January Wrap-up--The Usual Suspects

Eastern Bluebirds w House Finch, Great Bay Blvd

There was one obligatory bird this month: the (now) long-staying Red-flanked Bluetail that seems to have made a permanent home in a backyard in the community I live in, one mile from where I write this. This remarkable little bird that has survived temperatures well below freezing and some seriously severe storms, not to mention the hostilities of mockingbirds and Hermit Thrushes, has been seen by well over a thousand birders and the photographs of it must number ten times that amount. It has been adopted by Crestwood Village as our mascot and named "Riker" after the homeowners who originally found it and in whose yard it has stayed, living on the meal worms they put out for it every day. On the second of the month, I stopped there and instead of the long wait I expected, saw the bird within 15 or 20 minutes. In the early days of its residency, it would disappear for hours on end, but now it seems to have become accustomed to its fans and puts on a show a few times an hour. 

Other than that bird, most of what I saw was the usual suspects, with some rarities chased as has been documented in the entries below. A few relatively close rarities I didn't chase either because I didn't feel like driving up to parks I don't know or because I really don't like the idea of standing around in someone's backyard waiting for the rare bird (in this case a Western Kingbird) to show up, no matter how gracious the homeowner is. 

Purple Sandpiper, Manasquan Inlet

On my last day of birding for the month I started at Whitesbog pre-dawn, scouting for owls for the Pinelands Winter Bird Count on Sunday. I tried 5 different spots, 4 of which have usually produced and the other a spot that seems like it should be a good owl spot, and I came up empty in all 5 places. Not a happy harbinger for Sunday. I did, however, hear, as the skies lightened, a Fox Sparrow low in the bushes, my 122nd species of the month and thus the year. Not really a satisfactory way to end the month's list, but I know I'll see Fox Sparrows aplenty in the months to come. 

In the back of my mind in January and through the first few months of the year, I have the notion that if I miss such and such a bird now, I get a second chance at the end of the year. You can't really say that about spring migration--the warblers in spring are a lot easier to deal with than whatever dull-plumaged birds straggle back in the autumn. 

Pine Siskin, American Goldfinch, taken by our feeder camera.

Our feeders have pleased me so far this year--we're attracting some unusual yard birds--Pine Siskin most notably, though we've had bluebirds, waxwings, a kinglet, Brown Creepers and 2 winter warblers. 

As I said, 122 species. Rarities are underlined. 

