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.