Sandy Hook 4/2--Piping Plover, Glaucous Gull

Piping Plovers

The joke was, "Larry's above 195," and it's true that aside from Assunpink, which is about one mile north of that bisecting highway, I hadn't been north of I-195 all year. But the prospect of interesting birds and good birders lured me to the Hook today, for Scott's NJA field trip. Before I leave the confines of my OccoBuco circle, I ask myself what could I see outside it that I won't see inside it. Assunpink, for instance, had the Trumpeter Swans. Today, I was hoping the answer was some sort of rare gull or sparrow, some species I would want confirmation of if I was lucky enough to stumble upon it on my own.

We started the day at Plum Island and worked our way north to the observation deck at the base of the Death March trail then worked our way back down to Spermaceti Cove. At one of the beaches at the northern end we came across a small number of Piping Plovers, new for the year for me, and always a bittersweet find as they are so endangered because of the precarious lives they lead, literally scratching out a living in the sand, protected from predators (natural and introduced) mostly by their coloration, which makes them one of those birds for which you need a landmark. Happily, today, the landmarks were two American Oystercatchers between which a pair of plovers sat, and then the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge which served as a marker for another pair: just go the middle of the bridge's span, come down to the sand, and there they were, hunkered down in the wind on a nano-dune.  

American Oystercatcher
(for Shari)

The rare gull came on our last stop at the boardwalk at Spermaceti Cove where Linda spotted across the water one big white bird which was a Glaucous Gull, perfectly clear in a number of scopes but not photographable at that distance. 

The winds were favorable (not that I think any wind is favorable) and raptors abounded. Big kettles of Turkey Vultures had Black Vultures mixed in with them, American Kestrels swooped along every beach we stopped at, and we also encountered Northern Harrier, Cooper's Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Bald Eagle, and Merlin. Pretty good. 

My only disappointment, and I didn't even realize it until I got home, was missing Black-capped Chickadee, that avian anomaly of Sandy Hook. Others had it, at least heard it, but I wasn't aware of it until I checked the lists of others in the group. It means I have to make another trip north of I-195 to get it on my year list. 

My list was 58 species. Others' mileage varied.

Brant  100
Canada Goose  21
American Black Duck  4
Surf Scoter  3
Black Scoter  6
Long-tailed Duck  3
Bufflehead  10
Red-breasted Merganser  25
Horned Grebe  1
Mourning Dove  2
American Oystercatcher  14
Black-bellied Plover  1     Spermaceti Cove
Piping Plover  4
Killdeer  2
Bonaparte's Gull  3
Laughing Gull  1
Herring Gull  100
Glaucous Gull  1     
Great Black-backed Gull  30
Red-throated Loon  1
Common Loon  1
Northern Gannet  200
Great Cormorant  1
Double-crested Cormorant  4
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  2
Black Vulture  10
Turkey Vulture  50
Osprey  15
Northern Harrier  1
Sharp-shinned Hawk  2
Cooper's Hawk  4
Bald Eagle  1
Red-shouldered Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  2
Northern Flicker  1
American Kestrel  6
Merlin  1
Eastern Phoebe  1
American Crow  2
Common Raven  3
Tree Swallow  8
Golden-crowned Kinglet  1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
European Starling  7
Northern Mockingbird  4
American Robin  2
Cedar Waxwing  12
Dark-eyed Junco  1
White-throated Sparrow  1     Heard
Song Sparrow  7
Swamp Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Common Grackle  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  5
Northern Cardinal  1     Heard

Great Egret: note the green lores.