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