Manahawkin WMA 3/20--Blue-winged Teal, Little Blue Heron

I took a walk through the Manahawkin WMA--once pheasant season starts the gunfire can get a little distracting. I'd seen on eBird, before it went off-line for 1 1/2 days, that Anonymous Birder (what are you hiding?) had seen a Little Blue Heron there. Flagged as rare. Well, rare for the date, but pretty soon they'll be all over the marshes. Still, something to look for. 

I bird Manahawkin eccentrically, which is why I prefer to do it alone. I park on Stafford, in front of the path, then scope the impoundment on the north from the little hill you have to walk up and over to get in. From there, I could see a good variety of ducks--mostly Green-winged Teal, but mixed in with them, happy surprise, were a few Blue-winged Teal, a duck that had somehow fallen off my radar. After that scan, I hoist the scope on my shoulder and walk the "L" the trail makes between the impoundments facing Stafford and then the one in the back. After getting to the end of the back impoundment, I turn around, still stopping to scope every now and again, cursing all along the tendency of the ducks to always hug up against the far shore, then ditch the scope in the car and walk back with only binoculars, following the trails back to the parking lot off Hilliard, which, after you make a right at the back impoundment, is mostly upland forest. If you've been following the arithmetic here, that give me four looks at the impoundments. I needed only the third one before I found the Little Blue. 

Just before I reached the back impoundment, the Little Blue flew by me and landed in the marsh on tussock. I doubled back and took some backlit photos. It then picked up and flew to the edge of the marsh, then jumped up when it saw me and flew into the back impoundment, where I was able to get better pictures--i.e. they weren't silhouettes. It flew off again, back into the marsh, only to fly back and land in the branches of leafless, probably dead, tree. After that back into the impoundment and I never saw it again as it was probably hidden in the phragmites with all kinds of cool waders that weren't about to show themselves. Two year birds and no shotguns booming--a successful morning. 

30 species for the day:

Canada Goose  2
Mute Swan  5
Blue-winged Teal  4     
Gadwall  15
Mallard  5
American Black Duck  25
Northern Pintail  3     
Green-winged Teal  48
Bufflehead  4
Hooded Merganser  4
Mourning Dove  1
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  5
Little Blue Heron  1     
Great Blue Heron  3
Turkey Vulture  1
Northern Harrier  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  2
Blue Jay  1
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tufted Titmouse  3
Tree Swallow  4
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Carolina Wren  2
American Robin  1
Song Sparrow  5
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Pine Warbler  1