Pinelands Winter Bird Census

Mute Swans (sigh) on Union Pond

This is the sixth year of the Pinelands Winter Bird Census which Jim Schill organizes since great swaths of the Pinelands (Barrens) lie outside any Christmas Count Circles, so this is our alternative count. As usual, I started the birding early, 4:53 AM in Whitesbog Village listening for owls. For the first time I got both Great Horned Owl and Eastern Screech Owl. I have in the past heard one or the other (or neither) but never both. Two Great Horned Owls to boot. 

The funny thing about the owls is that I heard each one in the place where I would expect to hear the other. After failing in the village, I drove out onto the bogs to the double-laned road where in the past I've heard (and seen) Great Horned Owl. Before I could even play the call, I heard the screech owl. Now, since the double-laned road is the borderline between Ocean and Burlington Counties, after notching the owl for Burlington, I walked about 100 feet to the east and listed it for Ocean too. I actually have no idea which county the bird was in and since eBird's silly rules make it a survey of where your feet are, not where the bird truly is, it counts as a 2 for 1. 

Whitesbog Dawn

I drove back into the Village and in the parking lot heard the hooting of the Great Horned. I then walked back to the Lower Meadow where I have been told on good authority that screech is often heard. So, naturally, I heard another Great Horned. By this time the sky was lightening up, though it was still a half hour before dawn. I walked around the meadow which leads to the entrance road and before going out onto the bogs again, checked the feeders: The usual tweety birds. 

Driving on the bogs in the dark, I had had a bad feeling. Yesterday, when I was scouting, the water was 95% "stiff" but I did see a decent number of Tundra Swans on the Lower Bog, resting on the ice. But driving by in the dark, I didn't hear any swans and my flashlight showed only an unbroken sheet of ice. Since one of the main targets of the census is Tundra Swans and since Whitesbog has always been a prime location for the species, this wasn't a good sign. 

Out on the bogs at dawn I saw two swans with their heads tucked in on Union Pond and the bad feeling got worse because, though I didn't see them yesterday, I could tell just from the pointy tails that those were Mute Swans--scarce in the county but not what you want to see if you want to see other waterfowl. And nary a Tundra Swan on any of the bogs, nor were there any when I drove into the Ocean County side and checked out the Upper Reservoir. The first time in 6 years I've gotten skunked on the species. 

Although the sunrise was pretty, as I've often noticed, almost immediately after a picturesque dawn, the skies clouded up, a precursor to the Nor'easter that was on its way and promised to make the afternoon a snowy one. 

While the temperatures were below freezing, the lack of wind made the walking bearable, but the birds just were not in evidence. Most of the passerines I saw were in the Village. When I walked the old blueberry fields along the entrance road, I was happy to see a Northern Harrier, but the hunting hawk probably killed any chance I had of finding sparrows in what is usually a very productive area. 

I saw more waterfowl at Country Lake Estates, where the lake was 100% frozen, but along the far shore Canada Geese, Mallards, and American Black Ducks huddled, along with 5 Swan Geese which I couldn't count.  

My last stop was Whitesbog Road, a dirt road that runs from 530 to 70. By this time it was snowing, lightly at first, but by the time I approached 70 it was really swirling around. I did come across a feeding flock of chickadees with a Red-breasted Nuthatch joining them and had my only gull of a day, a flyover Herring Gull. By then I'd been at it almost 9 hours, had walked 9.9 miles and driven another 5 or so and I could tell it was going to be diminishing (or no) returns from here on in. 

I ended the day with a paltry 27 species. I guess the birds sensed the storm coming and hunkered down. Birds are smarter than we are. 

