Pinelands Winter Bird Census

Mute Swans (sigh) on Union Pond

This is the sixth year of the Pinelands Winter Bird Census which Jim Schill organizes since great swaths of the Pinelands (Barrens) lie outside any Christmas Count Circles, so this is our alternative count. As usual, I started the birding early, 4:53 AM in Whitesbog Village listening for owls. For the first time I got both Great Horned Owl and Eastern Screech Owl. I have in the past heard one or the other (or neither) but never both. Two Great Horned Owls to boot. 

The funny thing about the owls is that I heard each one in the place where I would expect to hear the other. After failing in the village, I drove out onto the bogs to the double-laned road where in the past I've heard (and seen) Great Horned Owl. Before I could even play the call, I heard the screech owl. Now, since the double-laned road is the borderline between Ocean and Burlington Counties, after notching the owl for Burlington, I walked about 100 feet to the east and listed it for Ocean too. I actually have no idea which county the bird was in and since eBird's silly rules make it a survey of where your feet are, not where the bird truly is, it counts as a 2 for 1. 

Whitesbog Dawn

I drove back into the Village and in the parking lot heard the hooting of the Great Horned. I then walked back to the Lower Meadow where I have been told on good authority that screech is often heard. So, naturally, I heard another Great Horned. By this time the sky was lightening up, though it was still a half hour before dawn. I walked around the meadow which leads to the entrance road and before going out onto the bogs again, checked the feeders: The usual tweety birds. 

Driving on the bogs in the dark, I had had a bad feeling. Yesterday, when I was scouting, the water was 95% "stiff" but I did see a decent number of Tundra Swans on the Lower Bog, resting on the ice. But driving by in the dark, I didn't hear any swans and my flashlight showed only an unbroken sheet of ice. Since one of the main targets of the census is Tundra Swans and since Whitesbog has always been a prime location for the species, this wasn't a good sign. 

Out on the bogs at dawn I saw two swans with their heads tucked in on Union Pond and the bad feeling got worse because, though I didn't see them yesterday, I could tell just from the pointy tails that those were Mute Swans--scarce in the county but not what you want to see if you want to see other waterfowl. And nary a Tundra Swan on any of the bogs, nor were there any when I drove into the Ocean County side and checked out the Upper Reservoir. The first time in 6 years I've gotten skunked on the species. 

Although the sunrise was pretty, as I've often noticed, almost immediately after a picturesque dawn, the skies clouded up, a precursor to the Nor'easter that was on its way and promised to make the afternoon a snowy one. 

While the temperatures were below freezing, the lack of wind made the walking bearable, but the birds just were not in evidence. Most of the passerines I saw were in the Village. When I walked the old blueberry fields along the entrance road, I was happy to see a Northern Harrier, but the hunting hawk probably killed any chance I had of finding sparrows in what is usually a very productive area. 

I saw more waterfowl at Country Lake Estates, where the lake was 100% frozen, but along the far shore Canada Geese, Mallards, and American Black Ducks huddled, along with 5 Swan Geese which I couldn't count.  

My last stop was Whitesbog Road, a dirt road that runs from 530 to 70. By this time it was snowing, lightly at first, but by the time I approached 70 it was really swirling around. I did come across a feeding flock of chickadees with a Red-breasted Nuthatch joining them and had my only gull of a day, a flyover Herring Gull. By then I'd been at it almost 9 hours, had walked 9.9 miles and driven another 5 or so and I could tell it was going to be diminishing (or no) returns from here on in. 

I ended the day with a paltry 27 species. I guess the birds sensed the storm coming and hunkered down. Birds are smarter than we are. 

