the phoebe had been frequenting, looking for American Kestrel for my county list, when I glanced out the car window and saw the phoebe. 10 seconds later, I looked a little to the right of the phoebe and saw the Ash-throated perched on a stick. Nice, but I was happier to finally find a kestrel on Long Swamp Road a few minutes later, having driven up and down West Colliers Mills Road seemingly for 2 months without finding one.

Tundra Swan, Whitesbog

I haven't added up the trips, but it felt like I split the majority of the month between Colliers Mills/New Egypt and Whitesbog, with a couple of trips down to Brig (Golden Eagle, Yellow-breasted Chat) and only one trip to Assunpink. I didn't get to either Sandy Hook or Island Beach SP, leaving the freezing my face off trips for Barnegat Light where I finally saw a King Eider (drake) after failing to find the hen multiple times in January.

House Sparrow

The turkeys returned this month to our backyard, along with quite a few other notable species: Pine Warbler, Fox Sparrow, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, along with one species yesterday that I'd rather not see--House Sparrow. It was only one male and I hope it stays that way. Checking my records, its the first House Sparrow beneath our feeders since September of 2017. They are actually scarce around here, especially since the addlepated neighbor, who use to have a bird house they colonized, was taken away for her own safety. Secret admission--I find them to be very handsome little birds. If they just weren't so aggressive! I also admire starlings and Brown-headed Cowbirds.

For the month I tallied 126 species, down from January's result of 135. Of course, there were 2 fewer days in this month.

Counties birded: Atlantic, Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean

Species            First Sighting

Snow Goose   Brig

Brant   Manasquan Inlet

Cackling Goose   Deer Head Lake

Canada Goose   Lake of the Lilies

Mute Swan   Wreck Pond

Trumpeter Swan   Assunpink WMA

Tundra Swan   Whitesbog

Wood Duck   Whitesbog

Northern Shoveler   Wreck Pond

Gadwall   Wreck Pond

Eurasian Wigeon   MacLearie Park

American Wigeon   MacLearie Park

Mallard   Lake of the Lilies

American Black Duck   Manasquan Inlet

Northern Pintail   Forsythe-Barnegat

Green-winged Teal   Forsythe-Barnegat

Canvasback   Colliers Mills WMA

Redhead   Riverfront Landing

Ring-necked Duck   Holly Lake

Greater Scaup   Lake of the Lilies

Lesser Scaup   Lake of the Lilies

King Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Surf Scoter   Spring Lake

White-winged Scoter   Manasquan Inlet

Black Scoter   Manasquan Inlet

Long-tailed Duck   Manasquan Inlet

Bufflehead   Manasquan Inlet

Common Goldeneye   LBI Bayside

Hooded Merganser   Lake of the Lilies

Common Merganser   Prospertown Lake

Red-breasted Merganser   Manasquan Inlet

Ruddy Duck   Lake of the Lilies

Wild Turkey   35 Sunset Rd

Pied-billed Grebe   Manasquan Reservoir IBA

Horned Grebe   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Eared Grebe   Lakes Bay

Rock Pigeon   Wawa South Toms River

Mourning Dove   Lake of the Lilies

American Coot   Lake of the Lilies

Black-bellied Plover   Forsythe-Barnegat

Killdeer   Ephraim P. Emson Preserve

Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Sanderling   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Dunlin   Forsythe-Barnegat

Purple Sandpiper   Manasquan Inlet

American Woodcock   Collinstown Rd

Greater Yellowlegs   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Razorbill   Manasquan Inlet

Laughing Gull   Manasquan Inlet

Ring-billed Gull   Lake of the Lilies

Herring Gull   Lake of the Lilies

Lesser Black-backed Gull   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Great Black-backed Gull   Lake of the Lilies

Red-throated Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Common Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Northern Gannet   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Great Cormorant   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Double-crested Cormorant   Lake of the Lilies

Great Blue Heron   Lake of the Lilies

Black Vulture   Brig

Turkey Vulture   Deer Head Lake

Golden Eagle   Motts Creek

Northern Harrier   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Sharp-shinned Hawk   Manahawkin WMA

Cooper's Hawk   New Egypt

Bald Eagle   MacLearie Park

Red-shouldered Hawk   Meadowedge Park

Red-tailed Hawk   MacLearie Park

Belted Kingfisher   Manahawkin WMA

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Cattus Island County Park

Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-bellied Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd

