Great Bay Blvd 5/20--Red Knot, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Black Skimmer, Least Tern

Red Knots

The most reliable, nearby spot to find Red Knots this time of year that I know of is Great Bay Blvd in Tuckerton, so it was there I went this rather cool, late spring morning. But before I got to the inlet, there were a lot of stops to make on the 4+ mile stretch. I stopped at the access point for Tuckerton Cove and figuratively slapped my forehead when I saw a long line of Black Skimmers roosting on a sandbar. I had completely forgotten about Black Skimmers as a possibility. 

Black Skimmers

The marshes were filled with shorebirds, but nothing unusual--I spent more time checking Black-bellied Plovers than I usually do, since a few years ago a Pacific Golden-Plover was found down there around this time. When I got to the inlet, I saw my first Semipalmated Sandpipers of the year mixed in with Dunlins. There were some relatively big sandpipers with them with brick-red heads and chests that I at first took for Red Knots, but a moment's consideration told me no, they were something else. Then I realized I was looking at Sanderlings molted into alternate (breeding) plumage. I rarely see them in this state, thus the befuddlement. I walked the mud flats toward the Rutgers facility and scoped more flocks of sandpipers. There, seemingly out of nowhere, I suddenly found a tight group of Red Knots--which promptly flew off. However, while I was watching them go, two Least Terns landed on the beach, practically at my feet.

Least Tern

I walked back toward LBI, where the knots had flown, kind of hoping they'd make a landing over there, but really figuring that I'd give them time to come back to where I originally found them and that I would be stealthier when I returned.  Two American Oystercatchers were on the peat on the other end, no knots. But my strategy worked, because when I turned around and walked back, I found them in exactly the spot they'd been and this time I didn't flush them and got my photographs. 

So, four new year birds for the day and still feeling somewhat energetic, I drove up to Beach Avenue in Manahawkin, where a Prothonotary Warbler was "continuing." The problem was I had no real sense of where, along that mile stretch of road, I might find it and probably only because my ears were attuned to its "sweet sweet sweet" song from yesterday that I heard it, rather softly, coming from the woods around a wet area. No coaxing would bring it out, but I now had one for the county where it is flagged as rare. 

The Great Bay Blvd list:

42 species
Brant  1
Canada Goose  5
Mallard  2
Bufflehead  1     Drake.  Standing on dock by old boat launch
Mourning Dove  6
Clapper Rail  7
American Oystercatcher  2
Black-bellied Plover  35
Semipalmated Plover  25
Short-billed Dowitcher  3
Willet  20
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Ruddy Turnstone  40
Red Knot  10
Sanderling  20
Dunlin  75
Least Sandpiper  30
Semipalmated Sandpiper  40
Laughing Gull  45
Herring Gull  25
Black Skimmer  65
Least Tern  4
Forster's Tern  20
Double-crested Cormorant  6
Black-crowned Night Heron  1
Snowy Egret  25
Great Egret  30
Great Blue Heron  1
Glossy Ibis  7
Osprey  3
Eastern Phoebe  1     South of 2nd wooden bridge
Fish Crow  1
Tree Swallow  3
Barn Swallow  50
Gray Catbird  5
Seaside Sparrow  6
Song Sparrow  5
Red-winged Blackbird  30
Boat-tailed Grackle  75
Common Yellowthroat  5
Yellow Warbler  2
Northern Cardinal  1