76 Canada Goose
2 Mute Swan
37 Mallard
2 American Black Duck
1 Mourning Dove
1 Herring Gull
1 Turkey Vulture
1 Northern Harrier
2 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Eastern Screech-Owl
2 Great Horned Owl
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 Downy Woodpecker
4 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
6 American Crow
10 Carolina Chickadee
4 Tufted Titmouse
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
2 Red-breasted Nuthatch
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
5 Carolina Wren
7 American Robin
20 Dark-eyed Junco
2 White-throated Sparrow
10 Song Sparrow
7 Northern Cardinal

Meadowedge Park 1/23--Cackling Goose

The weather, as often happens in the winter, defeated me this morning. I drove down to Franklin Parker Preserve, my goals two-fold: Get another, better, look at the shrike and get a better handle on the geography of that eastern section. I accomplished the latter. I knew the weather was supposed to cold and windy today, so I thought going inland would at least mitigate the windy aspect of the forecast. Wrong. Gusts of 30 mph were blowing on the bogs and after walking all the way out to pumphouse 18 and almost out to pumphouse 19 the wind was just too much for me. When I saw an eagle blown vertical by the wind I knew I didn't care enough about seeing the bird again to search in the biting wind. A 2.7 mile round trip for a couple of eagles and a Hermit Thrush. Despite two pairs of gloves, it took miles of driving with the heat blasting before my fingers thawed. 

Have I mentioned that I hate winter? 

Later in the afternoon I saw that Meadowedge Park, in Barnegat, once again was hosting a Cackling Goose. Since Meadowedge isn't much bigger than a lot of backyards, I figured it would be a quick, binary search--there/not there. When I got to the park, I saw that almost all the geese were in the pond. Looking for a Cackling Goose in a flock of Canada Geese is like solving a puzzle. Thousands of geese and it's sheer luck if you find one. 175 geese and all you need to solve the puzzle is a little patience. Even I can look at every goose in a flock of that size, especially when they don't especially care that you're fairly close to them. 

Cackling Goose in the hexagon

I went through the flock once and came up with nothing. Halfway through my second scan I saw one goose bite another on the ass--the one with the bitten butt was the Cackler. Two-thirds the size of the biter and with a stubby little beak that didn't offer much fight back. Then the flock played 175 goose monte and I lost it. Now the game was, could I find it again. Yes, I could after a bit and then the game was could I, with no camera, manage at least a bad picture with my phone. Again it was in the affirmative, though I had to take off the glove on one hand, which almost instantly lost circulation in the wind, which, of course, being near the water, was ferocious. 

Still, at least I can count one mini-accomplishment for the day. Two, if you count avoiding frost-bite. 

Brig 1/22--American White Pelican.

American White Pelican

Today, as the sportscasters like to say, I "flipped the script" at Brig. Usually, I get there early, walk down to the Gull Pond, then either walk back and bird the upland area or else walk on the drive up to maybe Marker 4, before I drive the loop. But instead, today I just drove 3/4 of the way around the dikes to Marker 15, got out of the car, plunked down my scope and scanned the distant phragmites. 

Stubbornness. Persistence. Stick-to-itiveness.  Just to see if I can. That's what impelled me this morning. I just wanted to get that damned American White Pelican on the list. There is a fine line between stubbornness and irrationality. I have erased that line. But, after a few minutes scanning back and forth I finally found the silly bird, half-hidden in the reeds. Hard for a big bird like that to hide, but, just for the record, on my 2nd trip around this afternoon,  I couldn't find the bird again, so I made the right choice to drive first and walk later. The pictures I took are bad, but they are indicative of the kind of looks I was getting. 

After that, I drove down to Jen's Trail, parked, and walked the last 2 miles of the drive and back, finding whatever passerines would brave the wind, mostly bluebirds and sparrows. I made a second trip around, more slowly than the first and saw impressive numbers of waterfowl, especially Snow Geese which were swirling around in huge flocks, like a murmuration of starlings. There were also a few big flocks of Dunlins. A more patient birder would have scoped every one of them, looking for a Western Sandpiper or something even more exotic like a wayward stint, but I am not that birder, especially since the wind, which was mild in the morning, started gusting to car shaking speeds. 

The one bird I was most surprised, and happy, to see, was a Great Egret around Marker 4, not rare, but my first one of the year. I would have taken a picture of it but today was the day my camera officially died, having been dropped one too many times by both Shari & me.

My list for the day is slightly smaller than it might normally be but that's the result of obsessing on one bird instead of just birding. 