Downy Woodpecker   Wells Mills Park

Hairy Woodpecker   Manahawkin WMA

Northern Flicker   Manahawkin WMA

American Kestrel   New Egypt

Merlin   Lake of the Lilies

Peregrine Falcon   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Eastern Phoebe   Meadowedge Park

Ash-throated Flycatcher   New Egypt

Blue Jay   Crestwood Village

American Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Fish Crow   Manasquan Inlet

Common Raven   New Egypt

Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd

Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd

Tree Swallow   Brig

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Colliers Mills WMA

Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Whitesbog

White-breasted Nuthatch   Wells Mills Park

Brown Creeper   Colliers Mills WMA

Winter Wren   Whitesbog

Carolina Wren   Wreck Pond

European Starling   Wells Mills Park

Gray Catbird   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Brown Thrasher   New Egypt

Northern Mockingbird   18 Aberdeen Avenue

Eastern Bluebird   Cattus Island County Park

Hermit Thrush   Wells Mills Park

American Robin   Wells Mills Park

House Sparrow   Lake of the Lilies

House Finch   Wells Mills Park

American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd

Chipping Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA

Field Sparrow   Brig

American Tree Sparrow   Assunpink WMA

Fox Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd

White-throated Sparrow   Tip Seaman CP

Savannah Sparrow   Cream Ridge

Song Sparrow   Lake Como

Swamp Sparrow   Manahawkin WMA

Eastern Towhee   Brig

Yellow-breasted Chat   Brig

Eastern Meadowlark   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-winged Blackbird   Tip Seaman CP

Brown-headed Cowbird   Collinstown Rd

Rusty Blackbird   Colliers Mills WMA

Common Grackle   Wreck Pond

Boat-tailed Grackle   Manasquan Inlet

Palm Warbler   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Pine Warbler   35 Sunset Rd

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Wells Mills Park

Northern Cardinal   Lake Como

New Egypt | Colliers Mills 2/27--Brown Thrasher, Rusty Blackbird

On an incredibly windy day, Mike & I bounced between Jackson & New Egypt looking for birds brave enough to withstand the 30 mph gusts. We hoped for snipe (or even Pectoral Sandpiper) at Patriots Park in Jackson, where we have seen both before in winter, but had to settle for a nice for bluebirds.  A quick stop at Colliers Mills failed to turn up the Canvasback hen that had been on Turnmill Pond last week. We spent more time on Brynmore Road in New Egypt, coming up with the expected species though the lack of starlings was startling. It wasn't until we thought we were done there that we came up with our first year bird--a Brown Thrasher in some tangles along the road.

Along W. Colliers Mills Road we stopped in at the new Ephraim P. Emson Preserve, which looks promising for warblers in the spring, being mostly hardwood forest, but today all it had for us was an American Kestrel. Across the road, as we were leaving, a large flock of Eastern Meadowlarks flushed and a Northern Harrier hunted the fields

We spent most of our time in the woods at Colliers Mills, trying to stay out of the wind. Sometime in the last week the annual burning of the fields occurred and picking at the charred ground was a mixed flock of robins, blackbirds, and starlings. When we approached the blackbirds and starlings flew to a tree. The robins didn't care. The light on the blackbirds was perfect and one of them was not a Red-winged Blackbird but the much more desirable Rusty Blackbird.

We looked at Prospertown Lake but no Common Mergansers (or any other waterfowl that wasn't a Canada Goose) were on the choppy water. After a quick stop at the New Egypt Wawa, I showed Mike the newest mini hotspot, the Old Zoar Cemetery, which is next to a yard with feeders. The owner of the feeders made the mistake of listing Pileated Woodpecker during the Great Backyard Bird Count and now a few of us Ocean County birders have been visiting the cemetery hoping to find one at her suet. No luck yet. If Pileated Woodpecker hadn't been reported in other spots of New Egypt, I wouldn't have taken the report seriously, since the GBBC is notorious for misidentifications.

Another sweep of the New Egypt fields turned up nothing new save a Common Raven, which, I was happy to see, no longer is flagged as "rare" in the county, so no rote description of "large croaking corvid with wedge-shaped tail" is required any longer on the eBird list.

