Edison Boat Launch 2/16--Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull, middle

Well, if I can't find an Iceland Gull in my home county of Ocean, at least I can find one in my boyhood home county of Middlesex. Actually, I didn't find it, it was pointed out to me by Jason on his and Patrick's field trip to a couple of unpicturesque spots on the Raritan River where it flows past the Edgeboro Landfill and through the Sayreville Marsh, making it perfect habitat for gulls--lots of gulls.

When I arrived at the Edison Boat Launch, a spot I'd only heard about, there were, as advertised, thousands of gulls on the water, on the roofs of the warehouses behind me, and flying in great circles over the active landfill. Some people, like Jason, enjoy sorting through all the standard issue gulls looking for the rarity and, having spent hundreds of hours doing it, can pick out the "white-winged gull" from the mass very quickly. When I was in printing, after looking at copy for 20 or 30 years, typos would just jump out at me. Iceland Gulls, Glaucous Gulls, Little Gulls...these are the misprints of the Laridae.

Today, the only rarity were the two Iceland Gulls we saw at the boat ramp, one a glistening white gull, the other a first cycle, light coffee colored bird. Because the Iceland Gull is just slightly larger than a Ring-bill Gull and just slightly smaller than a Herring Gull, even when one was identified, it was awfully hard to pick it out from the ever-shuffling flock. A Glaucous Gull, being huge, at least would have stood out.

After about an hour and half in Edison, the group drove to the other side of the river to Ken Buchanan Park in Sayreville. While as the gull flies it is only a mile and half away, as the car drives it is a 12 mile, 20 minute ride, not including the Wawa stop (another new one for me!). In Sayreville, the river had comparatively few gulls, but the raptor show was better featuring Northern Harriers, a nicely perched Peregrine Falcon, and nesting Bald Eagles. A Common Raven was calling but I couldn't find it and there were 5 or 6 Great Cormorants affording nice looks of the brood patches on their flanks. Great Cormorant is usually a distant bird for me, so it was a treat to find them relatively close.

For the last stop of the day about half the group drove over to South Amboy's Raritan Bay Waterfront Park where we picked up Brant, Sanderling, Horned Grebe, and Red-throated Loon for the day.

Sanderlings on the rocky coast of South Amboy

35 species on the day

Species              First Sighting

Brant   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Canada Goose   Edison Boat Launch

Mallard   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

American Black Duck   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Greater Scaup   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Bufflehead   Edison Boat Launch

Common Goldeneye   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Common Merganser   Edison Boat Launch

Red-breasted Merganser   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Horned Grebe   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Rock Pigeon   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Sanderling   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Ring-billed Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Herring Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Iceland Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Great Black-backed Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Red-throated Loon   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Common Loon   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Great Cormorant   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Double-crested Cormorant   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Black Vulture   Sayreville

Turkey Vulture   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Northern Harrier   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Bald Eagle   Edison Boat Launch

Red-tailed Hawk   Edison Boat Launch

Belted Kingfisher   Edison Boat Launch

Peregrine Falcon   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Blue Jay   Edison Boat Launch

Fish Crow   Edison Boat Launch

Common Raven   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

European Starling   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

White-throated Sparrow   Edison Boat Launch

Song Sparrow   Edison Boat Launch

Red-winged Blackbird   Edison Boat Launch

House Sparrow   Edison Boat Launch

Manasquan River WMA | STR Cranberry Bogs 2/15--Common Raven, Chipping Sparrow

Common Raven, Cranberry Bogs, South Toms River
Click photos to enlarge

I visited a couple of places I haven't been to in quite some time. The Manasquan River WMA is about as far north as you can get in Ocean County--in fact, only half of it is this county with a large part being in Monmouth. It certainly is outside the Pine Barrens. The WMA is not heavily birded in the winter so I thought I might find a couple of overlooked birds there and I came up with two.

Gray Catbird
If you squint, you can see it.

The first, Gray Catbird, I had a notion might be there, though I had to bushwhack to find it. Despite the name, on the Ocean County side the river is not really accessible unless you're wearing hip boots since the trail that leads to it trickles away to a muddy path between and ending in impenetrable, 7 foot high phragmites, but before that there is a little path among the thickets, where last year I found my FOY Hermit Thrush and this year, in about the same spot, I came upon the catbird, one more check mark on the county list.. The tangles of bushes allow for only a suggestion of the bird in my photos. The reason I thought I might see one there is the similarity in habitat to Assunpink, where I've seen the species twice so far this year.