They were:

47 species

Snow Goose  5000

Brant  150

Canada Goose  200

Mute Swan  3

Northern Shoveler  65

Gadwall  85

Mallard  30

American Black Duck  200

Northern Pintail  85

Green-winged Teal  220

Canvasback  33     Marker 15

Ring-necked Duck  19

Greater Scaup  200     Turtle Cove

Bufflehead  15

Hooded Merganser  10

Common Merganser  10

Mourning Dove  1

Dunlin  1150

Long-billed Dowitcher  7     Continuing at Gull Pond

Greater Yellowlegs  17     Gull pond & dogleg

Ring-billed Gull  100

Herring Gull  45

Great Black-backed Gull  1

American White Pelican  1     Continuing at marker 15

Great Blue Heron  6

Great Egret  1     Marker 4

Turkey Vulture  2

Northern Harrier  1

Bald Eagle  8

Belted Kingfisher  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     Heard

Downy Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  2

Blue Jay  10

American Crow  6

Carolina Chickadee  5     Heard

Tufted Titmouse  2

Winter Wren  1     Heard exit ponds

Carolina Wren  8

European Starling  8

Eastern Bluebird  10

American Robin  10

American Goldfinch  2

Field Sparrow  2     Upland fields near overlook

White-throated Sparrow  2

Song Sparrow  5

Northern Cardinal  2     Jen's Trail 

Immature Bald Eagle

Franklin Parker Preserve 1/20--Northern Shrike

 I don't get it. Yesterday, I met Mike at the Speedwell Entrance to Franklin Parker Preserve. I've been there plenty of times, but yesterday we were searching an area across the road that I'd never been to, so we were feeling our way in, looking at maps and instructions that previous birders had posted, all in the hopes of finding the latest rarity. When we got to the spot that seemed to match maps & text, I started to scan the tree line without much confidence, but I know that sinking feeling is often a prelude to success. And after a few minutes, I found the Northern Shrike we had come for, far out over the other side of the bog, sitting atop a cedar tree. I got Mike on it, the bird moved to a leafless tree for a moment, then disappeared. Not as exciting as finding the Dovekies this month, but I was impressed I found this little bird in that big area. And that's what I don't get...I can find some relatively nondescript black and gray bird without much effort other than the walk in, but later, when I drove to Pemberton for the umpty-umpth time to search for Sandhill Cranes that have been in the area for a month, I once again had no luck, and twice this year I've gone to Brig, parked at Marker 15, and still haven't found the huge American White Pelican that has been reported there everyday this year (I did see it a couple of times last year). 

So what gives? It isn't skill I'm missing. It doesn't take much skill to find 3 birds that stand 4 feet tall or a gigantic white one. Sometimes I'm diffident about chasing a bird, but I've gone after these two species numerous times, so I can't blame my laziness. So what gives is...find a bird, luck, miss a bird, luck. And try again tomorrow either way. 

Silver Lake1/16--Eurasian Wigeon

Every year a Eurasian Wigeon makes an appearance in Belmar and every year I go up there to find it. The last few years it (though who knows if it is the same bird every year) it has been a little difficult to get a look at since you either had to set up a scope in the parking lot of a gas station and look into a cove in the river, or else find just the right angle in MacLearie Park and stand on one foot and tilt you head your head just so to find the bird.

This year was supposedly easier, as the bird was being seen in Silver Lake one of the artificial ponds that dot the North Shore from Long Branch down to Point Pleasant Beach. But late in December I missed it and last week when I went up there the water was "stiff," and today when I got there I didn't see many birds on the water either. What I did see were hundreds of geese, both Canada and Brant, feeding on the grass around the lake. Wigeons are one of the few ducks that will also graze a lawn so I walked toward a big flock of geese, swerving into the street so as not to scare them all away. Not that they seemed to care that much, they're all pretty use to humans walking around. And after a bit, a few geese moved and there, almost at my feet was the drake Eurasian Wigeon, along with a few American cousins. It is such a pretty duck that it's worth the trip and the effort to find it.

I have a long history of unsuccessful attempts to find a Eurasian Wigeon before actually getting one. Our life EUWI was at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge when we lived in Brooklyn. I don't know how many trips we made there seeking one out after seeing it reported on the rare bird listserv (which shows how long ago this was) that we subscribed to. 

Jamaica Bay, being one of the most famous refuges in the country and being in NYC, attracts birders from all over the world. I remember that Patrick O'Brian, the author of the Aubrey/Maturin series of naval thrillers set during the Napoleonic Wars and also an enthusiastic British birder, said that JBWR was one of his favorite places to have birded.  

