Joe Torg Nature Preserve 3/27--Tricolored Heron

 I knocked around some on LBI today, figuring I'd get out ahead of tomorrow's rain. I decided to stop at the Joe Torg Nature Preserve, which, despite its label in eBird, is in Loveladies (wonderful name) not Harvey Cedars (another wonderful name). I only go there about once a year--it's really a very small parcel of marsh behind the LBI Foundation. There is a rudimentary boardwalk that goes through part of the marsh, but with all the rain we've had of late, part of that boardwalk was submerged under a few inches of water (no problem if you're wearing rubber boots) and there was a gap of no boardwalk about 2/3 of the way out to the new (to me) Osprey blind (big problem), so I wasn't able to bird it as much as I would have liked. 

Just before I left, though, I heard a squawk. It didn't sound like a Great Blue Heron (which I'd seen), so, since looking through the phragmites was impossible, I walked back out onto the boardwalk. There, across the marsh, I saw three Tricolored Herons, which like the Little Blue Heron I saw last week at Manahawkin, are flagged as "rare," but only because of the date. There always seems to be at least one that winters on LBI--it seems like everyone else I know has already seen one. But good to see them, another harbinger of warmer weather. 

On a grimmer note: A couple of weeks ago, when I was at Barnegat Lighthouse SP with Bob Auster, we found a dead Great Black-backed Gull on the edge of the dunes pond. We didn't think much of it at the time; since it showed no signs of being attacked by a raptor, we thought it may have died a natural death, or "ate a bad clam," so to speak. But today, walking around that pond, I found four freshly deceased Great Black-backs. What is going on? I texted Bob and he suggested avian flu. There were no other dead gulls or other birds around, which I thought curious. I posted on Jerseybirds, and indeed, according to a professor of biology, Great Black-backs have been heavily affected by avian flu and many have been found dead with other birds in the vicinity being apparently unaffected.  With those corpses, a Herring Gull with a broken wing and badly limping American Oystercatcher, it was not an especially pleasant walk along the beach today. The Harlequin Ducks and Purple Sandpipers are still hanging in there in big numbers though.

A mere 38 for the morning's walks

Species    First Sighting

Brant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Canada Goose    Cedar Bonnet Island
Mallard    Cedar Bonnet Island
American Black Duck    Cedar Bonnet Island
Common Eider    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Scoter    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Long-tailed Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Bufflehead    Cedar Bonnet Island
Red-breasted Merganser    Cedar Bonnet Island
Mourning Dove    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
American Oystercatcher    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Piping Plover    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Greater Yellowlegs    Cedar Bonnet Island
Dunlin    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Purple Sandpiper    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Herring Gull    Cedar Bonnet Island
Great Black-backed Gull    Cedar Bonnet Island
Common Loon    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Cormorant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Tricolored Heron    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Great Blue Heron    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Osprey    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Northern Harrier    Cedar Bonnet Island
Northern Flicker    Cedar Bonnet Island
American Crow    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Fish Crow    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Carolina Wren    Cedar Bonnet Island
European Starling    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Robin    Cedar Bonnet Island
House Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
White-throated Sparrow    Cedar Bonnet Island
Savannah Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow    Cedar Bonnet Island
Red-winged Blackbird    Cedar Bonnet Island
Boat-tailed Grackle    Cedar Bonnet Island
Northern Cardinal    Cedar Bonnet Island