By that time we had been out in the wind for over 5 hours and the birds, being smarter than birders, were all hunkered down and out of sight so windblown but satisfied with a few cool birds, we packed it in for the day. 39 species in all:

Mallard  4

American Black Duck  2

Ring-necked Duck  3

Bufflehead  4

Rock Pigeon  25

Mourning Dove  10

Killdeer  9

Herring Gull  130

Black Vulture  5

Turkey Vulture  18

Northern Harrier  1

Red-tailed Hawk  2

Red-bellied Woodpecker  7

Downy Woodpecker  3

Hairy Woodpecker  1

American Kestrel  1

Blue Jay  10

American Crow  4

Common Raven  1

Carolina Chickadee  6

White-breasted Nuthatch  3

Carolina Wren  3

European Starling  79

Brown Thrasher  1

Northern Mockingbird  1

Eastern Bluebird  10

American Robin  26

House Sparrow  2

Chipping Sparrow  1

Dark-eyed Junco  39

White-throated Sparrow  12

Song Sparrow  7

Eastern Meadowlark  15

Red-winged Blackbird  16

Brown-headed Cowbird  7

Rusty Blackbird  1

Common Grackle  15

Northern Cardinal  9

Great Bay Blvd 2/23--Palm Warbler

By the time I got down to the beach at Great Bay Blvd, the birding had been so dull that I'd forgotten I was looking for new birds. This may be a corollary to Rule #2--you won't find the bird until you've truly give up. Or forgotten all about it. I was on my way back to the little path through the grove when I saw on the beach a little bird in the wrack line. It was brown. It was pumping its tail. When it flew, I could see small white corners on the tail feathers. It was a Palm Warbler, one of the birds I was hoping to see (the other was Great Egret) today. I watched it fly back to the mud flats and followed it there, catching a glimpse of it again but a picture was impossible. In among the flattened reeds were 4 or 5 Yellow-rumped Warblers with which it was "associating."

There really wasn't much of interest along the road--lots of ducks, as you would expect, but land birds were scarce. Again, February is the slowest month. But here is

A Heartwarming Tale

 I was coming back to my car at the monitoring station to get my scope, because I had seen 3 Greater Yellowlegs out in the marsh when a woman stopped her car and waved frantically at me. I didn't recognize her at first, but remembered her when she said that I had shown her the eagles. 6 or 7 months ago, when I was in one of my rare good moods, she had stopped to talk to me about photographing birds. She was looking for hawks, so I told her where to go to find the two eagles that nest at the end of the road. Later, when I saw that she was having a had time finding them, I set up my scope and showed her the birds. 

"I've been looking for you," she said. "I was really depressed that day, I was going through some bad times and you showed me where the eagles were and it changed my life!" She had, in the last few months, become fascinated with eagles and had educated herself on how to tell the males from the females, how long the female's talons were, incubation periods, nesting habits, mating rituals. More than I know off the top of my head about eagles--she had inhaled a reference book on eagles and all because one day I'd taken the time to show her a couple birds in a telescope. She showed me videos she'd made of eagles with their chicks, she told me where to find other nests, she showed me lots of pictures of eagles and, by the way, they were excellent photos and videos. But she wouldn't stop thanking me; it was embarrassing. I had no idea, at the time, that she was in a deep funk. I wasn't trying to rescue anyone. I was just showing a stranger a couple of cool birds that lead lives parallel to ours. When I came home and told Shari about my encounter, she said, "See, see what can happen when you're nice!" 

"Yeah," I replied, grumpily. Meanwhile, I never did get to check out the yellowlegs in the scope; I heard them fly away when I was talking to her. They flew away right after she & I spotted a Peregrine Falcon taking off from the top of a utility pole. 

Stafford Avenue with repairs

Afterwards I drove up to Manahawkin WMA and walked my usual route from the Hilliard Avenue entrance out to Stafford Avenue which leads to the Bridge to Nowhere. I've been taking this route of late because Stafford Avenue was impassable with huge craters all along its one and half miles, perfect traps to rip out the bottom of your car. Because it literally goes to nowhere, and runs between a WMA and Forsythe property, I figured  no one had any incentive to ever fix it, so I was flabbergasted to see that long stretches had been smoothed over and filled in with gravel. 

Peggy tells me that the Bridge to Nowhere is a well-known spot for shall we say assignations. Guys apparently cruise the road looking for prostitutes. I'm down there often and I've never seen a prostitute, but she tells me that a woman birder alone in her car will get propositioned by guys mistaking her for a sex worker. 

Look at the photo. Do you see any prostitutes? Maybe it's a Never on Sunday thing. Or maybe, as Peggy proposed, they're all hiding in the marsh. Or maybe they just couldn't get their vehicles down the road and now that it is no longer an obstacle course, business will pick up. 