One day when Shari & I had gone again to find the wigeon, a birder from Australia stopped me and asked me if I could confirm an ID of a Little Blue Heron. Sort of in a rush and sort of feeling snotty, I looked in his scope, saw the bird and said, "Well, it's little, it's blue, it's a heron...it's a Little Blue Heron." 

He didn't care how snarky I was, it was a life bird for him. Then I told him I had to rush because there was a Eurasian Wigeon on the other side of the pond and it was my "White Whale." 

He replied (and imagine a thick 'stralian accent), "You mean, your Moby Duck." 

Touché

(We got the bird that day.) 

Island Beach SP 1/12--DOVEKIE, Razorbill, Little Blue Heron

DOVEKIE (left) with Common Loon
Photo © Steve Weiss

It had been a long time since I got a life bird, stretching all the way back to the end of 2019. Today, after spending a desultory few hours at Island Beach SP, I came home a little discouraged, even though I'd seen a couple of "good" birds on the Spizzle Creek Trail. I was just feeling unmotivated to bird hard; winter weariness I suppose. I'd seen yesterday that up in Monmouth County rare alcids had been seen from shore but I didn't think it was worth a trip this morning to hope for flybys. Then, looking at the eBird alerts I saw that they again were being seen and this time in the water. 

I texted Steve, because I thought he might be up there. His text said he had them in the water, but a scope would be helpful. Even though I didn't really feel like driving all the way up to Deal, I finally said to myself, there aren't going to many times you're going to get the chance to see this lifer from shore. And Larry don't do pelagics. 

Steve texted, asking if I was Island Beach and I told him I was coming from home. He said he'd wait. I thought that was awfully nice, considering that I was probably 50 minutes away. Thank you technology. As I got on the parkway, I got a text from Steve (through the car radio) that he was between A12 & A13. ??? Wait! He's at Island Beach, I realized. I turned off the next exit, thankfully the one I'd use anyway, and headed back to the park. A few more minutes and I would have been going a lot longer distance for a more distant sighting. 

Another text directed me to come up the A11 path; the birds were drifting. I didn't exactly obey the speed limits in the park and arrived at A11 just as D was heading up the path with her scope. I hustled up the sandy path through the dunes. Ever run in deep sand? It's hard. I don't usually gasp when I'm birding. Still, I found Steve and D immediately and set up my scope and after a few minutes D got a DOVEKIE in her scope and I saw the little football-shaped alcid. Then, to make it official, I got it in my scope. And another, behind a Razorbill, which gave a great comparison. Next to a Dovekie, a Razorbill looks gigantic. 

It is exceedingly rare to find one Dovekie from shore. It is, as far as I know, unheard of to see multiple Dovekies from shore, but that's what we had. I counted, conservatively, three, and I know that Steve had around six! Hard to count birds that are constantly diving and popping up a hundred yards away, so I use the hawk counting method that I once read about. As many Dovekies, or Razorbills that I could see in one scan was the number I used. So it was four Razorbills for me; Steve listed 15 in his travels up and down the beach. But, as I always say, probably to the point of tedium with anyone I bird with, "I only need one." 

And so, suddenly, the invigoration I've been waiting to kick in since the year started has finally arrived. To get a life bird after more than year was great. To get a life bird I was convinced I'd never see because of my refusal to go to sea, had me literally jumping up and down on the beach, so exciting was the sighting. 

Little Blue Heron

Earlier in the day, on Spizzle Creek, I added to more herons to the list. One was a brief look at a flying American Bittern, a big bird that is hard to find. It's the second time I've seen one at Spizzle Creek, just lucky I guess. And, as I searched to see if I could find where the bittern landed, I found in the marsh one of the two immature Little Blue Herons that Steve had earlier reported. Again, I only need one. Little Blue Heron in winter is rare, but, in a few months, they'll be all over the place. 

But the Dovekies? As Steve put in his eBird notes, that may be a once in a lifetime experience. 

Shark River Inlet | Manasquan Inlet 1/11--Purple Sandpiper, Black-headed Gull, etc.

