Island Beach SP 4/4--Little Blue Heron

I was walking back down Reed's Road this morning when I, to use a Newarkism of my mom's, "bunked into" Steve coming up the road. Always happy to bird with the Dean of IBSP, I turned around with him and we walked out to the bay where the Buffleheads seem to be staging, then spent the rest of the morning mostly walking the bayside trails, though we did spend a little time on the beach looking for Piping Plovers; instead, we came up with a Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Previously, I'd stopped at the marina looking for this weekend's Forster's Terns and Bonaparte's Gull (not there), and then spent a little time on the beach off Two Bit Road where the ocean and the Northern Natural Area were pretty quiet. 

We had a this and that morning, finding a goodly number of birds but nothing to set your heart a-racing. I wanted at least one new bird for the year and was pretty confident we'd get it at out last stop, Spizzle Creek. It took a bit of looking down the channels until Steve spotted a Little Blue Heron standing in front of a Great Egret and across from a Snowy Egret. It quickly disappeared in to the reeds and I thought there went the photo op, but on the blind trail where the marsh is open, we found 3 more, albeit at quite a distance. 

I was just looking at he Ocean County List. There are 399 accepted species which shows the diversity of habitat in the county. I wonder what #400 will be and who will find it? 

Today's list of 44 species:

Brant   100

Canada Goose   4

Mute Swan   22

Mallard   4

American Black Duck   2

Green-winged Teal   4

Bufflehead   90

Red-breasted Merganser   10

Mourning Dove   1

Ring-billed Gull   2

Herring Gull   100

Lesser Black-backed Gull   1

Great Black-backed Gull   10

Common Loon   5

Northern Gannet   4

Double-crested Cormorant   4

Great Blue Heron   1

Great Egret   10

Snowy Egret   1

Little Blue Heron   4

Tricolored Heron   2

Turkey Vulture   2

Osprey   15

Northern Harrier   1

Sharp-shinned Hawk   1

Northern Flicker   5

Merlin   1

Eastern Phoebe   10

American Crow   2

Fish Crow   1

Carolina Chickadee   4

Tree Swallow   1

Golden-crowned Kinglet   6

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   1

Carolina Wren   3

Northern Mockingbird   1

American Robin   2

Field Sparrow   2

Dark-eyed Junco   5

Song Sparrow   8

Red-winged Blackbird   10

Brown-headed Cowbird   1

Yellow-rumped Warbler   5

Northern Cardinal   4