December: Stick a Fork in Me, I'm Done

Long-tailed Duck, hen, a rarity at Whitesbog

Because tomorrow I have a repairman coming to fix the dishwasher and it's probably going to rain in the afternoon anyway, unless something spectacular shows up in the backyard, there is no chance that I'm going to add any more birds to the month or year list. So I'm calling it a year today, one day short. At least I ended on a high note.

I went to Island Beach SP this morning to walk to the jetty, hoping that I might find a Razorbill for the year (hundreds reported all along the coast, I haven't seen one) even though I knew there would be hordes of birders and photographers looking for Snowy Owls (which, schadenfreude alert here, weren't to be found today), but I didn't find a Razorbill either. I made do with the usual birds, lots of scoters, including the harder to find White-winged Scoter, plus a big flock of Common Eiders in the inlet. I had walked as far back along the inlet as you can reasonably go, and thus was at the maximum distance from my car (about 2 miles) when I got a text from a friend and Burlco birder that there was a Long-tailed Duck at Whitesbog. Now, I had just seen about 50 Long-tailed Ducks all along the beach, but a Long-tailed Duck at Whitesbog is a rarity, as it is anywhere in Burlington County, though you can find them flying up the Delaware, I'm told. Since I have resolved to be somewhat more aggressive in my birding this year, and since it would be a county life bird for me, I walked back to the car and drove the 35 miles inland to Whitesbog. It is always a great feeling when you're chasing a bird to come to the location, look around for a minute and bang! there it is. The duck was very cooperative and allowed me to walk over toward it pretty close before it got skittish and flew a few yards farther in the middle of the Middle Bog. Since this species is pretty much a saltwater diving duck, what there is at Whitesbog for it to eat I don't know, unless it likes pickerel. It was constantly diving, so either it was finding something to it or it is an extremely stubborn duck.

Sandhill Cranes in Burlington County

This month I only added 3 year birds to the list, not really unexpected since it obviously gets harder to find new stuff as the year progress. The birds were all rarities: the very unexpected Ash-throated Flycatcher at Mercer County Park, the Rough-legged Hawk at the fairgrounds, and the oxymoronic hen King Eider off the jetty at Barnegat Light. Other neat rarities for the month, though not year birds, were the Sandhill Cranes in Pemberton (county birds though) and the returning Trumpeter Swans at Stone Tavern Lake.

Trumpeter Swans, Stone Tavern Lake

I didn't get down to Brig this month; I can't recall the last month I didn't make at least one trip there but it was always too windy, or rainy, or the prospect of just looping around the Wildlife Drive seemed too dreary to me. I didn't get to Sandy Hook either and I should have if I wanted Razorbills. But I'm starting the new year there. Instead, I stuck to familiar Ocean & Monmouth County spots for the most part--I enjoyed circumambulating the Manasquan Reservoir twice.

For the month I had 110 species. The year list and year summary will follow tomorrow.
Counties birded:
New Jersey: Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean
New York: New York

Species              First Sighting

Snow Goose   Spring Lake Boardwalk

Brant   Island Beach SP

Canada Goose   Island Beach SP

Mute Swan   Island Beach SP

Trumpeter Swan   Stone Tavern Lake

Tundra Swan   Whitesbog

Wood Duck   Lake of the Lilies

Northern Shoveler   Manasquan Reservoir IBA

Gadwall   Lake of the Lilies

American Wigeon   Manasquan Reservoir IBA

Mallard   Riverfront Landing

American Black Duck   Cedar Bonnet Island

Canvasback   Stone Tavern Lake

Redhead   Lake of the Lilies

Ring-necked Duck   Bamber Lake

Lesser Scaup   Bayview Ave Park

King Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Common Eider   Island Beach SP

Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Surf Scoter   Island Beach SP

White-winged Scoter   Island Beach SP

Black Scoter   Island Beach SP

Long-tailed Duck   Island Beach SP

Bufflehead   Island Beach SP

Common Goldeneye   Sunset Park

Hooded Merganser   Lake of the Lilies

Common Merganser   Manasquan Reservoir IBA

Red-breasted Merganser   Island Beach SP

Ruddy Duck   Riverfront Landing

Wild Turkey   Crestwood Village

Pied-billed Grebe   Manasquan Reservoir IBA

Rock Pigeon   Wawa South Toms River

Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd

American Coot   Lake of the Lilies

Sandhill Crane   Pemberton Twp MUA Fields

Killdeer   Lakewood Wawa

Ruddy Turnstone   Island Beach SP

Red Knot   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Sanderling   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Dunlin   Island Beach SP