Counties birded: Burlington, Mercer (incidentally), Monmouth, Ocean

Species             First Sighting
Snow Goose   Pinelands Preservation Alliance Headquarters
Brant   Sandy Hook
Cackling Goose   Sunset Park
Canada Goose   Sandy Hook
Mute Swan   Waretown
Trumpeter Swan   Assunpink WMA
Tundra Swan   Whitesbog
Northern Shoveler   Marshall's Pond
Gadwall   Sandy Hook
American Wigeon   Marshall's Pond
Mallard   Sandy Hook
American Black Duck   Sandy Hook
Green-winged Teal   Assunpink WMA
Canvasback   Riverfront Landing
Redhead   Waretown
Ring-necked Duck   Bamber Lake
Greater Scaup   Waretown
Lesser Scaup   Assunpink WMA
Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Surf Scoter   Sandy Hook
White-winged Scoter   Sandy Hook
Black Scoter   Sandy Hook
Long-tailed Duck   Sandy Hook
Bufflehead   Sandy Hook
Common Goldeneye   Sandy Hook
Hooded Merganser   Assunpink WMA
Common Merganser   Assunpink WMA
Red-breasted Merganser   Sandy Hook
Ruddy Duck   Assunpink WMA
Pied-billed Grebe   Prospertown Lake
Horned Grebe   Sandy Hook
Red-necked Grebe   Sandy Hook
Rock Pigeon   Wawa South Toms River
Mourning Dove   Whitesbog
American Coot   Sandy Hook
American Oystercatcher   Holgate
Killdeer   Lake Barnegat
Greater Yellowlegs   Lake Barnegat
Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Sanderling   Sandy Hook
Dunlin   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Purple Sandpiper   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Guillemot   Shark River Inlet
Razorbill   Sandy Hook
Bonaparte's Gull   Sandy Hook
Ring-billed Gull   Conines Millpond
Herring Gull   Sandy Hook
Great Black-backed Gull   Sandy Hook
Glaucous Gull   Sandy Hook
Iceland Gull   Sandy Hook
Red-throated Loon   Sandy Hook
Common Loon   Sandy Hook
Northern Gannet   Sandy Hook
Great Cormorant   Sandy Hook
Double-crested Cormorant   Sandy Hook
Great Egret   Manahawkin WMA
Great Blue Heron   Sandy Hook
Black Vulture   BC Fairgrounds
Turkey Vulture   Sandy Hook
Northern Harrier   BC Fairgrounds
Cooper's Hawk   Assunpink WMA
Bald Eagle   Conines Millpond
Red-shouldered Hawk   Whitesbog
Red-tailed Hawk   Crestwood Village
Rough-legged Hawk   BC Fairgrounds
Belted Kingfisher   Whitesbog
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   35 Sunset Rd
Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Downy Woodpecker   Sandy Hook
Hairy Woodpecker   Whitesbog
Northern Flicker   Franklin Parker Preserve
American Kestrel   Ephraim P. Emson Preserve
Merlin   Waretown
Peregrine Falcon   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Northern Shrike   Franklin Parker Preserve
Blue Jay   Whitesbog
American Crow   35 Sunset Rd
Fish Crow   Riverfront Landing
Common Raven   Sandy Hook
Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd
Black-capped Chickadee   Sandy Hook
Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd
Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Assunpink WMA
Golden-crowned Kinglet   Whitesbog
White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd
Brown Creeper   35 Sunset Rd
Winter Wren   Whitesbog
Carolina Wren   Sandy Hook
European Starling   Sandy Hook
Gray Catbird   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Mockingbird   Sandy Hook
Eastern Bluebird   Franklin Parker Preserve
Hermit Thrush   Whitesbog
American Robin   35 Sunset Rd
Red-flanked Bluetail   Crestwood Village
Cedar Waxwing   Sandy Hook
House Sparrow   Waretown
American Pipit   Waretown
House Finch   Sandy Hook
Pine Siskin   Bamber Lake
American Goldfinch   Whitesbog
Snow Bunting   Sandy Hook
Chipping Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA
Field Sparrow   Pinelands Preservation Alliance Headquarters
American Tree Sparrow   Shelter Cove Park
Fox Sparrow   Whitesbog
Dark-eyed Junco   Whitesbog
White-throated Sparrow   Whitesbog
Savannah Sparrow   Whitesbog
Song Sparrow   Sandy Hook
Swamp Sparrow   Whitesbog
Eastern Meadowlark   BC Fairgrounds
Red-winged Blackbird   Waretown
Brown-headed Cowbird   CR 526 Allentown
Common Grackle   Cattus Island County Park
Boat-tailed Grackle   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Pine Warbler   35 Sunset Rd
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Sandy Hook
Western Tanager   Sandy Hook
Northern Cardinal   Sandy Hook

Shark River Inlet 1/24--Black Guillemot

Black Guillemot

Loathe as I am to stand on a jetty scoping the ocean, under gray skies in a heavy mist, that's what I did this morning--in two places. Given the forecast, I figured there wasn't much chance of getting any walking in today, so before the bad weather really kicked in, I decided I may as well try for the continuing Black Guillemot that has made itself at home at the Shark River inlet.  

I had read that this rare (in NJ) alcid was "off the north jetty," so naturally I set up on the south jetty, where I always go, figuring I'd be able to spy it from there. I'd also seen one comment that it was "ridiculously easy to see." Heh heh. 

Within 5 minutes I was disgusted with seawatching. And the guillemot wasn't showing. But I was then joined by a birder from the exotic realms of Hunterdon County. He had reasoned that I knew what I was doing. I soon disabused him of that notion, telling him that while the bird was supposedly north of us, I was hoping to find it from our present position. And he did. For a moment. It was just off the tip of the north jetty and then disappeared around the corner. I, of course, missed it. 

But, knowing the bird was present, still, made me feel slightly better. Now all we had to do, was walk back, go over the bridge, and get a view of the north jetty--which I didn't realize until we were on the bridge, is an inverted L, so that the guillemot could be hiding behind the long northward stretch of rocks. 