Despite despising winter, I had a decent day birding two inlets. My original plan was to drive up Silver Lake in Belmar and get the Eurasian Wigeon reported there. Eurasian Wigeons are annual rarities up there, but this one was in a more accessible location than the usual spot on the Shark River where you have to find the right angle and stand on one foot and tilt your scope just so to find it. A nice, open lake with no obstructions. And no waterfowl this morning because it is winter and really cold and the lake was frozen. 

Purple Sandpiper

At least the Shark River Inlet was only a couple of blocks north, so I went there hoping for some ducks, or snow buntings, or winter finches. But the new bird for the year was one I wasn't thinking about, Purple Sandpiper. Usually I figure I'll get them at Barnegat Light, where they're ubiquitous in winter, but of course, any old jetty will do and there they were, mixed in with the Sanderlings. I also saw, across the way, a couple of Lesser Black-back Gulls roosting with a large flock of Herring Gulls. Not a rarity by any means, but good to find on my own.

From there I drove down to Lake Como, which, for some reason, had more open water and more waterfowl. I thought maybe the Eurasian Wigeon would have moved down there (it's only about a mile) but I only found, along with the Mallards, Ruddy Ducks, and Hooded Mergansers, two Pied-billed Grebes and a dozen American Coots, as new year birds.  I circumambulated the lake (hi Ellen!) and at found that it is 1.2 miles around. 

Now came the obligatory birding part of the day. Almost all winter I have been avoiding going to the Manasquan Inlet because I generally don't like standing on a jetty in winter winds sea watching. I like to move around, but having moved around, and being only a few miles away, I figured I may as well go down there and try to get the two rarities that I have avoided going to get. 

Black-headed Gull

I pulled into the parking lot of the inlet and looked around not seeing much worth even starting a list for. Along the seawall were Herring Gull, Ring-bill Gull, Ring-bill Gull, Ring Bull, oh, Black-headed Gull! That was easy. And I started a list.

On the first day of the year up at Sandy Hook, one of our group found a young drake King Eider which we all got on and I was happy to get that rarity on the year list so fast. "That bird is dead to me now," I said, with the caveat, "except in Ocean County." An oxymoronic hen King Eider has been an habitué of the inlet for just about as long as the Black-headed Gull but I couldn't find it from that spot. I drove over to another parking lot and eschewing the scope, walked out to the jetty, figuring that if the eider was in the inlet, I wouldn't need more powerful optics than my binoculars. And as soon as I got onto the jetty, I found the duck, across the way. Too far at first for photos, the duck eventually drifted out almost to the end of the jetty and on my side. One could think of the hen King Eider as the Mona Lisa of ducks with its sly grin being a prominent field mark. 

King Eider

Finally, as long as I was in the neighborhood, I drove down to Lake of the Lilies, usually a great waterfowl spot in the winter but again, today, mostly frozen. All I saw were geese and gulls and a few random ducks of little interest. I wasn't even going to make a list until I got back to my car and looked in the short end of the "L" shaped lake and found 24 American Coots swimming in open water. Since I "needed" coots for the county, I relented a made a list. 

American Coots

The temperature was peeking above freezing but I'd "accomplished" enough for one day and headed home, only to find, that, with the thaw, more ice must have melted on Silver Lake because around 1 PM, the Eurasian Wigeon was sighted. Well, the compensation with winter birds is that you get two shots at them--if you miss them in the first 3 months of the year, there's always the 2nd chance at the end. 

Brig 1/8--Long-billed Dowitcher, Cedar Waxwing, etc

Cedar Waxwing

Down at the Gull Pond at Brig I ran into a friend who asked me what I'd seen. I'd only been there about 1/2 an hour, but I said that any day I see Cedar Waxwings is a success.  They are by far my favorite bird species, at least in North America. Which was good, because I'd just spent some time looking for the Townsend's Warbler that's been seen, on and off, for the last few weeks around the Visitor's Center. Except today, I learned later, it was on the Leeds Eco-trail. 

But the day had other rewards. Looking at the Gull Pond I saw some birders in the area that closed off and I started to get annoyed with them when I saw my friend coming back from there too. Then he reminded me that it was the weekly Friday walk and they permission to cross thru the gate. I saw a couple of them photographing shorebirds. I only had my binoculars with me (I usually start the trip by walking down there from the parking lot) so I could only make out that they were shorebirds and that they were not yellowlegs. My friend told me they were Long-billed Dowitchers, a rarity in winter, but not that rare. Still, I wanted a better look at them, so I walked back to the parking lot with him and drove down with my scope. Of course, by then, they'd flown. 