In spring & summer the WMA is a good place to find some of the more out of the way warblers like Hooded & Blue-winged. In winter, sparrows abound. While walking around the 2nd big field little groups flew out of the high grass into the trees on the edge of the trail. Most of them were Song Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows, but I also snagged a couple of Field Sparrows, one American Tree Sparrow, a nice reddish Fox Sparrow and, year bird alert, my first Chipping Sparrows.

22 species

Mourning Dove  1

Herring Gull  25    Flyover toward Brick Reservoir

Turkey Vulture  1

Northern Harrier  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2

Downy Woodpecker  5

Carolina Chickadee  3

Tufted Titmouse  4

White-breasted Nuthatch  2    Heard

Carolina Wren  3    Heard

Eastern Bluebird  2    On nest box

American Robin  100

Gray Catbird  1    

American Goldfinch  5

Chipping Sparrow  2

Field Sparrow  2

American Tree Sparrow  1

Fox Sparrow  1

White-throated Sparrow  20

Song Sparrow  15

Red-winged Blackbird  1    female near Ridge Road east of parking lot

Northern Cardinal  2    south side of first big field, near old building

Tundra Swans

On the way home I stopped at the cranberry bogs in South Toms River--the undeveloped part of Double Trouble Park. Again, not a place heavily birded (it's been almost 2 years since anyone other than me has posted an eBird list there), but I almost always find something interesting there. Interesting today included 7 Tundra Swans, one Merlin, and the Common Raven that I at first heard croaking, coming from the direction of Jake's Branch Park and then located, behind me, on a power line tower. Even my distant photos show the huge beak on this corvid and the flight shot that happenstance provided shows the wedge-shaped tail. Ravens are considered rare in the county but today alone, besides this one, Mike had three near a dealership lot in Lakewood and one was reported on the Lakehurst base, where they nest. I've heard the idea that eBird reviewers keep raven as "rare" to prevent misidentifications with either of the two crows, but I'm starting to think that in actuality, a lot of ravens are going unreported since, unless they vocalize, they can easily be mistaken as just another crow, especially if they're flying at distance.

12 species

Canada Goose  150

Tundra Swan  7    adults and immature

Mallard  4    

American Black Duck  8    Very skittish, flew from one bog to another as I walked around

Hooded Merganser  4    Two hens, two drakes

Mourning Dove  10

Turkey Vulture  3

Red-tailed Hawk  2    Saw both in sky at the same time.

Merlin  1

American Crow  1    Heard

Common Raven  1    

Carolina Wren  1    Heard entrance path

Finally, another example of Zirlin's Third Law of Birding: Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else:
While I was coming upon the Tundra Swans in the cranberry bogs, I got a text from Mike that he had an Iceland Gull at Lake of the Lilies. Iceland Gull is a nemesis bird for me, especially in Ocean County. Never seen one here, sad to say. Lake of the Lilies is 20 miles away from where my car was parked and I was one & half miles away from my car. Had he contacted me while I up north I might have considered making the trip to Point Pleasant Beach, but what were the chances that a gull would stay around for the 45 minutes it would take me to get up there? As it turns out, none, because within 10 minutes Mike let me know that a dog walker had flushed the gull that had been sitting 15 feet away. It was gone. "Which is why," I texted back, "I don't chase gulls very often."

Cape May 2/13--Bonaparte's Gull

South this morning for Mike's and my first trip of the year to Cape May. There weren't many birds on our target list--3--and we only found one but still, 61 species hopping from spot to spot wasn't too bad.  We were looking for the Sandhill Cranes that have been hanging in a field just above the Cape May Canal but even though they were reported as late as yesterday and even though we made three passes of the field (which really didn't look that promising as crane habitat, not being very stubbly at all) we "dipped."

On to the Ferry Terminal where our luck was better and we snagged the only year bird of the day, 7 Bonaparte's Gulls. These gulls seem to have disappeared from the more northern counties--you'd think with all our trip to the Manasquan Inlet, the North Shore, to LBI we'd have seen one by now but no, these were the first.