However, from the height of the bridge we were lucky to be able to see over the rocks and this time I found the bird. Great. But you always want a better look, maybe even a photograph. We walked off the bridge and onto the beach. Amazingly, the guillemot was bopping along in the swells off the end of the jetty, but much too far for my camera. I tried a couple of digiscope shots, clicking at whatever bobbing object happened to pass onto the phone screen. One was a Red-breasted Merganser. The other was, mirabile dictu, the Black Guillemot. The others were water.

Purple Sandpiper

For my Hunterdon friend the guillemot was a life bird, so there was some vicarious excitement there for me, as the bird was "only" a year bird and a Monmouth County bird on my list. He asked about other alcids and I told him I was going to go down to the Manasquan Inlet in the hopes of a Dovekie. It's only 7 or 8 miles south of where we were, but it's a long 7 miles. We met up there and I pointed out a flock of Snow Buntings to him. There were 3 stalwarts at the end of the jetty with scopes and we walked up to them. No Dovekies, so far (it wasn't going to be a 3 alcid day for me) but they had had 233 Razorbills flying north. I don't know what's more absurd--the number or the counting of them. I remember (using my old-timer voice here) when one Razorbill was a big deal and birders would come a-running to wherever it was being seen--like the guillemot today. I'd already had one Razorbill at the Shark River inlet, and I found a few floating on the water for my Ocean County list. Three White-winged Scoters zipped south--a duck that I often have trouble finding in Ocean County. One year, toward the end of December, when I still hadn't seen one, Steve, in exasperation, got me in his vehicle and drove up the beach at IBSP where a flock of them were just off-shore. Happily, that won't be an issue this year. Purple Sandpipers were skulking among the gigantic concrete jacks that buttress the jetty there. As I was leaving after an hour (about twice as much as I thought my maximum would be) I found one just sitting there. 

A trip to Lake of the Lilies didn't yield much--the lake is about 90% frozen, so only gulls and coots were in abundance--one Lesser Scaup (hen) for the county year list. By that time the mist had turned to rain and I head back south with one year bird and 5 county birds for my efforts. 

The Strangest Question of the Year (So Far)

I was walking the snow-covered trails at Colliers Mills yesterday when I saw a Jackson Police car coming up the road toward me. The officer rolled down his window, greeted me as "sir" and then asked if, since I'd obviously been walking around, I had happened to come across an ambulance. Ambulance? "Yessir." 

I told him I'd noticed tire tracks on the berm  along Turnmill Pond, where supposedly no vehicles are allowed, and I thought that was strange. "Yes," he said, "it would be strange riding around in a snowstorm." While he wasn't very forthcoming, I gathered that Jackson Township was missing one ambulance and had reason to believe it was somewhere in the vastness of Colliers Mills.  Since I was no help, after asking me to call them should I stumble upon the wayward ambulance, he continued on up to the turnaround, and I saw him later driving up Hawkin Road toward the Joint Base MDL. Soon, another patrol car was going the same way.

That question beats the one I was asked on Success Road (a dirt road) a few years ago about whether it was the way to the Borgata in Atlantic City--but not by much. Definitely the strangest question this year, but the year is young. 

Franklin Parker Preserve 1/13--Northern Shrike

Northern Shrike

With the heavy rains and gusting winds of late causing coastal flood warnings all over, I knew my best strategy was to go inland. I drove down to Franklin Parker Preserve in the heart of the Pine Barrens for the second time this month. Even there, in old cranberry bogs that are reverting to wetlands, the water was high, making the trails impassable in some places. I bumped into a couple of Burlco birding buddies who were looking for an out-of-season Grasshopper Sparrow that had been photographed there a couple of days ago. My goal was a little less esoteric and they pointed me the way to go for the Northern Shrike that has, presumably, returned for the 3rd year in a row to the preserve, albeit on the on the west side of 563 this time. I climbed up the observation platform and after a few minutes found the bird in a tree with a lot of dead branches in the line of sight. Then it jumped up to the top of the tree and I managed some very distant doc shots, and I was happy. It seems that most of my shrike sightings are like this, a gray/white/black blob in the distance where I can barely make out the mask. I tried walking down a breached dam to get a better angle on the bird but couldn't it find in the mess of bare branches in front of me.

Walking south along the Bald Eagle Reservoir, I came to one of those impassable spots and turned left on a much less used trail. And there before me, sitting in a tree, was the shrike. It flew into the reservoir on the right and perched for a moment on a stick, flew, came back to the stick, and let me get a decent look at it and some very lousy photographs which I won't show you. 