Snow  Geese

The trip around the impoundments yielded up a lot of new waterfowl for the year--Snow Goose, Wood Duck, Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Canvasback--but the American White Pelican, which has been like a statue at marker 15 for the last couple of months was not there. I returned to the Gull Pond where I saw two Greater Yellowlegs and then, scoping the reeds I found one very nice-looking Long-billed Dowitcher, getting all the field marks before it flew away, so I felt the listing was legit instead of being "if you say so" birds. 

Northern Pintail

0 for 2 on the target birds yet a decent day on the dikes with one unexpected species and the prettiest bird in North America.

42 species:

Snow Goose  1000

Canada Goose  150

Mute Swan  2

Tundra Swan  30

Wood Duck  3    2 drakes 1 hen at Gull pond

Northern Shoveler  85

Gadwall  75

American Wigeon  3

Mallard  55

American Black Duck  130

Northern Pintail  85

Green-winged Teal  40

Canvasback  30

Ring-necked Duck  7    One in Gull Pond, the rest at Exit Pond

Greater Scaup  200    Turtle Cove

Bufflehead  9

Hooded Merganser  80

Red-breasted Merganser  100    Careful estimate

Horned Grebe  2    Turtle Cove

Mourning Dove  8

Dunlin  130

Long-billed Dowitcher  6    Gull pond

Greater Yellowlegs  2    Gull Pond

Herring Gull  100

Great Blue Heron  10    Exact Count

Turkey Vulture  1

Northern Harrier  1

Bald Eagle  2

Red-shouldered Hawk  1    Jens Trail Pond

Northern Flicker  1

Blue Jay  1    Heard

American Crow  5

Carolina Chickadee  3

Tufted Titmouse  3

Carolina Wren  3    Heard

Gray Catbird  1    Exit ponds

Eastern Bluebird  4

Cedar Waxwing  6

House Sparrow  1    On top of Visitor's Center

American Goldfinch  4

Song Sparrow  10

Red-winged Blackbird  5 

BC Fairgrounds 1/6--Rough-legged Hawk, American Kestrel

Normally, I'd write this entry the same day I saw the birds, but after a very pleasant (though practically birdless) morning at Whitesbog and a stop at the Burlington County Fairgrounds, I returned from the alternate avian universe to our world and spent the next 12 hours watching the republic teeter yet survive. So, the third sentence of this of this paragraph would normally be the first. I feel sorry for the Rough-legged Hawks at the Burlington County Fairgrounds. Their lives, as well as their legs, are rough. When I was there in December I located one almost immediately, flying over the grasslands, harassed by two Northern Harriers. Yesterday, after a little searching, I found two flying, one of them being chased by an immature Bald Eagle. 

The fairgrounds, one of the last expanses of grassland in the area, is a great place for raptors--including Short-eared Owls if you go there at dusk and the owls emerge before the gates close. While the Rough-legged Hawks (this is the first time I've seen two there) are the rarity, Northern Harriers abound. I counted 6. Eagles nest there, which is why, supposedly, you can't walk into the fields. The first raptor I saw as I was driving along the fence that separates the parking lot from the grasslands--a hovering American Kestrel that flew over my car and conveniently landed in a tree across from the driver's side window.

Etra Lake | Assunpink 1/4--Trumpeter Swan, Pileated Woodpecker

 My best look ever at a Pileated Woodpecker and me without a camera.

I was up at Etra Lake early this morning, once again sorting through the thousand geese on the lake looking for a Greater White-fronted Goose. I've been looking for one all this winter, there and at Conine's Millpond in Allentown. Couldn't end the year with one, can't start the year with one. 

So, after looking at every goose, twice, I started my walk around the park. There is a peninsula where you can get a closer look at the waterfowl and I scanned with binoculars from there. Figuring my chances of getting a photo of the goose were not good if it was going to be far out on the lake, I didn't bother carrying my camera--it's just another winter nuisance that slips off my shoulder and is hard to manipulate with gloves on. 

