Island Beach SP 6/27--Brown Pelican

I figured it was time to get my Brown Pelicans for the year, so even though the weather looked a little iffy, I walked the beach at the southern end of Island Beach SP. I made a first stop at the Winter Anchorage, scoping whatever I could see on the sand bars, which wasn't much, but did include a dozen Royal Terns, my first for the county this year. It took a while for me to determine their identity--from that distance they could have been Caspian Terns--but in time a few gave me looks at their tonsured heads and I knew I had the species I wanted. 

Walking south from A23 I almost immediately saw 4 pelicans fly by. I could have turned around and looked for a trail with more possibilities, but I didn't, deciding that the "back" of the inlet was going to productive. That meant a mile and a half walk. Along the way I didn't come across much--oystercatchers, Common Terns, the usual gulls. But, at the end of my walk I hit the pelican bonanza--on the sand bars between the peninsula I was on and the Sedge Islands about 4 dozen pelicans were roosting. Probably this little area in Barnegat Bay is the best place to reliably see pelicans. Even at the northern end of the park they're more scarce and practically rare at Manasquan Inlet and north.

I noticed while I was scoping the bar that the wind was freshening and looking up, the skies weren't just cloudy, but ominous. A glance at the weather map on my phone was an "Uh-oh." It appeared I had about a half hour before the yellow and red on the map made its way across the bay--I didn't. I'd gotten about a third of the way back to the dune crossing by the parking lot when the rain started to pelt me. Fortunately, it was just showers. I did not want to be walking with a metal scope on an open beach in a lightning storm. 

Only 15 species for my walk, but that's birding when you're looking for one species.

American Oystercatcher  5
Laughing Gull  150
Herring Gull  45
Great Black-backed Gull  20
Common Tern  25
Double-crested Cormorant  15
Brown Pelican  55
Great Egret  1
Glossy Ibis  3
Osprey  3
Northern Mockingbird  2
American Goldfinch  1
Song Sparrow  3
Boat-tailed Grackle  1
Common Yellowthroat  1