76 Canada Goose
2 Mute Swan
37 Mallard
2 American Black Duck
1 Mourning Dove
1 Herring Gull
1 Turkey Vulture
1 Northern Harrier
2 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Eastern Screech-Owl
2 Great Horned Owl
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 Downy Woodpecker
4 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
6 American Crow
10 Carolina Chickadee
4 Tufted Titmouse
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
2 Red-breasted Nuthatch
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
5 Carolina Wren
7 American Robin
20 Dark-eyed Junco
2 White-throated Sparrow
10 Song Sparrow
7 Northern Cardinal

Meadowedge Park 1/23--Cackling Goose

The weather, as often happens in the winter, defeated me this morning. I drove down to Franklin Parker Preserve, my goals two-fold: Get another, better, look at the shrike and get a better handle on the geography of that eastern section. I accomplished the latter. I knew the weather was supposed to cold and windy today, so I thought going inland would at least mitigate the windy aspect of the forecast. Wrong. Gusts of 30 mph were blowing on the bogs and after walking all the way out to pumphouse 18 and almost out to pumphouse 19 the wind was just too much for me. When I saw an eagle blown vertical by the wind I knew I didn't care enough about seeing the bird again to search in the biting wind. A 2.7 mile round trip for a couple of eagles and a Hermit Thrush. Despite two pairs of gloves, it took miles of driving with the heat blasting before my fingers thawed. 

Have I mentioned that I hate winter? 

Later in the afternoon I saw that Meadowedge Park, in Barnegat, once again was hosting a Cackling Goose. Since Meadowedge isn't much bigger than a lot of backyards, I figured it would be a quick, binary search--there/not there. When I got to the park, I saw that almost all the geese were in the pond. Looking for a Cackling Goose in a flock of Canada Geese is like solving a puzzle. Thousands of geese and it's sheer luck if you find one. 175 geese and all you need to solve the puzzle is a little patience. Even I can look at every goose in a flock of that size, especially when they don't especially care that you're fairly close to them. 

Cackling Goose in the hexagon

I went through the flock once and came up with nothing. Halfway through my second scan I saw one goose bite another on the ass--the one with the bitten butt was the Cackler. Two-thirds the size of the biter and with a stubby little beak that didn't offer much fight back. Then the flock played 175 goose monte and I lost it. Now the game was, could I find it again. Yes, I could after a bit and then the game was could I, with no camera, manage at least a bad picture with my phone. Again it was in the affirmative, though I had to take off the glove on one hand, which almost instantly lost circulation in the wind, which, of course, being near the water, was ferocious. 

Still, at least I can count one mini-accomplishment for the day. Two, if you count avoiding frost-bite. 

Brig 1/22--American White Pelican.

American White Pelican

Today, as the sportscasters like to say, I "flipped the script" at Brig. Usually, I get there early, walk down to the Gull Pond, then either walk back and bird the upland area or else walk on the drive up to maybe Marker 4, before I drive the loop. But instead, today I just drove 3/4 of the way around the dikes to Marker 15, got out of the car, plunked down my scope and scanned the distant phragmites. 

Stubbornness. Persistence. Stick-to-itiveness.  Just to see if I can. That's what impelled me this morning. I just wanted to get that damned American White Pelican on the list. There is a fine line between stubbornness and irrationality. I have erased that line. But, after a few minutes scanning back and forth I finally found the silly bird, half-hidden in the reeds. Hard for a big bird like that to hide, but, just for the record, on my 2nd trip around this afternoon,  I couldn't find the bird again, so I made the right choice to drive first and walk later. The pictures I took are bad, but they are indicative of the kind of looks I was getting. 

After that, I drove down to Jen's Trail, parked, and walked the last 2 miles of the drive and back, finding whatever passerines would brave the wind, mostly bluebirds and sparrows. I made a second trip around, more slowly than the first and saw impressive numbers of waterfowl, especially Snow Geese which were swirling around in huge flocks, like a murmuration of starlings. There were also a few big flocks of Dunlins. A more patient birder would have scoped every one of them, looking for a Western Sandpiper or something even more exotic like a wayward stint, but I am not that birder, especially since the wind, which was mild in the morning, started gusting to car shaking speeds. 

The one bird I was most surprised, and happy, to see, was a Great Egret around Marker 4, not rare, but my first one of the year. I would have taken a picture of it but today was the day my camera officially died, having been dropped one too many times by both Shari & me.

My list for the day is slightly smaller than it might normally be but that's the result of obsessing on one bird instead of just birding. 