The most interesting duck of the day was first seen on Lighthouse Pond in the state park--a drake Canvasback. Neither of us could recall seeing this species in the county and later research showed that is was county bird for both us. Canvasbacks seem to be on the opposite trajectory of Bonaparte's Gulls. It used to be hard to find them; everyone would make their annual trip to a little marina in Toms River where they were almost sure to be. Now, it seems like every pond has at least one of these big ducks on it. It must be a big deal even down there in Birdutopia because another birder we me on the trails of the state park wanted us to know about it. We already did and told him there was another on the pond between the state park and Cape May Meadows.

Canvasback was my 241st bird in Cape May county which puts me at around #171 on the all time county list. I'd need another 40 or 45 more species just to crack the top 100. The birders who live down there have ungodly county life lists--#67 on the list has 300 species. Of course, those birders practically never leave the county (why should they?) unless a rarity from Mars appears at Brig.

We spent most of our time in the state park and the meadows, where, once again, we didn't find the bird we were looking for--Blue-winged Teal. A good bird for winter, but a bird we will get when the weather warms. In fact, aside from Mallards, black ducks, and Wood Ducks, it's one of the few ducks to look for in summer.

After our 3rd pass at the crane-less fields we drove up the Parkway to Nummy Island. There had been no alerts coming in about the Gyrfalcon that first appeared this weekend, but then, I'm not on every Twitter, Facebook, and regional bird alert feed, so we thought there was a chance it was being seen and we were just missing the reports. No. Brief moment of excitement when we saw a hawk hovering in one spot over the dredge spoils on Nummy--we didn't mistake it for the falcon, but we thought, because of its helicopter imitation it was a Rough-legged Hawk. But when it dipped and showed its tail in the sun light it turned out to be a Red-tailed Hawk in a wind approaching 30 mph.

So our first day this year below the Mason-Dixon line (look it up on a map) was meh to decent. Our list:

Species                First Sighting

Brant   Cape May Harbor

Canada Goose   Shunpike Rd. pond

Mute Swan   Lily Lake

Tundra Swan   Cape May Point SP

Northern Shoveler   Cape May Point SP

Gadwall   Cape May Point SP

American Wigeon   Cape May Point SP

Mallard   Shunpike Rd. pond

American Black Duck   Cape May Point SP

Northern Pintail   South Cape May Meadows

Green-winged Teal   Cape May Point SP

Canvasback   Cape May Point SP

Ring-necked Duck   Cape May Point SP

Lesser Scaup   Cape May Point SP

Surf Scoter   Ferry Terminal

White-winged Scoter   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Black Scoter   Ferry Terminal

Long-tailed Duck   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Bufflehead   Lily Lake

Hooded Merganser   Cape May Point SP

Red-breasted Merganser   Ferry Terminal

Ruddy Duck   Lily Lake

Rock Pigeon   Ferry Terminal

Mourning Dove   New England Rd.

American Coot   South Cape May Meadows

Killdeer   Cape May Point SP

Sanderling   Ferry Terminal

Bonaparte's Gull   Ferry Terminal

Ring-billed Gull   Ferry Terminal

Herring Gull   Ferry Terminal

Great Black-backed Gull   Cape May Harbor

Red-throated Loon   Ferry Terminal

Common Loon   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Northern Gannet   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Double-crested Cormorant   South Cape May Meadows

Great Blue Heron   Cape May Point SP

Black Vulture   Seashore Rd

Turkey Vulture   Seashore Rd

Cooper's Hawk   South Cape May Meadows

Bald Eagle   Cape May Point SP

Red-shouldered Hawk   Cape May Point SP

Red-tailed Hawk   Nummy Island

Red-bellied Woodpecker   New England Rd.

Northern Flicker   Cape May Point SP

Blue Jay   Shunpike Rd. pond

American Crow   Cape May Point SP

Carolina Chickadee   New England Rd.

Tufted Titmouse   New England Rd.

Carolina Wren   Ferry Terminal

American Robin   Lily Lake

Northern Mockingbird   Shunpike Rd. pond

European Starling   Ferry Terminal

House Finch   Cape May Point SP

American Goldfinch   CMBO Northwood Center

White-throated Sparrow   New England Rd.