Purple Sandpiper   Manasquan Inlet

Ring-billed Gull   Riverfront Landing

Herring Gull   Island Beach SP

Great Black-backed Gull   Island Beach SP

Red-throated Loon   Wreck Pond

Common Loon   Island Beach SP

Northern Gannet   Manasquan Inlet

Great Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Double-crested Cormorant   Island Beach SP

Great Blue Heron   Cedar Bonnet Island

Black Vulture   New Egypt

Turkey Vulture   Toms River

Northern Harrier   Cedar Bonnet Island

Sharp-shinned Hawk   Bamber Lake

Cooper's Hawk   Etra Lake Park

Bald Eagle   Bamber Lake

Red-tailed Hawk   Cedar Bonnet Island

Rough-legged Hawk   BC Fairgrounds

Barred Owl   Central Park

Belted Kingfisher   Cedar Bonnet Island

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Whitesbog

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Bamber Lake

Downy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd

Hairy Woodpecker   Whitesbog

Northern Flicker   Island Beach SP

American Kestrel   Reeves Bogs

Merlin   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Peregrine Falcon   Shark River Inlet

Eastern Phoebe   Island Beach SP

Ash-throated Flycatcher   Mercer County Park

Blue Jay   35 Sunset Rd

American Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Fish Crow   Assunpink WMA

Common Raven   Whitesbog

Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd

Black-capped Chickadee   Central Park

Tufted Titmouse   Whitesbog

Red-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

Brown Creeper   Assunpink WMA

Carolina Wren   35 Sunset Rd

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Nessie Bog

Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Manasquan Reservoir IBA

Eastern Bluebird   Assunpink WMA

Hermit Thrush   Whitesbog

American Robin   Island Beach SP

Northern Mockingbird   Island Beach SP

European Starling   35 Sunset Rd

House Finch   35 Sunset Rd

Purple Finch   Union Transportation Trail

Pine Siskin   Cloverdale Farm

American Goldfinch   Cedar Bonnet Island

Snow Bunting   Cedar Bonnet Island

Chipping Sparrow   Bamber Lake

Field Sparrow   Union Transportation Trail

Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd

White-throated Sparrow   Bamber Lake

Savannah Sparrow   Cedar Bonnet Island

Song Sparrow   Island Beach SP

Swamp Sparrow   Cranberry Bogs

Eastern Towhee   Central Park

Eastern Meadowlark   BC Fairgrounds

Red-winged Blackbird   Assunpink WMA

Brown-headed Cowbird   Olde Noah Hunt Rd

Common Grackle   Olde Noah Hunt Rd

Boat-tailed Grackle   Point Pleasant Beach

Pine Warbler   35 Sunset Rd

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Assunpink WMA

Northern Cardinal   Wawa South Toms River

House Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Burlington County Fairgrounds 12/23--Rough-legged Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk

My "go to" spot for Rough-legged Hawk is the Burlington County Fairgrounds--otherwise known by its mouthful eBird designation as "BC Fairgrounds/Barker's Brook NRA (old Mercer Sod Farm)." It's the spot where Shari & I got our lifer Rough-legged and, because it is one of the few remaining grasslands in the area, a generally good spot for raptors. It can be a frustrating area to bird because you can't actually go in to the grasslands (supposedly to protect the Bald Eagles nesting there), but instead must walk along the railing of the parking lot, scanning and scoping. Hawks aren't hard to find, but the smaller birds can be a chore--I know there are Eastern Meadowlarks there but managed to only see one flying today.

When I got there this morning my strategy was to set up the scope in a few areas as I drove and walked the length of the parking lot. I managed the two eagles almost immediately and Northern Harriers were up and about but scanning the tree line for a soaring hawk only netted me a kettle of vultures.

I walked around the misnamed "Meadow Habitat" which is actually an artificial wetlands without coming up with anything and then walked to the railing, put up my binoculars and saw a large hawk sitting in the grass. "Naturally," I said to myself and speed-walked the football field distance to my car and scope. When I got the scope on the bird it did prove to be the Rough-legged but my digiscope photos weren't even worthy of the noun "documentation."

But, having ticked off the hawk, I walked along the railing up to Rt 206, looking for passerines and finding just starlings. Scanning with the binoculars I saw a hawk in a low tree. "Figures," I said to myself, took a couple of photos with the camera lens on full zoom and scurried the two football fields back to the car and drove back up. With my scope I got very good looks at the bird, and even managed a digiscope photo that showed the bird pretty well:

Okay, maybe not that well, but you can see that it is a light morph with a whitish head and black patch near the eye. I was just about ready to pack it in when I saw a couple of cars coming up. Burlco birders. I put them on the hawk and then a few more birders came along and we admired the bird for a while, looked away, and it was gone. Someone found it hovering and when it returned to the tree we all got excellent looks at its black "wrist" patches as well as the white underwings. When a meadowlark flew I took it as a signal to head out. Late December and still getting year birds.