Eastern Meadowlark

I continued walking down the dam.  I had no idea if it was breached or not. There wasn't much activity, the winds had kicked up and I suspected that was keeping the birds hunkered down, aside from a flock of robins. I got as far as I could reasonably go without bushwhacking and turned around. A bird flew down into the grass from a pine. I my first impression was that must have been a dove. I knew I'd flush the bird on the way back and when I did, I saw that it wasn't a dove. Eastern Meadowlark?

One of the sentences from Roger Tory Peterson's field guides that has always stuck with me was his discussion of habitat and birds. He wrote something to the effect, "A meadowlark needs a meadow." I have found this to be only generally true. I have seen meadowlarks in the marshes along Stafford Avenue, on the barren strip behind the firing range at Colliers Mills, among other non-meadow spots. The overgrown dam at Franklin Parker certainly doesn't qualify as a meadow, yet there was the bird, roosting now in a dead pine. I still wasn't entirely certain until it flew across the water, and I saw the white outer tail feathers spread in flight. It landed in another dead tree with its back to me and was very hard to find. But when it turned around, it was like a yellow light in all the brown and gray across the water. It actually pleased me more to find the meadowlark than the shrike. My philosophy is I only need one cool bird a day. The meadowlark made it two. 

Waretown Bay Parkway 1/9--Redhead

2 Greater Scaup, hens (left) 3 Redheads (drakes & hen)

Unexpected birds are always satisfying. This blustery morning at the end of Bay Parkway in Waretown (which overlooks--surprise!--Barnegat Bay) I brought out the scope to look at ducks. I saw a big flock right off shore to the north but upon closer examination, they turned out to be decoys. Hunters were hiding in the brush just off the point. But, in front of me were some ducks, a couple hundred yards out. With just my bins, one of them appeared to have a red head. Scoping them, they turned out to be 6 ducks, 3 hen Greater Scaup + 1 hen and 2 drake Redheads. 

Not decoys

Last year I had no Redheads in New Jersey--it wasn't until we were in Oregon that I finally saw one. Usually there is a flock of them off some of the points in Brick, but I almost never go up there. Now, I don't have to. To find them off Bay Parkway was quite the surprise--it's a first for me at this spot and no one else has ever listed one from there either. 

However, there was a nagging thought: After seeing those decoys, I couldn't help but think there was the possibility that those were loose decoys bobbing along, pushed by the wind. I didn't see any of them dive or spread their wings. The light was gray and the birds (if they were birds) distant. I walked up the marsh into the woods and when I got back to the end of the road, saw the two hunters wading through the water in what is usually the eel grass covered beach. I asked them about their decoys and was happy to hear they had no Redheads in their spread--just scaup. They were surprised to hear that I'd seen the Redheads, an opportunity missed I guess. To be clear, I have nothing against duck hunting--I'm a member of Ducks Unlimited which does great work maintaining and rehabilitating marshes, but hunting sea ducks doesn't make a lot of sense to me since I can't imagine they're edible, given what (and where) they eat. They had shot one scaup and one merganser which they thought was a common but, looking into their bucket, I told them it was a red-breasted. Still, we all left Bay Parkway happy. 

(Update: That goose yesterday at Harvey Cedars was a Cackling Goose)

Harvey Cedars & Barnegat Lighthouse SP 1/8

Hen & drake Harlequin Ducks

I'm usually not a very good birding ambassador (I hear that some people even refer to me as "The Curmudgeon" hmph!), but sometimes, inadvertently, I'll find myself giving strangers birding advice, as I did today at Barnegat Lighthouse when I saw a couple on the concrete walkway excitedly taking pictures of Brant. "Well, photographers," I said to myself, "they take pictures of anything," but, when I saw them eyeing the jetty from the end of the walk, I asked them what they were looking for, knowing the answer was probably Harlequin Ducks, which it was.  As to the Brant, since they're from North Carolina, they turned out to be lifers for them, so their excitement was understandable. 

Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich ssp)

I told them they could walk the jetty, but since the Harlequins would be all the way at the end of it, the less hazardous, and more birdy, route was to walk around the pond, which is what I do. They took my advice, and we walked up the berm and around the pond. There were a few treats along the way, like a Snow Bunting posing and the Ipswich subspecies of Savannah Sparrow picking at the rocks along the jetty. When I got to end of the beach, I climbed up to the jetty and could see the Harlequins a little farther down where the jetty extends into the water. They climbed up and I pointed out the ducks, saying "I don't need photos, so this is as far as I go." I got photos anyway, as a couple of ducks were sitting on a rock, not too far from my position. 

