November Wrap-up--One Bogus Year Bird

Cattle Egrets across the road from Colliers Mills

So, not a good month. 

I was constrained in my birding because life got in the way. I birded every day, but couldn't necessarily get to the places I would have liked to be because there wasn't enough time to get there. 

Thus, when a Western Kingbird was reported at Tip Seaman Park in Tuckerton, I was on Island Beach, participating in an Ocean County rarity round up but the best rarity was too far away for me to run after that day. And Western Kingbirds have a reputation not of sticking around in the county so the next day I didn't bother to chase. This one stuck around (actually 2 just to grind by teeth a little more) but it wasn't until 5 days later I was able to run down there. They turned out to be a Doctor John birds. I was either at the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at the right time. Despite multiple sightings flooding my phone whenever I was not there, three trips to the park (two on the same day) yielded bupkis. 

The only year bird I added in November is essentially bogus. Running across Stafford Avenue in Manahawkin I saw a Ring-necked Pheasant, but they're released in huge numbers in the WMA there. I really shouldn't count it, but Mo-om, everybody else does! Of course it gets harder to add as the year lengthens, one of the reasons my interest flags when December rolls around. I feel like I'm 100 points behind in Scrabble with only a few letters left in the bag. But still, 30 days with only a glimpse of a pheasant? Discouraging.

And my camera broke. 

So, not a good month. 

November was not without its slight rewards: The Northern Shrike at Franklin Parker was a winner for the day. Three Cattle Egrets at Colliers Mills were amusing and new for that patch. And the ole reliable Trumpeter Swans are back at Assunpink for something like the 8th year in a row. When I was there on Thanksgiving I found them with a couple of Mute Swans mid-lake and then got the triad when 2 Tundra Swans (ironically, more rare in Monmouth County than the Trumpeters) flew in. Made for a good comparison of the 3 species if I ever want to teach a swan class. I would like it on my permanent record that I did not count the pheasant I saw there flying away from 4 hapless hunters who ineffectually sprayed the sky with buckshot as it disappeared behind a tree. 

Trumpeter and Tundra Swans, Assunpink Lake

The rarity round up was an interesting exercise, sort of like a Christmas Count without the bitter weather. I enjoyed combing Island Beach, but the only rarity any of us came up with was an oxymoronic hen King Eider and really, of late, King Eiders are only theoretically rare in Ocean County. 4 spent the summer hanging out in the back of Barnegat Inlet. 

King Eider (hen), IBSP

For the month I stumbled upon 121 species. But oh that Western Kingbird is like a knife in my ribs. 

Species            First Sighting
Mute Swan  Tip Seaman CP
Trumpeter Swan  Assunpink WMA
Tundra Swan  Whitesbog
Wood Duck  Whitesbog
Gadwall  Tip Seaman CP
American Wigeon  Island Beach SP
Mallard  Tip Seaman CP
American Black Duck  Great Bay Blvd
Green-winged Teal  Whitesbog
Ring-necked Duck  Tip Seaman CP
Greater Scaup  Island Beach SP
Lesser Scaup  Assunpink WMA
King Eider  Island Beach SP
Common Eider  Island Beach SP
Surf Scoter  Island Beach SP
White-winged Scoter  Island Beach SP
Black Scoter  Island Beach SP
Long-tailed Duck  Island Beach SP
Bufflehead  Double Trouble State Park
Hooded Merganser  Whitesbog
Common Merganser  Whitesbog
Red-breasted Merganser  Island Beach SP
Ruddy Duck  Assunpink WMA
Ring-necked Pheasant  Manahawkin WMA
Pied-billed Grebe  Assunpink WMA
Horned Grebe  Island Beach SP
Rock Pigeon  Holly Lake
Mourning Dove  35 Sunset Rd
Virginia Rail  Island Beach SP
American Oystercatcher  Great Bay Blvd
Black-bellied Plover  Great Bay Blvd
Killdeer  Whitesbog
Ruddy Turnstone  Island Beach SP
Sanderling  Great Bay Blvd
Dunlin  Great Bay Blvd
Purple Sandpiper  Island Beach SP
American Woodcock  Double Trouble State Park
Wilson's Snipe  Whitesbog
Greater Yellowlegs  Great Bay Blvd
Bonaparte's Gull  Island Beach SP
Laughing Gull  Island Beach SP
Ring-billed Gull  Island Beach SP
Herring Gull  Parker Run Dock St
Lesser Black-backed Gull  Island Beach SP
Great Black-backed Gull  Parker Run Dock St
Forster's Tern  Island Beach SP
Royal Tern  Island Beach SP
Red-throated Loon  Island Beach SP
Common Loon  Great Bay Blvd
Northern Gannet  Island Beach SP
Great Cormorant  Island Beach SP
Double-crested Cormorant  Holly Lake
Brown Pelican  Island Beach SP
Great Blue Heron  Parker Run Dock St
Great Egret  Great Bay Blvd
Snowy Egret  Manahawkin WMA
Little Blue Heron  Island Beach SP
Tricolored Heron  Island Beach SP
Cattle Egret  Colliers Mills WMA
Black Vulture   Lanoka Harbor
Turkey Vulture  Great Bay Blvd
Osprey  Great Bay Blvd
Northern Harrier  Island Beach SP
Sharp-shinned Hawk  Tip Seaman CP
Cooper's Hawk  Prospertown Lake
Bald Eagle  Great Bay Blvd
Red-shouldered Hawk  Tip Seaman CP
Red-tailed Hawk  Franklin Parker Preserve
Eastern Screech-Owl  Whitesbog
Belted Kingfisher  Tip Seaman CP
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  Island Beach SP
Red-bellied Woodpecker  Holly Lake
Downy Woodpecker  Colliers Mills WMA
Hairy Woodpecker  Colliers Mills WMA
Northern Flicker  Colliers Mills WMA
American Kestrel  BC Fairgrounds
Merlin  Island Beach SP
Peregrine Falcon  Island Beach SP
Northern Shrike  Franklin Parker Preserve
Blue Jay  Tip Seaman CP
American Crow  Parker Run Dock St
Fish Crow  Double Trouble State Park
Common Raven  Island Beach SP
Carolina Chickadee  Holly Lake
Tufted Titmouse  35 Sunset Rd
Tree Swallow  Parker Run Dock St
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  Island Beach SP
Golden-crowned Kinglet  Great Bay Blvd
Red-breasted Nuthatch  Double Trouble State Park
White-breasted Nuthatch  35 Sunset Rd
Brown Creeper  Island Beach SP
Winter Wren  Island Beach SP
Carolina Wren  Great Bay Blvd
European Starling  Parker Run Dock St
Gray Catbird  Island Beach SP
Northern Mockingbird  Colliers Mills WMA
Eastern Bluebird  Tip Seaman CP
Hermit Thrush  Colliers Mills WMA
American Robin  Parker Run Dock St
Cedar Waxwing  Colliers Mills WMA
House Sparrow  Wawa Rt 70
House Finch  Holly Lake
American Goldfinch  Tip Seaman CP
Chipping Sparrow  Colliers Mills WMA
Fox Sparrow  Whitesbog
Dark-eyed Junco  Colliers Mills WMA
White-throated Sparrow  Great Bay Blvd
Savannah Sparrow  Franklin Parker Preserve
Song Sparrow  Parker Run Dock St
Swamp Sparrow  Colliers Mills WMA
Eastern Meadowlark  Colliers Mills WMA
Baltimore Oriole  Tip Seaman CP
Red-winged Blackbird  Holly Lake
Brown-headed Cowbird  Tip Seaman CP
Rusty Blackbird  Whitesbog
Boat-tailed Grackle  Parker Run Dock St
Pine Warbler  Franklin Parker Preserve
Yellow-rumped Warbler  Tip Seaman CP
Northern Cardinal  Colliers Mills WMA

