Whitesbog 1/5--Red Crossbill

After bustling around Manahawkin yesterday, I just wanted a quiet walk today so I drove over to Whitesbog, even though I knew all the water would be frozen and that I couldn't expect to see or hear much. Since I didn't see any Tundra Swans on Union Pond's ice, I decided to walk the Ocean County side. Sometimes the swans stand on the ice of the Upper Reservoir. I walked up there via the Antrim Bogs, which were pretty quiet except for what my informant there likes to refer to as the "tweety birds:" Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch. I was surprised at how many Hairy Woodpeckers I was hearing. Usually, I get one, maybe two. Today I had five scattered all over the place. 

The breach between bogs

There were no swans on the Upper Reservoir, nor eagles, or any other raptors that I look for there. On my way back I was undecided if I wanted to go to the dogleg, knowing that I'd just have to backtrack. At one time, a few years ago, the road would have led me back to my car, but because the beavers were constantly clogging up a culvert that ran beneath the road, connecting one of the reservoirs to an old flooded blueberry field, the Whitesbog owner sent over some heavy machinery and just made a breach in the road so the water could flow freely. My informant built a rudimentary bridge for us, and after that got a little sketchy, the guys at Whitesbog put in a more solid wooden bridge. But erosion of the banks last year collapsed that bridge. I know they want to fix it, but it isn't a priority. I rationalized walking over there on the one in a hundred chance that they had repaired the bridge. They hadn't.

I was standing at the edge, looking at the ice, thinking about how much habitat the beavers have changed since I've been walking Whitesbog, when I heard a call that I at first took for another Hairy Woodpecker, but it didn't sound quite right. Fumbling with my gloves, I opened up Merlin. 

Now, I don't believe in a lot of what Merlin hears, especially when there are a lot of birds singing and calling in the area. The app hears 10 times more Golden-crowned Kinglets than I do, though, to give it it's due, I've also been alerted to birds like Cedar Waxwings and Blackpoll Warblers that I can't hear, but that I find when I'm aware they're around. I find it is most reliable when there is only one bird calling or singing. Today, that bird that I heard, and that Merlin also heard, was a Red Crossbill. It was calling from across the water on the other side of the old blueberry field where there are lots of pine trees. To get over there, which was probably about 500 feet away, I would have to backtrack completely, a walk of over a mile. 

Red Crossbills are notoriously flighty (pun intended) always on the move, looking for the next pinecone. I've come across them in some seemingly odd places like the Cranberry Bogs on Dover Road and at Stafford Forge. But, if there is a big stand of pine trees and it's winter, it's worth stopping a moment to listen. And it's always worth going the extra (half) mile to maximize your chances of listing something cool. 

Ocean Acres Lake Park | Stafford Forge WMA 1/4--Greater White-fronted Goose, Trumpeter Swan

Greater White-fronted Geese, Ocean Acres Lake Park

The day started at 5 AM down on Beach Avenue in Manahawkin, where I met Mike to start our annual survey for the Barnegat Christmas Bird Count. Obviously, in winter, in the dark, the only birds one expects are owls. We had one Eastern Screech-Owl and one Great Horned Owl call from different parts of the woods along the road and after about 40 minutes we moved over to Stafford Avenue where we heard 3 more Screech Owls and another Great Horned.  We hope for other more exotic owls--we've had them in the past, but we were happy with these two species, especially the individuals that were calling loudly and seemed like they were just off the road. 

We moved down the road just before sunrise and parked at the Bridge to Nowhere. We were hoping for Short-eared Owls hunting the marsh, but we struck out, the second time in a couple of weeks where I've been unlucky in the morning. For some reason, they get reported at sundown. They should still be active before the sun comes up, but apparently they don't know that. We did get a Northern Harrier starting the day shift, as well a Bald Eagle and little flock of Great Blue Herons, but we didn't linger, since we have a fair amount of territory to cover. 

We parked my car in the Manahawkin WMA lot on Hilliard and took a walk in the woods and fields there--best birds were a Rusty Blackbird in with a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, both kinglets and a Belted Kingfisher. 

After a Wawa coffee run, we looked around the fields near MATES, and had some Yellow-rumped Warblers and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. We also had our first huge flock of Canada Geese--about 400--on an athletic field. We scanned them for Cackling Geese, but there weren't any in there. Driving around the residential area nearby we didn't find much beyond the expected tweety birds. 

We hit our other spots--the bay from East Bay Avenue, a drive through Mud City and then we drove over to Manahawkin Lake where there was another huge flock of Canada Geese, but they were too far to pick out anything unusual. We did get about 20 Ring-necked Ducks there. 

Then it was up Rt 72 to Ocean Acres where we like to check out the retention pond just off the highway. About half the water was stiff, but among the big flock of Mallards we managed to add Green-winged Teal to our day list. Deeper in the community there is a big park with a lake but for the last few years it hasn't produced very much, and Mike suggested skipping it, but since it was still early we figured what the heck and drove over. Again, most of the water was frozen, but standing on the ice was our third big flock of Canada Geese. These were close enough to scan with a scope and while Mike was hoping for a Cackling, for some reason I got it into my head that finding something more exotic would be cool. Again, out of the 300 or so geese there, nothing looked like a candidate for the RBA. We did get a couple of Killdeer and had our first bluebirds of the day. We got in the car and were driving through the parking lot to turn around when we saw more geese feeding the in the grass. "Wait a minute, I said, one of those isn't a Canada Goose." Mike stopped and we looked and I said, "Greater White-Fronted Goose!" Mike, looking through the flock, said, "They're all white-fronted geese."

"No, there must be 15 of them." (It turned out to be 17 in the flock when we carefully counted.) Finding one GWFG is a noteworthy. Finding a flock of them is an event. Last year, Steve found about 24 GWFG at Shelter Cove, which I think is the record for the NJ. The Sixth Law of Birding is "You only need one." But 17 is pretty impressive. Since neither Mike nor I am on any social media or rare bird alerts we couldn't get the word out directly, but Mike texted one of our friends who runs the local RBA and she put out the message. Not that it mattered. No sooner did we get back in the car than the grass was empty of geese. Mike said they flew back into the lake, but we couldn't find them. Word reached me later in the day that someone had gone to look for them and they weren't there, so there, as in so much of birding was luck for us with that flock's life line briefly intersecting our life lines and adding a bird to the Barnegat CBC. 

Trumpeter Swan,
Stafford Forge WMA

We putzed around some more after lunch, but I was getting fatigued and we both had another rarity on our agenda--the continuing juvenile Trumpeter Swan at Stafford Forge.  So around 2 o'clock we wrapped our end of the CBC and drove down the parkway about 6 miles. I'd gone there yesterday--twice-- when the entire lake was frozen and dipped. I was especially outrage when I saw someone report the swan sleeping on the ice because I scoped that lump and it was either ice-caked vegetation or a dead swan. But later in the day the real swan reappeared--there must be hidden, inaccessible areas of the lake where it can hang out unseen--so I was determined to add it to my year list for the state and county. It took us all of about 2 minutes to find the bird this time--it was the only swan on the lake--in fact, aside from 3 Mallards, it was the only waterfowl there. We looked, we snapped some pictures, we headed home. 

For the day we had 53 species for our contribution to the 101st (!) Barnegat CBC, plus the Trumpeter Swan.