I also saw my first Purple Sandpipers of the year, my first Dunlins, and my first Ruddy Turnstone, so I ticked all the boxes for what you'll usually get there this time of year. However, none of the rarities I'd been reading about on the eBird alerts were there that I could see. I look at flocks of gulls or shorebirds, but if something doesn't leap out at me the cold starts to seep in and I have to get moving again. I certainly don't spend time scanning an empty ocean or sky, waiting for the rare flyby.

Cackling Goose (probably), Canada Geese

But, speaking of leaping out at me--it didn't exactly happen like that at Harvey Cedars, where I stopped before going up to the tip of the Island, but I did find, I think, a Cackling Goose that was reported there. I purposely made it my first stop so I wouldn't be too tired after Barnegat to look for Common Goldeneye--Sunset Park is the go-to spot in Ocean County for that duck. On the lawn were about 50 Canada Geese. I can stand scanning a flock of 50. Nothing looked outstanding until I got to the last goose on the left--it seemed smaller, shorter necked, maybe the beak was stubbier than the others. It stood aloof from the rest of the geese, seeming not to want to have anything to do with them. I circled around the flock and half the time I said "no" to myself and half the time I said "yeah," and when it got to be 51% "yeah," I listed it as a Cackler. There are so many subspecies of Cackling Goose (as well as Canada Goose) and the variation so wide that unless the goose is the size of a Mallard (or someone much more knowledgeable tells me so), I'm never really convinced. 

And I found one Common Goldeneye in the bay. I only need one. 

Assunpink 1/5--Trumpeter Swan

Trumpeter Swans

After failing on two rarities on Tuesday and then not finding the Townsend's Warbler at Eno's Pond yesterday (I was hoping for a rollover rarity), I decided to get a "gimme" today and drove up to Assunpink, where the presumably returning (for 10+ years) Trumpeter Swans can be found. Easily. They seem, this year, to hanging out at the east end of the lake, not making their annoying forays to nearby Stone Tavern Lake. All you have to do is find a couple of big swans and then wait for them to lift their heads out of the water so that you can see their all black, Canvasback-like sloping beaks. It took me all of 5 minutes to put them on '24 list. Which was fine, because I didn't feel like standing in the sub-freezing temperatures looking for them. When you can see clouds of vapor coming from the swan's mouth, it's cold. 

But once you get moving, it's fine, so I walked from the east end of the lake all the way around to the sluice on the north side and then back to where I parked, at the model airplane field. Not a lot of variety of ducks today--Ruddy Ducks were in big numbers, but all the other waterfowl was sparse. Even the geese only totaled about 100. However, I added Common Merganser, Hooded Merganser, & Green-winged Teal along with the Ruddy Ducks to the year list. 

I haven't been to Conines Millpond (incorrectly listed at Corrines on eBird) for a couple of years, but seeing that a Black-headed Gull had been seen there the last couple of days, I drove down there--it's more or less on the way back home. My streak of 1 ended, because I couldn't find the gull--only two Ring-bill Gulls among the approximately 1000 geese. There once was a birder in NJ who used to post on Jerseybirds all the birds she chased and missed. I once kept a database for a month on what she didn't see. I don't want this blog to emulate her, so enough with the swings and misses. 

Again, the numbers of ducks there were small--a few of both mergansers, 5 or 6 Buffleheads, a black duck, some Mallards. I did, however, see my first Bald Eagle of the year. 

I also inadvertently started a Mercer County list. CR 539 is the dividing line between Mercer and Monmouth. On the way south, down to Allentown I saw a Northern Harrier hunting over one of the Reeds Sods Farms and listed it. Since it was on my right, it was in Mercer. So, my Mercer County list stands at 1. 