They were:

47 species

Snow Goose  5000

Brant  150

Canada Goose  200

Mute Swan  3

Northern Shoveler  65

Gadwall  85

Mallard  30

American Black Duck  200

Northern Pintail  85

Green-winged Teal  220

Canvasback  33     Marker 15

Ring-necked Duck  19

Greater Scaup  200     Turtle Cove

Bufflehead  15

Hooded Merganser  10

Common Merganser  10

Mourning Dove  1

Dunlin  1150

Long-billed Dowitcher  7     Continuing at Gull Pond

Greater Yellowlegs  17     Gull pond & dogleg

Ring-billed Gull  100

Herring Gull  45

Great Black-backed Gull  1

American White Pelican  1     Continuing at marker 15

Great Blue Heron  6

Great Egret  1     Marker 4

Turkey Vulture  2

Northern Harrier  1

Bald Eagle  8

Belted Kingfisher  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     Heard

Downy Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  2

Blue Jay  10

American Crow  6

Carolina Chickadee  5     Heard

Tufted Titmouse  2

Winter Wren  1     Heard exit ponds

Carolina Wren  8

European Starling  8

Eastern Bluebird  10

American Robin  10

American Goldfinch  2

Field Sparrow  2     Upland fields near overlook

White-throated Sparrow  2

Song Sparrow  5

Northern Cardinal  2     Jen's Trail 

Immature Bald Eagle

Franklin Parker Preserve 1/20--Northern Shrike

 I don't get it. Yesterday, I met Mike at the Speedwell Entrance to Franklin Parker Preserve. I've been there plenty of times, but yesterday we were searching an area across the road that I'd never been to, so we were feeling our way in, looking at maps and instructions that previous birders had posted, all in the hopes of finding the latest rarity. When we got to the spot that seemed to match maps & text, I started to scan the tree line without much confidence, but I know that sinking feeling is often a prelude to success. And after a few minutes, I found the Northern Shrike we had come for, far out over the other side of the bog, sitting atop a cedar tree. I got Mike on it, the bird moved to a leafless tree for a moment, then disappeared. Not as exciting as finding the Dovekies this month, but I was impressed I found this little bird in that big area. And that's what I don't get...I can find some relatively nondescript black and gray bird without much effort other than the walk in, but later, when I drove to Pemberton for the umpty-umpth time to search for Sandhill Cranes that have been in the area for a month, I once again had no luck, and twice this year I've gone to Brig, parked at Marker 15, and still haven't found the huge American White Pelican that has been reported there everyday this year (I did see it a couple of times last year). 

So what gives? It isn't skill I'm missing. It doesn't take much skill to find 3 birds that stand 4 feet tall or a gigantic white one. Sometimes I'm diffident about chasing a bird, but I've gone after these two species numerous times, so I can't blame my laziness. So what gives is...find a bird, luck, miss a bird, luck. And try again tomorrow either way. 

Silver Lake1/16--Eurasian Wigeon

Every year a Eurasian Wigeon makes an appearance in Belmar and every year I go up there to find it. The last few years it (though who knows if it is the same bird every year) it has been a little difficult to get a look at since you either had to set up a scope in the parking lot of a gas station and look into a cove in the river, or else find just the right angle in MacLearie Park and stand on one foot and tilt you head your head just so to find the bird.

This year was supposedly easier, as the bird was being seen in Silver Lake one of the artificial ponds that dot the North Shore from Long Branch down to Point Pleasant Beach. But late in December I missed it and last week when I went up there the water was "stiff," and today when I got there I didn't see many birds on the water either. What I did see were hundreds of geese, both Canada and Brant, feeding on the grass around the lake. Wigeons are one of the few ducks that will also graze a lawn so I walked toward a big flock of geese, swerving into the street so as not to scare them all away. Not that they seemed to care that much, they're all pretty use to humans walking around. And after a bit, a few geese moved and there, almost at my feet was the drake Eurasian Wigeon, along with a few American cousins. It is such a pretty duck that it's worth the trip and the effort to find it.