Song Sparrow   South Cape May Meadows

Red-winged Blackbird   Ferry Terminal

Brown-headed Cowbird   New England Rd.

Common Grackle   Seashore Rd

Northern Cardinal   New England Rd.

House Sparrow   Ferry Terminal

Tundra Swan, Cape May Point SP

Cream Ridge 2/11--Ross's Goose

Find the white needle in the white haystack

Sure, Mike & I could have braved the snow, ice, & wintry mix--and the slick roads that go along with it--in Cape May county to chase the continuing Gyrfalcon on Nummy Island, but while we might be crazy, as our wives so often tell us, crazy fools we are not! Instead, we headed north of the weatherman's magic border I-195, as if the weather knows there's an asphalt line there above which no snow shall fall. Yet somehow, it works.

We started up in Seven Presidents Park in Long Branch and worked out way down along the North Shore ponds and ocean lookouts, gathering up the expected birds for a decent but humdrum list until we got down to Fletcher Lake in Bradley Beach. Fletcher Lake is home to a feral population of Muscovy Ducks. They're sorta countable since they're "established" (i.e. they breed, I've seen ducklings) but when they appeared on the rare bird list, Bob Auster immediately texted me that he saw we had "shamelessly" listed them, then admitted that a couple of years ago he did the same thing. I wouldn't have even made a list there if Mike hadn't spotted a couple of American Black Ducks, which we hadn't had today. When Mike & I do one of these multi-stop days, I start a list at the first place we bird, then only make a list when we add a new bird for the day. Otherwise, we would have twice as many lists for the day and we already have too many as it is. American Black Duck is not a very exciting "add" but immediately upon pointing them out, Mike found a much better duck--Eurasian Wigeon.

We both had the same thought: Good, now we don't have to go to the Shark River in Belmar and scope from a gas station for the Eurasian Wigeon that has been present there for the last couple of months. We hadn't seen the Muscovy Ducks, so there was no dilemma until we were driving away and saw three of them standing on a street corner as if they were waiting for a bus. So I listed them. Mike made me do it.

We wended our way down to Point Pleasant, gathering up more ducks at various ponds like a Wood Duck at Little Silver Lake and Lesser Scaup at Lake of the Lilies. An eBird alert appeared on my phone that the Ross's Goose that was found yesterday in a big flock of Snow Geese was still in the fields along Route 546 in Cream Ridge. Neither of us relished the idea of sorting through thousands of Snow Geese for the one outlier. In fact, of all the Ross's Geese I have seen, none has ever been in a flock. They've always been alone. But, a year bird's a year bird, so off we went back north to the horse country of Monmouth County.

Mike said that what we needed when we got there was a group of birders with the ROGO in their scopes. We got close to that dream. When we drove up there was one birder there with a scope who said he thought he had the bird. It was on the outer edge of the flock, weaving in and out and sticking its head down to feed but eventually, using a blue morph as a landmark, all three of us were able to agree on which goose we were considering and when it finally raised its head to look around it had a sweet expression on its face, due to the lack of the "grin patch" which really should be called the "grimace patch" since it makes all  Snow Geese look like they're very unhappy. The bird was very active and following it was like following the card in a game of thousand goose monte.

About one tenth of the flock of geese we were looking through

A note on orthography: I used to worry about the way words looked typographically when I was a printer and the 3 terminal esses in Ross's are, to my eye, very ugly and completely unnecessary. While I don't subscribe to the proposal of one of the bird organizations to do away completely with the possessive apostrophe (I don't like the way Ross Goose, Wilson Warbler, etc sound), I do think that the typographical practice of letting the possessive hang off the second ess (Ross' Goose) would be sufficient, efficient, and more attractive to the eye.

We tried for a few more rarities at Conine's Millpond in Allentown (where we did have three Bald Eagles calling to each other from the trees) and at Assunpink (where we added Trumpeter Swan to our waterfowl list), that was about it for the day. Of course, had we not gone to Assunpink via Stone Tavern Road but had taken Herbert Road instead, we probably would have stopped for the big flock of geese on the sod farm that contained the Barnacle Goose that has been in the vicinity for the last few weeks. Mike could have used it for a year bird. Another example of Zirlin's Third Law of Birding: Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else. 