                   

Lakes Bay 2/22--Eared Grebe

Until yesterday, I'd never heard of Lakes Bay, which is just east of Atlantic City, but since it was only 10 miles or so from Brig, where I was with Mike on his field trip, and since there was an Eared Grebe reported there, after we had made two trips around the wildlife drive, we, along with Peggy & Chris, decided to drive down there and take a look.

We tried one vantage point, and saw some grebes, but they were way too far away to identify, so we drove down to where the bird was originally reported, Lakes Bay Preserve, which is a rather scruffy area set aside among condominiums and a bland office building. Eared Grebe, in basic plumage, looks pretty much like a Horned Grebe in basic plumage and after Mike finally found the Eared Grebe we then played "Three Grebe Monte" for about a half hour, as the grebes dove and resurfaced, never in the same order. Peggy took some shots of one of the grebes that I have to say looked pretty good to me but upon further examination she was shooting the wrong bird (that doesn't sound right). My memory of the bird didn't match the photos precisely, but I chalked that up to light and distance. Anyway, we know we saw the bird. We just couldn't get it stay still long enough to capture it digitally. It was pretty frustrating as the birds bobbed along, mixing in with Buffleheads, diving, and going into a strip of glare on the bay.

Yellow-breast Chat
© Peggy Cadigan

At Brig we had the usual birds for the month. If April is the cruelest month, then February is the slowest. The highlight of the day was refinding the Yellow-breasted Chat that has been inhabiting the beginning of the Leeds Eco-trail most of this year.  I saw it last week with Bob, but it was a year bird for both Mike and Peggy. Peggy has kindly allowed me to use her beautiful photo to illustrate this entry.

After we left Lakes Bay we made a stop off at Mott's Creek. Within a minute I'd found a huge hawk once again sitting atop the distant Osprey platform. This time the shimmer wasn't too bad, but I'd still not call it. But again, the bird cooperated by flying, and flying toward us even, so that we were able to get all the field marks for Golden Eagle. Easy. A nice way to end the day.

Barnegat Light SP 2/19--King Eider

"Distant but decent scope views of drake..." is how my eBird description begins for this morning's year bird. I resisted the temptation to add FINALLY. Last month, during the Black Guillemot hysteria, there were numerous reports of a hen King Eider in the inlet. Despite looking carefully multiple days at the flock of eiders that at times were fairly close, I could never find it.  I actually saw the guillemot twice accidentally while trying to the find the oxymoronic hen King. Hen Kings and hen Common Eiders look very much alike and I never saw a convincing bird with the tell-tale "smile."  In disgust I said to the birding gods, "When a drake shows up, let me know."

Channel Marker 6 with Great Cormorants
& Great Black-backed Gull

A drake showed up this weekend and eBird let me know. And let me know over and over as seemingly every birder in Ocean County made the trek out to the end of the jetty to view the bird. This morning I finally had the chance to get to Barnegat Light to try. I wasn't looking forward to climbing up onto the jetty. As I understood it, I would have to walk to the end of the treacherous jetty to the tower to get the view of the distant duck. The seas were choppy and while it was low tide, the wind was still blowing spray up onto the rocks. I climbed up at the ocean's edge, hopped a couple of rocks toward the end until I found one flat enough and big enough to set up my scope and began to scan the scoter flock out by channel marker 6. I was hoping I wouldn't have to move much farther. Maybe I'm getting old (actually, there's no "maybe" about it), but the jetty seemed more uneven with wider gaps than the last time I was on it. Amazingly, within a few minutes, I saw the bird "with black flanks and back, white head with orange shield," as my list description continued. (The head is really very light blue but at the distance I was seeing it "light colored head" would be a better phrase.) There is no mistaking a King Eider as a Common Eider. I saw it for one second? Could I see it for two? Yes. It was bobbing in the water but I found it again in back of a line of scoters. Could I see it for three seconds. Yes again. Up and down in the chop but in the gray light its head and orange shield stood out like a beacon, especially again the flock of very Black Scoters.

I saw it a few more times, but never for an extended look. There was a photographer farther along the jetty. I thought I'd tell him about it, move over two more boulders, than figured it was worth risking my skull or scope so he could get a distant picture, if he even could find it in his lens.

A couple of guys I know were climbing up onto the jetty when I was making my way back from a walk up the beach. They didn't have scopes and try as I might, I couldn't relocate the bird in mine. Another birder I know was coming onto the beach as I was leaving; she did have a scope and she did, I see, find the bird.