Walking back to the trail I heard a loud WOOK that I first thought was a robin but immediately dismissed and before I could run through any more possibilities, saw this huge Pileated Woodpecker fly down from one tree and land on another close by, giving me great unobstructed views. So many times that I've seen Pileated it has been partially blocked by the branches, or only half the bird was showing from behind a trunk. Not today. And me without a camera. I took a couple of shots with my phone; they are bad. Blown up, photoshopped, cropped, they show a woodpecker shape. Still, a real surprise and one of the joys of birding, finding what you don't expect. 

Assunpink isn't far away; I was confident I could add at least one rare bird for the day there. I parked by the lake was unpleasantly surprised to see it almost duckless. Then I saw a hunter pulling in his string of decoys and knew why. Still, they don't hunt what I was looking for, at least not in NJ. I walked the road that follows the lake stopping into the off shoots that go down to the lake shore. There actually were a decent number of Ruddy Ducks there in the narrow part of the lake, 3 Lesser Scaup and a Common Merganser. I came upon a duck hunter and he started to talk. He asked what I was looking for and when I said swans, he pointed to the Mute Swans floating by, but I told him I was looking for rarer ones. "Gray?" he asked.

"One of them is." 

He pointed to the east end of the lake and said he'd seen a gray one there. That's the immature Trumpeter Swan that's been with the two adults. I saw that he'd shot a Ruddy Duck. It looked even smaller dead than they do alive. I asked how they tasted but he wasn't sure. In fact, he asked me what kind of duck it was. I have nothing against hunting but I think you should at least know what you're killing. 

I continued along the road flushing huge numbers of sparrows--Field, Song, White-throated. Finally, at the extreme east end of the lake I found the Trumpeters. Pretty neat, they being probably the only 3 in the state. And I'm glad they were there, because I didn't feel like driving around to Stone Tavern Lake where they sometimes are. 

In birding, you can either wander around and see what's there, or you can be goal oriented. I usually prefer the former, but today at least I achieved one of my goals and wandering around also had its rewards.

Other new species for the year:

At Etra: Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Fish Crow

At Assunpink: American Goldfinch (which is amazing that the first 3 days of the year didn't produce one at our feeders).

Island Beach SP 1/2--Common Redpoll

With a long Kick Off the Year day behind me and potentially long one tomorrow (Barnegat CBC), I didn't intend to spend the entire day chasing around. Plus, I had some life administrative duties to take care of. The easiest and most desirable bird around was being seen at the entrance of Island Beach SP, so after I took care of what I had to do, I drove over there.

Stake outs, as I have said before, are not my favorite way of birding. You stand around and wait and hope that you don't have to listen to too many stupid conversations. When I arrived, there were three photographers aiming their cameras at the base of the feeder and I thought I was going to get real lucky, but it was only a flock of House Sparrows. Which promptly flew away when a car pulled up to the toll booth. And stayed away, as more cars lined up. My patience was out after 15 minutes, so I decided to look around to see where the sparrows went and maybe find my bird. That didn't work as the sparrows were nowhere to be found. 

I was thinking about leaving when a few birders showed up. Hard to tell who's who in masks, but we eventually recognized each other. I decided to make one more loop around the entrance island and stand by the feeder for a little while longer. A cardinal flew in. Perhaps he was a harbinger. Then, after a few minutes we all a loud "Zeep" and blur went into the cedar next to the tree. The zeep was the call of a Common Redpoll. But I didn't want to count a call for this bird. According to everyone else, the bird had flown into the base of the cedar tree. I peered in with my binoculars and saw White-throated Sparrow. A little to left, another White-throated Sparrow. And a little more to the left...a Common Redpoll! I got lucky again, just as I had last week with the Bullock's Oriole. 

I was ready to leave, figuring I'd never get a picture with the bird in the dense branches of the tree but just as I was turning on my heel, the redpoll came out and perched on a branch. Four or five of us stealthily crept up but we probably could have had a marching band because the bird wanted seed and a line of cars and a bunch of cameras weren't going to deter it. I crouched down and leaned against the side of the toll both and the bird was barely socially distanced from me. Took my photos and left. 

Other cool birds I saw for the day were: Tundra Swans on Bamber Lake; a long-staying Ring-necked Duck on the pond on Schoolhouse Road; Lesser Scaup at Riverfront Landing; Hooded Mergansers, a Great Blue Heron, and a Belted Kingfisher on a pond in Village VI; and a Bald Eagle flying over the house. In all, not a bad second day. 