Franklin Parker Preserve 11/8--Northern Shrike

Back in January I was patting myself on the back while simultaneously slapping myself upside the head because I had found, fairly quickly, a Northern Shrike at Franklin Parker Preserve while at the same time was having no success with much larger birds around the state. That shrike hung around a good long while although on a second visit there last winter it proved elusive. A few days ago, that shrike, or one very much like it, returned to the same spot in the vast preserve and this morning I drove down hoping to get a better look at it than I did at the beginning of the year. The old bog that it has been frequenting is large with lots of trees for it to perch upon and lots of brush for it to dive down into and hide. Normally, when I look for a rarity, I don't give it a lot of time--it's either there or it ain't as far as I'm concerned, but today, just to see, I scoured that bog. I walked 3/4 of the way around it until it the path started to go back into the woods, then retraced my steps the opposite way and didn't find the bird. Saw lots of flickers, with which it has been known to associate, but no shrike. 

I crossed the street and walked up to the Bald Eagle Reservoir and there wasn't an eagle, duck, swan, goose, or kingfisher to be seen there. Hard to believe that much water could be that empty. So I decided to go back to the east side of the road and walk all the way around the bog, this time in a clockwise direction. Just before I got back to the gate I ran into a Burlco birder who had already seen the shrike and few days ago and was there to do some botanizing. She wished me luck and I started back. This time in the wooded area, I came across half a dozen Pine Warblers, and saw that both the goose and Mallard flocks had built up substantially in the hour or so I was gone, but still, no shrike. 

I was pretty close to the exit when I saw Kay coming up the path. I gave her thumbs down and she seemed surprised. "I just saw Matt and he said he saw the bird pop up in the bog just a little while ago," she told me. Up to that point, I hadn't really been frustrated. I figured either the bird was hidden, eating or digesting whatever small rodent it had killed, or else it just wasn't there. But to hear that it had just been sighted really kicked me into aggravation mode. 

I turned around. Kay very cheerfully said, "I'll help you." We got out to the bog and hadn't gone 50 feet when she put up her bins and said, "I see it." And there, in a dead oak tree, was the bird, fairly distant and with its back to us, but clearly identifiable as a shrike. And then it turned around and removed any lingering doubt. I took some non-award winning photos, but, as I said to Kay, I didn't know whether to be happy or mad--obviously I was glad to see the bird, but that I either missed it three times or that it favored Kay over me was irritating. It was success and failure at the same time. "Be happy," Kay said, "it's easier." 

So I am. 

Winter is icumen in

First Tundra Swans of the season, on Union Pond, Whitesbog

 LHUDE SING GODDAMN!

                        --Ezra pound