I wasn't able to photograph any of the 14 Harlequin Ducks I saw today--the three that were close when I first got there I ignored because I had a goal and by the time I was to take picture they were gone. There were a couple of small groups floating around the old 8th St jetty, but none of them were close enough to get usable picture; plus they dive a lot.

I made more stops on the way off the island. I tried to find the Black-crowned Night-Herons in the roost near High Bar, but was unsuccessful this time. I looked for goldeneyes at Harvey Cedars but didn't find any there; however, as is almost always the case, they were at the end of 24th Street. Finally, a walk around Cedar Bonnet Island was uneventful, though it was good to see a Peregrine Falcon back on the hacking tower.

Brig | Motts Creek 2/16--Golden Eagle, Yellow-breasted Chat

I did a loop around Brig with Bob Auster today, who I hadn't, shamefully, seen or birded with since the first day of the year. While the duckage around the refuge was entertaining there was nothing truly outstanding--a trio of Common Mergansers coming closest to rare. We broke the eBird filter with 17 Great Blue Herons, but that's just bookkeeping. Only a Tree Swallow at the Gull Pond was supposedly rare, but they're really not, being hardy birds that can subsist of bayberries when the bugs are not out.

The two most interesting birds came after our circuit of the impoundments. Before Bob arrived this morning, I walked on the Leeds Eco-trail looking for the long-staying, constantly reported, Yellow-breast Chat. Naturally, despite 3 trips up and down the area where it was supposed to be, I didn't find it. After lunch, Bob (who once counted chat as a nemesis bird) & I walked down to the trail, hoping that the warming temperatures would bring it out. We met a photographer on the trail who said she hadn't seen it today. Then, another birder came up the trail and said he'd just seen it about 100 feet farther along. We went back with him but the bird had disappeared into the tangles. Bob & I hung around that area for a few minutes when the photographer came around the bend and waved us back. The chat was back in its usual place. It took a couple of minutes for it to show itself again but we both finally saw it, high in a bare tree, silhouetted against the cloudy sky. The profile was obvious. We saw it for maybe 3 seconds. I didn't a get a picture. If I was a real photographer, I would have insisted that we stay there until I could photograph it, but as the bird has been well-documented, I didn't feel obligated to spend any more time with it. Tick.

Then, instead of a 2nd loop where we'd probably see the same old same old, Bob suggested we got over to Motts Creek to look for the Golden Eagle that has been seen off and on this winter. I thought it a low percentage play, but, on the other hand, it was a no percentage play if I didn't go. I followed Bob over there to the new parking lot and the new boardwalk viewing area which made the birding a lot more pleasant than it had been in the past. First bird we saw was a Northern Harrier. We set up our scopes and after a while Bob said he had a bird out on an Osprey platform (too early for Osprey). It was a big bird, but very distant and the heat shimmer made it look like it was in the midst being beamed down by the Enterprise. Bob said we needed the bird fly in order to identify it.

Now, I'm not a very good hawk watcher. But Bob is; he's spent many hours at hawk watches identifying high flying specks. Instead of frustrating us and just sitting on top of the platform, the bird did fly. And we both got our scopes on it and Bob started ticking off the field marks--slight dihedral in flight, small head, tail length longer than the head, dark overall...Golden Eagle. The i.d. was cinched, for us, when two Bald Eagles came along and started to harass the Golden. We could see the difference in the two species, with the Beagles flying flat and having larger heads. Sometimes you get lucky. My luck was to be with Bob, because on my own that would have just been a raptor "spuh." The two Bald Eagles drifted left, the Golden drifted right, the call the fight a tie, and call it a day for us.

Unfortunately, no photos for the day. So how about this one of a smiling Cayuga Duck, one of about 4 that has been hanging around Meadowedge Park in Barnegat for the last couple of weeks. I stopped off there on the way home. Nothing to report there.

Day List

Snow Goose

Brant

Canada Goose

Mute Swan

Northern Shoveler

American Wigeon

Mallard

American Black Duck

Northern Pintail

Green-winged Teal

Ring-necked Duck

Greater Scaup

Bufflehead

Hooded Merganser

Common Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Mourning Dove

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Great Blue Heron

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Golden Eagle   Motts Creek

Northern Harrier   Motts Creek

Bald Eagle

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Blue Jay

American Crow

Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

Tree Swallow

White-breasted Nuthatch

Carolina Wren

Eastern Bluebird

American Robin

House Finch

American Goldfinch

Field Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Eastern Towhee

Yellow-breasted Chat

Red-winged Blackbird

Boat-tailed Grackle   Motts Creek

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Northern Cardinal