I'm hoping all these rarities this month (this hawk, the Trumpeter Swans that returned to Assunpink, the Sandhill Cranes in Pemberton, the Ash-throated Flycatcher) all hang around for the new year so that on January 2nd I can spend the day driving around and ticking them off, because, as my friend Bob Auster likes to point out, you have to get your rarities early if you want to build up a big year list.

Migration May

Piping Plover on nest, Barnegat Light SP

May is the peak of spring migration and I made it my business to put myself where the birds were--for the most part. A few time I went somewhere just because I like it even though I knew the possibility of finding anything new was remote. Today was an example of that--I went to Barnegat Light SP to walk on the beach and hoped to find a Piping Plover, even though I "have" them for the year. I finally found one on my way back, sitting on a nest within a protect cage.

I got more warblers than I usually do and of course, as the previous post recounts, I finally got my life KENTUCKY WARBLER even if it was a heard only bird. I also had some rarities for the month, that is birds that are rare for the location or time, not real rarities like the Roseate Spoonbill that is up in northern NJ. The last rarity I listed was today--2 Common Eiders in the surf off the beach at Barnegat Light. These are probably the 2 birds that have been reported off the tip of Island Beach SP.

Here it is the end of May and I have yet to have visited Cape May. And Cape May in the summer, what with traffic can be daunting, so unless something amazing shows up, it may be fall migration until I get there.

Aside from my Jersey birding, I spent parts of 2 days in Central Park, where I didn't find much in my rushing around, and 2 days with Shari in Delaware where, despite the weather, we got our avocets, stilts, and other hard to find birds.

I listed 174 species this month and 53 year birds, by far the most this year in the United States--last month's list included a lot of Mexican birds. June & July are historically "slow" months--I'll get my walks in and hope for odd birds to show up, but I don't expect any more large lists until the birds start heading south again.

Counties birded:
Delaware: Kent
New Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean
New York: New York