I have a long history of unsuccessful attempts to find a Eurasian Wigeon before actually getting one. Our life EUWI was at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge when we lived in Brooklyn. I don't know how many trips we made there seeking one out after seeing it reported on the rare bird listserv (which shows how long ago this was) that we subscribed to. 

Jamaica Bay, being one of the most famous refuges in the country and being in NYC, attracts birders from all over the world. I remember that Patrick O'Brian, the author of the Aubrey/Maturin series of naval thrillers set during the Napoleonic Wars and also an enthusiastic British birder, said that JBWR was one of his favorite places to have birded.  

One day when Shari & I had gone again to find the wigeon, a birder from Australia stopped me and asked me if I could confirm an ID of a Little Blue Heron. Sort of in a rush and sort of feeling snotty, I looked in his scope, saw the bird and said, "Well, it's little, it's blue, it's a heron...it's a Little Blue Heron." 

He didn't care how snarky I was, it was a life bird for him. Then I told him I had to rush because there was a Eurasian Wigeon on the other side of the pond and it was my "White Whale." 

He replied (and imagine a thick 'stralian accent), "You mean, your Moby Duck." 

Touché

(We got the bird that day.) 

Island Beach SP 1/12--DOVEKIE, Razorbill, Little Blue Heron

DOVEKIE (left) with Common Loon
Photo © Steve Weiss

It had been a long time since I got a life bird, stretching all the way back to the end of 2019. Today, after spending a desultory few hours at Island Beach SP, I came home a little discouraged, even though I'd seen a couple of "good" birds on the Spizzle Creek Trail. I was just feeling unmotivated to bird hard; winter weariness I suppose. I'd seen yesterday that up in Monmouth County rare alcids had been seen from shore but I didn't think it was worth a trip this morning to hope for flybys. Then, looking at the eBird alerts I saw that they again were being seen and this time in the water. 

I texted Steve, because I thought he might be up there. His text said he had them in the water, but a scope would be helpful. Even though I didn't really feel like driving all the way up to Deal, I finally said to myself, there aren't going to many times you're going to get the chance to see this lifer from shore. And Larry don't do pelagics. 

Steve texted, asking if I was Island Beach and I told him I was coming from home. He said he'd wait. I thought that was awfully nice, considering that I was probably 50 minutes away. Thank you technology. As I got on the parkway, I got a text from Steve (through the car radio) that he was between A12 & A13. ??? Wait! He's at Island Beach, I realized. I turned off the next exit, thankfully the one I'd use anyway, and headed back to the park. A few more minutes and I would have been going a lot longer distance for a more distant sighting. 

Another text directed me to come up the A11 path; the birds were drifting. I didn't exactly obey the speed limits in the park and arrived at A11 just as D was heading up the path with her scope. I hustled up the sandy path through the dunes. Ever run in deep sand? It's hard. I don't usually gasp when I'm birding. Still, I found Steve and D immediately and set up my scope and after a few minutes D got a DOVEKIE in her scope and I saw the little football-shaped alcid. Then, to make it official, I got it in my scope. And another, behind a Razorbill, which gave a great comparison. Next to a Dovekie, a Razorbill looks gigantic. 

It is exceedingly rare to find one Dovekie from shore. It is, as far as I know, unheard of to see multiple Dovekies from shore, but that's what we had. I counted, conservatively, three, and I know that Steve had around six! Hard to count birds that are constantly diving and popping up a hundred yards away, so I use the hawk counting method that I once read about. As many Dovekies, or Razorbills that I could see in one scan was the number I used. So it was four Razorbills for me; Steve listed 15 in his travels up and down the beach. But, as I always say, probably to the point of tedium with anyone I bird with, "I only need one." 

And so, suddenly, the invigoration I've been waiting to kick in since the year started has finally arrived. To get a life bird after more than year was great. To get a life bird I was convinced I'd never see because of my refusal to go to sea, had me literally jumping up and down on the beach, so exciting was the sighting. 

