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.
No comments:
Post a Comment