Holgate 2/23--American Oystercatcher

Distant American Oystercatchers with Brant

"I'm gonna see 'em eventually, but I may as well see 'em today," was my philosophy for walking on the bayside of Holgate on the southern end of the aptly named Long Beach Island, because I was pretty certain I'd be able to find American Oystercatcher there--it's always been a good winter spot for them--and today's weather was the first time in a while that trekking down the beach didn't take on the aura of a polar expedition. At the first break in the dunes, I put down my scope and immediately found 6 oystercatchers probing for food on a sandbar. At the next break in the dunes there were more, and at the next one even more, until I decided to just count the ones I could see in one scope sweep--20, which is way more than the eBird filter accepts but is nothing compared to the numbers I've had in the past--years ago, from the end of Great Bay Blvd I was with Pete Bacinski when we counted around 400 of them!

I was hoping for more year birds, but I had to be content with just the oystercatchers. The problem with Holgate is that it is about 5 miles of FOMO. If you walk on the bayside, as I started out today, then you're continually wondering what you're missing on the ocean side and if you divert over to the ocean, you're afraid you're missing some wonderful birds in the dunes. And it doesn't help to walk south on the bayside then return north along the ocean, because there is still the very good chance that you're missing birds where you are not. It is an example of The Third Law of Birding to the max: Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else.

I walked down to the clamming trail and then turned around, a round trip of approximately 3 miles in which I listed 17 species:

Brant  60
Mallard  2
American Black Duck  15
Surf Scoter  7
Black Scoter  50
Long-tailed Duck  8
Bufflehead  25
American Oystercatcher  20     
Ring-billed Gull  1
American Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  3
Red-throated Loon  1
Common Loon  3
Northern Mockingbird  1
House Finch  2
Song Sparrow  2
Red-winged Blackbird  1