Little Blue Heron

Earlier in the day, on Spizzle Creek, I added to more herons to the list. One was a brief look at a flying American Bittern, a big bird that is hard to find. It's the second time I've seen one at Spizzle Creek, just lucky I guess. And, as I searched to see if I could find where the bittern landed, I found in the marsh one of the two immature Little Blue Herons that Steve had earlier reported. Again, I only need one. Little Blue Heron in winter is rare, but, in a few months, they'll be all over the place. 

But the Dovekies? As Steve put in his eBird notes, that may be a once in a lifetime experience. 

Shark River Inlet | Manasquan Inlet 1/11--Purple Sandpiper, Black-headed Gull, etc.

Despite despising winter, I had a decent day birding two inlets. My original plan was to drive up Silver Lake in Belmar and get the Eurasian Wigeon reported there. Eurasian Wigeons are annual rarities up there, but this one was in a more accessible location than the usual spot on the Shark River where you have to find the right angle and stand on one foot and tilt your scope just so to find it. A nice, open lake with no obstructions. And no waterfowl this morning because it is winter and really cold and the lake was frozen. 

Purple Sandpiper

At least the Shark River Inlet was only a couple of blocks north, so I went there hoping for some ducks, or snow buntings, or winter finches. But the new bird for the year was one I wasn't thinking about, Purple Sandpiper. Usually I figure I'll get them at Barnegat Light, where they're ubiquitous in winter, but of course, any old jetty will do and there they were, mixed in with the Sanderlings. I also saw, across the way, a couple of Lesser Black-back Gulls roosting with a large flock of Herring Gulls. Not a rarity by any means, but good to find on my own.

From there I drove down to Lake Como, which, for some reason, had more open water and more waterfowl. I thought maybe the Eurasian Wigeon would have moved down there (it's only about a mile) but I only found, along with the Mallards, Ruddy Ducks, and Hooded Mergansers, two Pied-billed Grebes and a dozen American Coots, as new year birds.  I circumambulated the lake (hi Ellen!) and at found that it is 1.2 miles around. 

Now came the obligatory birding part of the day. Almost all winter I have been avoiding going to the Manasquan Inlet because I generally don't like standing on a jetty in winter winds sea watching. I like to move around, but having moved around, and being only a few miles away, I figured I may as well go down there and try to get the two rarities that I have avoided going to get. 

Black-headed Gull

I pulled into the parking lot of the inlet and looked around not seeing much worth even starting a list for. Along the seawall were Herring Gull, Ring-bill Gull, Ring-bill Gull, Ring Bull, oh, Black-headed Gull! That was easy. And I started a list.

On the first day of the year up at Sandy Hook, one of our group found a young drake King Eider which we all got on and I was happy to get that rarity on the year list so fast. "That bird is dead to me now," I said, with the caveat, "except in Ocean County." An oxymoronic hen King Eider has been an habitué of the inlet for just about as long as the Black-headed Gull but I couldn't find it from that spot. I drove over to another parking lot and eschewing the scope, walked out to the jetty, figuring that if the eider was in the inlet, I wouldn't need more powerful optics than my binoculars. And as soon as I got onto the jetty, I found the duck, across the way. Too far at first for photos, the duck eventually drifted out almost to the end of the jetty and on my side. One could think of the hen King Eider as the Mona Lisa of ducks with its sly grin being a prominent field mark. 

King Eider

Finally, as long as I was in the neighborhood, I drove down to Lake of the Lilies, usually a great waterfowl spot in the winter but again, today, mostly frozen. All I saw were geese and gulls and a few random ducks of little interest. I wasn't even going to make a list until I got back to my car and looked in the short end of the "L" shaped lake and found 24 American Coots swimming in open water. Since I "needed" coots for the county, I relented a made a list. 

American Coots

The temperature was peeking above freezing but I'd "accomplished" enough for one day and headed home, only to find, that, with the thaw, more ice must have melted on Silver Lake because around 1 PM, the Eurasian Wigeon was sighted. Well, the compensation with winter birds is that you get two shots at them--if you miss them in the first 3 months of the year, there's always the 2nd chance at the end.