Kicking Off the New Year at Sandy Hook--King Eider, Orange-crowned Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler,
Photo © Ellen Hartley

As is our tradition, Shari & I joined a group of stalwart birders at Sandy Hook for a Kick Off the New Year trip led by Scott and Linda. Compared to some past New Year's Days, the weather was manageable especially when we went over to the bay side where the wind wasn't blowing in our faces. Sometimes we start at Sandy Hook and work our way down the coast, stopping at selected spot along the ocean and some of the "lakes" that are a couple of blocks off the shore, but today we worked our way up north, starting at Lot B, then C, then the Fisherman's Beach, over to the bay side, up to North Beach, then a long walk to the top of the peninsula via the North Pond and Salt Pond. I figured out of the 6 + miles we walked, about 5 of them were on sand. 

Since every bird is a new bird, in January I only note the rarities and the "cool" birds: 

Rarities:2

Cool birds: 3

The first rarity we encountered was on the bay side where we'd gone to get out of the wind. A lot of Horned Grebes were around, along with a couple of goldeneyes, and some Buffleheads. One of our party spotted an eider and once everyone focused their scopes upon this brown-head, orange-beaked immature male, Scott confirmed that it was a King Eider. There have been a lot of King Eider sightings this winter, especially of hens, so to get a drake, even if it isn't a spectacular full plumaged male, first thing in the year puts a bang on the list. 

Snow Buntings,
Photo © Ellen Hartley

Over on the North Beach, an endless stretch of sand, we came upon two species of birds I really like--big flocks of both Snow Buntings and Horned Larks, with the lark flock incorporating some buntings. Bunting do not stay still, so that Ellen Hartley (who was kind of enough to supply photos for this entry) was able to get this nice pic of the flock on the ground is a real accomplishment. There were a couple of photographers with big lenses there, crouched down in the sand, waiting for their opportunity to get the buntings to land and I doubt they got anything much better considering how skittish these birds are. And what are they eating? What tiny seeds are they picking out of the sand? 

Horned Lark
Photo © Ellen Hartley

Scott, knowing what plants attract what birds, took us up to the Salt Pond near the tip of the Hook where there is a stand of groundsel which Orange-crowned Warblers love. I don't know if they switch to seeds in the winter or if there is some bug life surviving on the plant, but the two species go together. Sure enough, in the middle branches of the groundsel Scott found the warbler. It jumped around quite a bit, as warblers to, but everyone got a good look at it. 

Bonaparte's Gull
Photo © Ellen Hartley

Out at the tip there were loons, all 3 scoters, and gulls, including two Bonaparte's Gulls, a bird that isn't rare but seems increasingly hard to come up with. I know it took me until November last year to find one and it was a pre-pandemic winter birding in which I failed to come up with. So good--first day Bonaparte's Gull, that bird is dead to me unless it's in Ocean County. 

For the day I had 40 species at the Hook. I started the morning off with a few species around the house (first bird: Carolina Chickadee; best bird: Brown Creeper) for a total of 46 for the day. 

Brant  100

Canada Goose  25

American Black Duck  3

King Eider  1    

Common Eider  1    False Hook

Surf Scoter  20

White-winged Scoter  15

Black Scoter  25

Long-tailed Duck  20

Bufflehead  10

Common Goldeneye  2    Horseshoe Cove

Red-breasted Merganser  35

Horned Grebe  12

Sanderling  10

Bonaparte's Gull  2    False Hook

Ring-billed Gull  5

Herring Gull  200

Great Black-backed Gull  25

Red-throated Loon  4

Common Loon  1

Turkey Vulture  1

Northern Harrier  2    Grey Ghosts

Cooper's Hawk  1

Red-shouldered Hawk  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Battery Potter

Downy Woodpecker  1

Common Raven  1

Horned Lark  45

Carolina Wren  2

Gray Catbird  1

Northern Mockingbird  3

American Robin  10

Snow Bunting  50

Field Sparrow  15

American Tree Sparrow  3

White-throated Sparrow  1

Song Sparrow  3

Orange-crowned Warbler  1    

Yellow-rumped Warbler  2

Northern Cardinal  2