The Assunpink List:

30 species
Canada Goose  100
Mute Swan  2
Trumpeter Swan  2     
Mallard  13
Green-winged Teal  5
Hooded Merganser  2
Common Merganser  4
Ruddy Duck  185
Great Blue Heron  4
Turkey Vulture  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  6
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  2
Blue Jay  2
Carolina Chickadee  6
Tufted Titmouse  1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Golden-crowned Kinglet  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Winter Wren  2
Carolina Wren  2
Hermit Thrush  2
American Robin  2
American Goldfinch  2
White-throated Sparrow  17
Song Sparrow  8
Yellow-rumped Warbler  4
Northern Cardinal  1

BC Fairground 1/3--Rough-legged Hawk

 A .333 batting average is great in the Major Leagues. Chasing birds, not so much. I started the morning at Franklin Parker Preserve. A Northern Shrike has been there since late December, but I figured I'd wait for the new year to go look for it. A shrike has been spotted there for the last 3 years, though this is the first time it has been around the reservoir. FPP is vast (at one time I believe it was the largest cranberry bog in NJ), but the shrike has been reported in a specific, easy to find area, around the observation deck. I spent, off and on, about an hour on the deck, and the rest of the time wandering around the reservoir. No Lucky Shrike for me today. 

Then I saw that the Ross's Goose that has been in the Mt Laurel vicinity was spotted again this morning. It was something like 25 miles away from FPP, but I figured I give it a shot. I should have looked at the map more closely. I thought I'd be looking at flock of Canada Geese on a farm field, which is where it was originally reported, but today the pin was dropped at the entrance to a housing development where there are a couple of small retention ponds on the main road. NO TRESPASSING signs everywhere. And only about 50 geese. No Ross's among them. 

I had one more idea for a rarity today. Another half-hour drive up the BC Fairgrounds to look for the continuing, semi-reliable Rough-legged Hawk. When I got there a couple of birders I know were also setting up scopes. They had seen the Ross's, just a bit beyond where I was, in a field behind a barn. If I knew my way around that part of Burlco, I probably would have felt comfortable exploring a bit more, but I don't. We thought we had the Rough-legged, but the light was terrible--hazy & shimmering. While I was reasonably sure the hawk I scoped on the radio tower and then saw flying was the target, it was such a lousy look that I was debating if I wanted to list it. 

Another guy I know came up. He also had just seen the Ross's in a slightly different section of that field. He also had the shrike yesterday. So, as I'm gnashing my teeth, we looked for the Rough-legged. A woman drove up and told us she'd just seen the hawk west of where we were standing, so we drove a quarter of a mile and set up again joined by another searcher. Still nothing. It was well past my lunch time by then, so I got in the car and was pulling out when the guy held up his hand. The bird was in the field, hunkered down. I cut the engine and got out again.  I couldn't see it but then it flew up and around the field giving great views, unmistakable, as they say. It hover-hunted over the field, like a gigantic kestrel. No pics, as you can see. But at least I felt I could legitimately list it for the year. 

Other new birds there were a Black Vulture and Eastern Meadowlarks, a very handsome bird that I don't get to see all that much. The year's count is 70. Not a lot for all the driving I've done. 

Crestwood Village 1/2--Red-flanked Bluetail

On my way back from Whitesbog this morning (24 Tundra Swans, my highest count this season), I figured I might as well get it over with, so I parked on Wranglebrook and walked up the block to the bluetail spot. There were about 10 birders standing on the lawn, half of whom I knew. Many were, like me, returning, because we want to have Red-flanked Bluetail on our 2024 year list. The bird had just come out and then jumped back into the foliage. I stood there watching the now famous holly into which it seems to disappear. A Hermit Thrush fooled us for moment. What none of the other birders there seem to realize is that Hermit Thrush is relatively infrequent in Crestwood Village. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times we had one in our backyard. The last time was because we had the only open water in our heated birdbath for blocks around. I thought that a Red-tailed Hawk, which could be seen at the top of a tree over on the next block might discourage the bird from coming out, but after about 15 minutes it was in the front of the holly, in shadows hard to see but for its red flanks. It is a very active bird, so it jumped on the ground, perched on a branch in the open, went back to the holly, went on to the ground again and finally put on its cloaking device and got absorbed into the holly again. I managed one photo in which the blue tail is obvious.  

Afterwards, I felt like I had finished some chore, like doing my taxes, or cleaning out the garage. The bird is on the list and now, that bird is dead to me.

Sandy Hook Kick Off the Year--Western Tanager

Western Tanager

As is my custom, I drove up to Sandy Hook this morning to "Kick Off the Year List" with Scott, Linda, Carole, et al, and about 29 other birders, though I had to go solo this time as Shari's knee hasn't recovered enough for walking through sand. Before I got up there, I ticked off 2 birds for the year: first bird, pre-dawn, was an American Crow cawing somewhere in the neighborhood. Second species was a flock Rock Pigeons in South Toms River.  

