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.