There have been a few boobies in the state this year, but up until this one, they've all been too far to pursue. But the Manasquan Reservoir--one of my favorite spots--is only about a 40-minute drive from here, so Bob & I tentatively planned to meet there early in the morning, before the heat dome took over.
I arrived first and set up my scope at the boat launch. I've never birded the reservoir in the summer, so I was surprised by how much fishing goes on there. The bird had been reported roosting on buoys way out by the pumping station, so I concentrated my efforts on those white blobs in the water. It was hazy to start, and I didn't see the booby. A park ranger came over and asked if I'd seen it and told me which of the buoys seem to be the magical one, but it still wasn't there--until it was. Somewhere, out of the heat shimmer, a brown shape had materialized and putting the scope up to full power I could see the white belly and light-yellow beak. Great. Now, where was Bob? Because of course, as soon as I took my eyes off it, it disappeared.
Another birder came by, one of the reservoir regulars who'd already seen it the previous day and while we were talking the booby, seemingly out of nowhere, alighted on the buoy again. And stayed for a good long while, but still no Bob and then it disappeared. The second time it was on the buoy the sun had come out and I could see the details of the bird much better with the sun shining on it.
Bob arrived around 7 and while I kept my scope on the buoy he scanned the reservoir. Eventually, after a couple of false alarms, he found the bird "loosely associating" with a few geese, floating in the middle of the water. Yesterday, there were pictures of the bird in the same behavior. Odd to see a sea bird tucked in among the geese, but then, it's odd to see a sea bird on fresh water anyway. When the geese got too far ahead of the booby, we saw it take off and fly a couple of hundred feet to catch up with them.
That was all fine, except my digiscope photos were pathetic. Bob & I decided to walk the path to the other side of the reservoir, hoping to catch sight of the bird from a different angle where there is a road (closed to the public) and view of the pump house, which is only distant instead of our present view, which was very distant.
It was just about a 2-mile walk to the other side of the reservoir and sure enough, we did have clearer views of the booby, and with only our binoculars since neither of us felt like carry a scope that far. And I got some photos for illustration. It really did like that one particular buoy.
It is a 5-mile circumambulation around the reservoir, so instead of turning back we decided that it wasn't all that hot--yet--and one more mile wasn't going to make a difference on the sweat index so we completed the walk around, finding the summer birds you would expect(though 10 Warbling Vireos did seem excessive)--but since I'd never been there this time of year, I added 11 birds to my patch list.
This is the time of year when between migrations you either chase rarities or go to your usual spots and hope to find something that isn't supposed to be there. Today was the former; tomorrow I continue the latter.
37 species
Canada Goose 50
Mute Swan 3
Mallard 1
Laughing Gull 5
Brown Booby 1
Double-crested Cormorant 7
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 2
Osprey 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 3
Eastern Kingbird 1
Warbling Vireo 10
Red-eyed Vireo 5
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 2
Fish Crow 1
Carolina Chickadee 6
Tree Swallow 10
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Carolina Wren 5
Gray Catbird 10
Eastern Bluebird 1
American Robin 2
American Goldfinch 1
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 2
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Ovenbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Yellow Warbler 2
Pine Warbler 1
Scarlet Tanager 1
Northern Cardinal 3
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