As usual, we spent the first part of the day seawatching, but since it wasn't too cold or windy, and there were lots of birds to look at, I wasn't as antsy as I normally get. The rare bird there was a Glaucous Gull which we saw before we even got on the beach. Good sightings were Red-necked Grebe, Razorbill and two big flocks of Snow Buntings. No brown ones in the bunting flocks though, which would have indicated Lapland Longspurs. Both flocks were "clean" as I heard Scott describe them. We moved north and looked in Horseshoe Cove where we found Common Goldeneyes and Horned Grebes. 

We then went up to Lot M and walked the fisherman's trail to the tip of the Hook, walking along the Salt Pond trail, looking for Orange-crowned Warbler. One was found, but I missed it. I was atop a dune, peering over the phragmites, where an American Coot was tucked into the reeds. I found it on my second try, but I suppose I would've rather seen the warbler. However, the walk was made worth the effort when, just as we got back to the parking lot, one sharp-eyed birder spotted a yellow bird in a cedar. "Isn't that a Western Tanager?" he shouted, pointing frantically to the top of the tree. At first, no one could locate the bird, but then it came out for a brief moment and most of us got on it. It was, indeed, a Western Tanager, a beautiful male, and it almost immediately disappeared behind the cedar. We walked the path along the battery where the bird was sampling the cedar berries in one tree after another. A few times it sat out in the open allowing for "crippling" looks through bins and scopes. Even some non-birding dogwalkers showed an interest in the bird--it is a damned impressive sight against the deep green of the cedar. It was the first male Western Tanager I've seen in New Jersey, and a new addition to my Monmouth County life list.

Nothing was likely to top the tanager for the day, but we pushed on, checking the ocean and beach around I lot where we were hoping for longspurs and were disappointed not to find any, and then it was down to Spermaceti Cove, where, along the boardwalk, a Black-capped Chickadee was flitting through the high grass.  I was almost as excited about the chickadee as I was about the tanager, since I don't see them that often, not birding North Jersey very much, and the chickadee population at Sandy Hook is anomalous, a peninsula of black-caps in an area where Carolina Chickadees are the expected species. I don't know that anyone has ever figured out why Black-capped Chickadee persist on the Sandy Hook peninsula. I believe I have about a 50% hit rate when I go there, so I was glad to put it on my year list. And to have Black-capped Chickadees on the list before Carolina Chickadee is an oddity for me. 

The last new bird of the year I thought was going to be Mallard, one of which Linda found floating in the cove with black ducks and Brants, but Jason, the gull expert, patiently going through the flocks of gull roosting on the sand bars came up with an Iceland Gull (Thayer's ssp), and gave a convincing disquisition on why the brown gull we were looking at was not just a juvenile Herring Gull. To me, it was a perfect example of a "If you say so" bird, since I'm sure I would have overlooked it on my own. Too bad Thayer's Gull is no longer considered a separate species. 

I left after that, not feeling like spending more time searching the ocean and beach at C lot. With 43 species and 3 rarities, I felt it was a satisfying day and the odds were against anything new. And if they did find something, I have 365 (leap year) more days to add it to the list. 

Brant  160
Canada Goose  90
Gadwall  1     
Mallard  1
American Black Duck  30
Surf Scoter  2
White-winged Scoter  34
Black Scoter  5
Long-tailed Duck  11
Bufflehead  58
Common Goldeneye  8
Red-breasted Merganser  6
Horned Grebe  8
Red-necked Grebe  1
American Coot  1     
Sanderling  3
Razorbill  1
Bonaparte's Gull  1
Herring Gull  300
Great Black-backed Gull  35
Glaucous Gull  1     
Iceland Gull  1     
Red-throated Loon  60
Common Loon  50
Northern Gannet  50
Great Cormorant  4
Double-crested Cormorant  3
Great Blue Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  3
Downy Woodpecker  1
American Crow  1
Common Raven  2
Black-capped Chickadee  1    
Carolina Wren  1
European Starling  100
Northern Mockingbird  3
Cedar Waxwing  17
House Finch  2
Snow Bunting  80
Song Sparrow  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  15
Western Tanager  1     
Northern Cardinal  1