Barnegat Lighthouse SP 3/10--Ruddy Turnstone

Ruddy Turnstone

My reasoning for avoiding the shore during the cold windy months beginning the year was that "I can see those birds in March, when it's warmer." Well, it's March and today was warmish, so I went to Barnegat Lighthouse SP for a little winter cleanup of birds I didn't have for the year. I really only had two particularly in mind, and I found both within a few minutes of each other. 

Standing on the jetty I had a Great Cormorant fly by me.  I saw Great Cormorants on January 1 at Sandy Hook, but they were so distant, roosting on a channel marker, that they were "if you say so" birds. Today, I had much better looks at them (and they're my first in the county this year). Great Cormorants can be difficult to distinguish from their year-round relative, Double-crested Cormorants most of the time, but in March there is an easy field mark to look out for, a white brood patch on the bird's "hip." Today, scoping the birds lined across the inlet on the Island Beach jetty, these white patches were prominent. While I was standing there, a birder I see at Whitesbog sometimes came up with his son. I said that I'd just seen a Great Cormorant fly by, and his son pumped his fist because that was confirmation that he'd just got a life bird. That's always fun to witness. 

The bird that had eluded me on my rare trips to the shore, Ruddy Turnstone, was next. I had to keep checking a flock of about 100 Purple Sandpipers that were not shy about my presence, in order to find the one turnstone amongst them. Then it was a question of having it stay still long enough to get a usable picture of it. 

Harlequin Ducks

Of course, the Harlequin Ducks were still there, another species that seem to have gotten used to having people peering at it. And most of the other winter ducks were there, though no White-winged Scoter (another for the county list) and certainly no King Eider. I also wanted gannets for the county. I remember 5 years ago, just before everything shut down in mid-March because of Covid, being there with Mike and couple of other birders trying to guesstimate how many thousands of Northern Gannets were flying by that day. So, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, "I coulda done better but I don't mind." 

Surf Scoter

Day list:

33 species
Brant  120
Canada Goose  4
American Wigeon  2
Mallard  20
American Black Duck  5
Greater Scaup  60
Common Eider  15
Harlequin Duck  20
Surf Scoter  3
Black Scoter  30
Long-tailed Duck  85
Bufflehead  35
Red-breasted Merganser  35
Mourning Dove  1
American Oystercatcher  5
Ruddy Turnstone  1
Sanderling  8
Purple Sandpiper  100
American Herring Gull  125
Great Black-backed Gull  2
Red-throated Loon  1
Common Loon  1
Great Cormorant  18
Double-crested Cormorant  1
American Crow  1
House Sparrow  2
House Finch  1
Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich)  2
Song Sparrow  3
Red-winged Blackbird  5
Common Grackle  20
Yellow-rumped Warbler  3
Northern Cardinal  2

Obligatory American Oystercatcher photo for Shari