Restroom Admonitions

When you're birding, the question of "Where's the closest restroom" starts percolating in the back of your mind about an hour after the first Wawa coffee and starts to become urgent about 5 minutes later. Restrooms climb a hierarchical ladder starting at "Does one exist," stepping up to "Rudimentary" as in Port-O-Sans which I usually have to investigate first before Shari will even consider one, then "Rudimentary Plus" which is an open pit but at least a permanent structure. From there, the next step up is the question of climate (warm in winter, no flies in summer) and then, at the top rung we have "Does it flush?"

"Is it entertaining in there?" is not a consideration for most birders, but inveterate reader that I am, I enjoy a little distraction while I'm "resting." Over the years, I've noticed that there's an awful lot of scoldings, warnings, and general admonitions going on in these johns and I've made a collection of them. Each sign tells a little story of the tug of war between the clientele and the restroom's proprietor.

For instance:

This sign must be available from a supply catalog for sanitary engineers, because I have seen it in every open pit toilet I have been in no matter if it was built by a county, state, or federal agency. It is justifiably grumpy because "extremely difficult to remove" is a euphemism for "extraordinarily disgusting."

There are instructional signs, which I appreciate it,  because, you know, sometimes I feel like I need a refresher course:

Although this one, from Australia, seemed a bit extreme:

There are warnings not to do something that up until that moment I'd never actually considered


There is poetry:

There is existentialism:

Meaning you better come out with the same personality as you went in with.

And then there is this wide-ranging sign.
 
The "absolutely" is perfect, as if "no" isn't nearly strong enough for these clowns to understand and the "No Smoking" sign stuck on the top as an afterthought, "Oh yeah, that too," is delightful. The sign, by the way, is just high enough on the wall so that if you wanted to vandalize it you'd have to sit on someone's shoulders or bring a step stool so maybe the next time I "go" there I'll see this sign:

ABSOLUTELY NO

SITTING ON SHOULDERS

OR STEP STOOLS ALLOWED 

IN THIS FACILITY

Brigantine Island 2/7--American Oystercatcher

This blog suffers from selection bias, in that I normally only write when I've had a good day, adding a cool bird to the list. Who wants to read about the days I walk 4 miles through fields, woods and around bogs only to list 9 species? Or worse, drive 25 miles to see a bird that isn't around when I get there? Not me. I don't even want to think about it when I get home, much less write about it.

So, not all birding days are equal, obviously. Some, like yesterday, when Mike & I ranged around the county, listed 71 species and added Horned Grebe and Common Merganser to our county lists, I'd describe as great, though we both found it embarrassing to be so deep into the year without a HOGR in Ocean County. With today's birding the term "workmanlike" arises to me as descriptive except it ain't a job, man. With an iffy weather forecast for the morning, we thought a loop around Brig would be a safe bet. Despite seeing 10 Bald Eagles and seeing/hearing 40 other species, there was nothing there today to really get your heart racing, and if the part about the eagles sounds blasé and jaded I'm sorry but I'd exchange 9 of them (actually all 10) for the Barred Owl we hoped to find on the upland section of the drive.

With the impoundments and surrounding bay full to the brim, we figured any raptor food had been drowned or flushed out and of course there was nowhere for any of the wintering sandpipers to feed so after we walked along the Gull Pond road and drove one loop it was on to other spots potentially more interesting.

I hadn't been down to Brigantine Island yet this year, so that was our next stop and I did manage to add American Oystercatcher to my year list but Willets and Marbled Godwits weren't in evidence in the South Cove. Always good to the get the goofy birds on the list though (it was already on Mike's). It was raw and foggy down near Atlantic City, so we headed back north, deciding to get the rest of our steps in at one of the spots we hadn't investigated yesterday, the Manahawkin WMA.

Where we were not very successful except aerobically. While we found Northern Pintails in the back impoundment and a couple of kingfishers, walking the trail through the woods it was as if some had vacuumed up all the birds. Not a peep did we hear until we were 50 yards away from the car on our way back when the trees exploded in bird song with exactly two chickadees and one Downy and Hairy Woodpecker each.

Thus ended a wholly respectable, decent, just fine, pretty good, not gonna win any awards day of birding with 46 species all told.