Species   First Sighting Brant   Island Beach SP Canada Goose   Forsythe-Barnegat Mute Swan   Island Beach SP Wood Duck   Forest Resource Education Center Blue-winged Teal   Forsythe-Barnegat Northern Shoveler   Brig Gadwall   Forsythe-Barnegat Mallard   Forsythe-Barnegat American Black Duck   Forsythe-Barnegat Green-winged Teal   Forsythe-Barnegat Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP Red-breasted Merganser   Forsythe-Barnegat Ruddy Duck   Brig Wild Turkey   35 Sunset Rd Common Loon   Sandy Hook Horned Grebe   Bombay Hook Double-crested Cormorant   Forsythe-Barnegat Least Bittern   Mercer Corporate Park Great Blue Heron   Forsythe-Barnegat Great Egret   Forsythe-Barnegat Snowy Egret   Forsythe-Barnegat Little Blue Heron   Forsythe-Barnegat Tricolored Heron   Great Bay Bvld Green Heron   Oros Preserve Black-crowned Night-Heron   Oros Preserve Glossy Ibis   Forsythe-Barnegat White-faced Ibis   Brig Black Vulture   Sandy Hook Turkey Vulture   Island Beach SP Osprey   Forsythe-Barnegat Mississippi Kite   Waretown Sharp-shinned Hawk   Sandy Hook Cooper's Hawk   Island Beach SP Bald Eagle   Sandy Hook Red-shouldered Hawk   Reeves Bogs Red-tailed Hawk   Forest Resource Education Center Clapper Rail   Great Bay Bvld Sora   Mercer Sod Farm IBA Common Gallinule   Bombay Hook Black-necked Stilt   Bombay Hook American Avocet   Bombay Hook American Oystercatcher   Sandy Hook Black-bellied Plover   Island Beach SP Semipalmated Plover   Great Bay Bvld Piping Plover   Barnegat Lighthouse SP Killdeer   Sandy Hook Whimbrel   Brig Ruddy Turnstone   Great Bay Bvld Red Knot   Great Bay Bvld Dunlin   Island Beach SP Least Sandpiper   Forsythe-Barnegat White-rumped Sandpiper   Brig Semipalmated Sandpiper   Island Beach SP Short-billed Dowitcher   Great Bay Bvld Red-necked Phalarope   Whitehall Neck Rd. Spotted Sandpiper   Oros Preserve Solitary Sandpiper   Cloverdale Farm Greater Yellowlegs   Forsythe-Barnegat Willet   Forsythe-Barnegat Lesser Yellowlegs   Forsythe-Barnegat Bonaparte's Gull   Brig Laughing Gull   Wawa South Toms River Herring Gull   Forsythe-Barnegat Great Black-backed Gull   Island Beach SP Least Tern   Great Bay Bvld Gull-billed Tern   Brig Caspian Tern   Brig Common Tern   Sandy Hook Forster's Tern   Forsythe-Barnegat Black Skimmer   Brig Rock Pigeon   Wawa South Toms River Mourning Dove   Forsythe-Barnegat Yellow-billed Cuckoo   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd Black-billed Cuckoo   Manasquan River WMA Chuck-will's-widow   Collinstown Rd Eastern Whip-poor-will   35 Sunset Rd Chimney Swift   William Warren County Park Ruby-throated Hummingbird   Double Trouble State Park Belted Kingfisher   Island Beach SP Red-bellied Woodpecker   Oros Preserve Downy Woodpecker   Manasquan River WMA Hairy Woodpecker   Forest Resource Education Center Northern Flicker   Double Trouble State Park Pileated Woodpecker   William Warren County Park Merlin   Double Trouble State Park Peregrine Falcon   Brig Eastern Wood-Pewee   Huber Preserve Acadian Flycatcher   Evert Trail Alder Flycatcher   Assunpink WMA Willow Flycatcher   Brig Eastern Phoebe   Island Beach SP Great Crested Flycatcher   Island Beach SP Eastern Kingbird   Island Beach SP White-eyed Vireo   Island Beach SP Yellow-throated Vireo   Baldpate Mt Blue-headed Vireo   Island Beach SP Warbling Vireo   Sandy Hook Red-eyed Vireo   Forest Resource Education Center Blue Jay   Oros Preserve American Crow   Island Beach SP Fish Crow   Forsythe-Barnegat Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Colliers Mills WMA Purple Martin   Forsythe-Barnegat Tree Swallow   Oros Preserve Bank Swallow   Reeves Bogs Barn Swallow   Island Beach SP Carolina Chickadee   Forsythe-Barnegat Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd White-breasted Nuthatch   Forest Resource Education Center House Wren   Sandy Hook Marsh Wren   Island Beach SP Carolina Wren   Forsythe-Barnegat Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Island Beach SP Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Island Beach SP Eastern Bluebird   Forest Resource Education Center Veery   Island Beach SP Swainson's Thrush   Sandy Hook Hermit Thrush   Oros Preserve Wood Thrush   Oros Preserve American Robin   Oros Preserve Gray Catbird   Oros Preserve Brown Thrasher   Island Beach SP Northern Mockingbird   18 Aberdeen Avenue European Starling   Oros Preserve American Pipit   Sandy Hook Cedar Waxwing   William Warren County Park Ovenbird   Island Beach SP Worm-eating Warbler   Huber Preserve Northern Waterthrush   Sandy Hook Blue-winged Warbler   Manasquan River WMA Black-and-white Warbler   Island Beach SP Prothonotary Warbler   Huber Preserve Nashville Warbler   Manasquan River WMA KENTUCKY WARBLER   Baldpate Mt Common Yellowthroat   Island Beach SP Hooded Warbler   Forest Resource Education Center American Redstart   Island Beach SP Northern Parula   Island Beach SP Magnolia Warbler   Sandy Hook Bay-breasted Warbler   Double Trouble State Park Yellow Warbler   Island Beach SP Chestnut-sided Warbler   Sandy Hook Blackpoll Warbler   Brig Black-throated Blue Warbler   Sandy Hook Palm Warbler   Oros Preserve Pine Warbler   35 Sunset Rd Yellow-rumped Warbler   Oros Preserve Prairie Warbler   Oros Preserve Black-throated Green Warbler   Forest Resource Education Center Wilson's Warbler   William Warren County Park Grasshopper Sparrow   Bombay Hook Saltmarsh Sparrow   Great Bay Bvld Seaside Sparrow   Island Beach SP Chipping Sparrow   Island Beach SP Field Sparrow   Wawa South Toms River White-crowned Sparrow   Sandy Hook White-throated Sparrow   Oros Preserve Savannah Sparrow   Manasquan River WMA Song Sparrow   Forsythe-Barnegat Swamp Sparrow   Sandy Hook Eastern Towhee   35 Sunset Rd Scarlet Tanager   Sandy Hook Northern Cardinal   Oros Preserve Rose-breasted Grosbeak   Island Beach SP Blue Grosbeak   Manasquan River WMA Indigo Bunting   Sandy Hook Bobolink   Mercer Sod Farm IBA Eastern Meadowlark   Mercer Sod Farm IBA Orchard Oriole   Island Beach SP Baltimore Oriole   Island Beach SP Red-winged Blackbird   Forsythe-Barnegat Brown-headed Cowbird   Forsythe-Barnegat Common Grackle   Sandy Hook Boat-tailed Grackle   Forsythe-Barnegat House Finch   Island Beach SP American Goldfinch   Forsythe-Barnegat House Sparrow   Oros Preserve