New Egypt 2/1--Field Sparrow

Field Sparrow, New Egypt
Photo: Mike Mandracchia

New month, new bird. Mike & I did one our county tours this morning, despite continuing frigid weather and unexpected (at least to me) light snow.

We started at Bamber Lake, where, even though it is 90% frozen, 52 Tundra Swans could still be found. They like resting on the ice. What they're eating I don't know. A couple of quick stops at spots on Sands Point showed us that finding waterfowl was going to be difficult because the bay, except for some very thin stretches of open water, has succumbed to the deep freeze.

A very cold walk along Collinstown Road in Barnegat was productive for the passerines--we had 5 Fox Sparrows, a couple of Hermit Thrushes, along with assorted nuthatches, chickadees, sparrows, finches and blackbirds. A couple of more looks at the bay in Barnegat still didn't yield any Ocean County grebes for us. A fairly quick visit to Cloverdale Farm (and its very welcome warm rest room) got us more feeder birds and our Eastern Bluebirds for the month.  We made an attempt to find a Winter Wren where the park ranger told us it had last been seen, but it was probably hunkered down deep in the reeds, keeping warm, birds being generally smarter than birders.

Our last major stop was up around the frozen mud and free range cattle of New Egypt where the sparrows were abundant and where we found my only year bird of the day, a Field Sparrow mixed in with the songs, white-throateds, and juncos.  Not a rare bird, by any means, but not an everyday bird either. No Sandhill Cranes in the stubble field (which isn't very stubbly this year) no Snow Geese, so the biggest birds we saw today were a flock of Wild Turkeys.

Finally, time was getting short as we had things to do, so we drove east along W Colliers Mills Road, because it's always been a good stretch for kestrels and sure enough I spotted one flying in the field. Conveniently it perched up on a light post, Mike got a look at it and we concluded the day on that happy note.

The month starts off with 52 species:

Species                Location

Canada Goose   Bamber Lake

Mute Swan   Sands Point Preserve

Tundra Swan   Bamber Lake

American Black Duck   Barnegat Beach

Greater Scaup   Sands Point Preserve

Long-tailed Duck   Sands Point Preserve

Bufflehead   Sands Point Preserve

Hooded Merganser   Bamber Lake

Red-breasted Merganser   Sands Point Preserve

Wild Turkey   New Egypt

Rock Pigeon   New Egypt

Mourning Dove   Sands Point Preserve

Ring-billed Gull   Sands Point Preserve

Herring Gull   Bamber Lake

Great Black-backed Gull   Sands Point Preserve

Great Blue Heron   Cloverdale Farm

Black Vulture   Pinehurst Rd

Turkey Vulture   Pinehurst Rd

Northern Harrier   Barnegat Municipal Dock

Bald Eagle   Sands Point Preserve

Red-tailed Hawk   New Egypt

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Poplar St boat ramp

Downy Woodpecker   Collinstown Rd

Hairy Woodpecker   New Egypt

Northern Flicker   New Egypt

American Kestrel   W Colliers Mill Rd

Blue Jay   Poplar St boat ramp

American Crow   New Egypt

Fish Crow   New Egypt

Carolina Chickadee   Poplar St boat ramp

Tufted Titmouse   Collinstown Rd

Red-breasted Nuthatch   Collinstown Rd

White-breasted Nuthatch   Cloverdale Farm

Carolina Wren   Collinstown Rd

Eastern Bluebird   Cloverdale Farm

Hermit Thrush   Collinstown Rd

American Robin   Bamber Lake

Northern Mockingbird   Collinstown Rd

European Starling   Barnegat Municipal Dock

House Finch   Collinstown Rd

American Goldfinch   Poplar St boat ramp

Field Sparrow   New Egypt

Fox Sparrow   Collinstown Rd

Dark-eyed Junco   Collinstown Rd

White-throated Sparrow   Poplar St boat ramp

Song Sparrow   Poplar St boat ramp

Red-winged Blackbird   E. Bay Ave

Brown-headed Cowbird   New Egypt Common Grackle  New Egypt

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Poplar St boat ramp

Northern Cardinal   Poplar St boat ramp

House Sparrow   Lower Shore Rd

We missed Mallard! How did we miss Mallard?