Better Pictures of the Orange-crowned Warbler

The Orange-crowned Warbler returned to the suet feeder late this afternoon (or at least I saw it again, late this afternoon) and with the sunlight shining strongly on that part of the backyard, I was able to get much better photos than yesterday's overcast doc shots.

  

Backyard 2/7--Orange-crowned Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler with Eastern Bluebird

Confined to quarters due to the high risk of hypothermia, I spent a chunk of the morning watching the birds at our feeders, glad that yesterday I had the foresight to fill them up and replace the very popular suet cylinder. Lately, nothing new has showed up, but I was kidding around with myself that maybe the fierce winds would blow in something novel. Glancing at the suet cage I saw what I at first took to be a Pine Warbler--hey, something new for the year--but when I looked more closely, I saw that it lacked wing bars and was dull overall--Orange-crowned Warbler! For the past month a neighbor up the street has been reporting Orange-crown Warbler at her feeder on eBird, but, frankly, I didn't take it too seriously, not being really confident in her identification skills. But now the chances of her being correct are obviously a lot higher. Maybe the wild winds did blow the bird downhill to us. 

Orange-crowned Warbler is a new backyard bird for us--#102 in 14 1/2 years. The bird flitted from a nearby cedar tree to the cylinder a few times, spending enough time on the cylinder for me to get some bad photos of it and for Shari to add it her year list. But I'm afraid the warbler couldn't compete with the big bully starlings that are chewing their way through the suet. I haven't seen it since this morning. Still awaiting a Pine Warbler.  (The reason the suet cylinder is orange itself is because it is impregnated with hot chili peppers to discourage squirrels, which make death defying leaps from nearby trees, bypassing our baffles. Squirrels' tongues are burned by the pepper--birds don't have those taste receptors)

Lake of the Lilies | Manasquan Inlet 2/5--Snow Goose, Canvasback, American Coot

Canvasback with gulls

Hey kids, collect them all! That's what it feels like sometimes when you're trying to fill in the gaps in a family, in this case, ducks. Having failed three times at finding Canvasbacks in the Toms River, where they are usually reliable in winter, I drove up to Point Pleasant Beach to Lake of the Lilies, where a few had been reported lately. Unlike most of the ponds around here, there was actually a patch of open water in the middle of the "lake," and I easily found first one, then eventually, three Canvasbacks. Also, diving around this draw of open water were quite a few American Coots, also new for the year, and, unusually, a Long-tailed Duck, more of a sea duck than a pond duck, and the first I've ever seen at this spot. Ruddy Ducks, Lesser Scaup, and Red-breasted Mergansers filled out the waterfowl in the water, while on the fecal besmirched ice, geese and gulls rested. 

Long-tailed Duck

A quick stop at frozen Little Silver Lake yield almost nothing--a few Mallards from underneath the sluice grating where the only open water was and a Great Blue Heron standing in the reeds. I drove up to Manasquan Inlet with some trepidation--I didn't know how icy the beach was going to be and I didn't relish climbing up slippery rocks to get to the jetty.  When I saw some photographers hesitating to make the trek to the jetty, I walked, instead, along the boardwalk in front of the condos to the end and saw that I could get a view of the inlet just as good, if not better than from the rocks, so I doubled back to the car and got my scope. All the ducks in the water were expected, though I was happy to find a Razorbill floating just off the mouth of the inlet. I got back in the car after about a half hour of scoping (which is about my limit) and drove to the parking lot at the "back" of the inlet, hoping to find an unusual gull. I didn't, but to my surprise I found a species completely unexpected (by me) when I was walking toward Loughran Point--a big flock of Snow Geese took off from the Baltimore Avenue vicinity. I counted 30 in the air before the flock disappeared behind some buildings. You can sort of see Baltimore Avenue's patch of water from the very end of the parking lot, but the geese didn't land there. I had seen a report a couple of weeks ago that someone had Snow Geese there, but it seemed too quirky to go in search of them. I have never seen Snow Geese at Manasquan Inlet; a patch bird if I was serious about the patch.  Over by Baltimore Avenue I could see lots of ducks, including a White-winged Scoter which this year has been an easy duck for me to find, unlike most years. 

I made a final stop at Gull Island Park--I still need Horned Grebe for the year (!), but there were none to be found there--only more of the same of what I'd already seen, plus a black duck. 

For the day 28 species:

Species            Location
Snow Goose   Manasquan Inlet
Brant   Manasquan Inlet
Canada Goose   Lake of the Lilies
Mallard   Little Silver Lake
Canvasback   Lake of the Lilies
Greater Scaup   Manasquan Inlet
Lesser Scaup   Lake of the Lilies
Surf Scoter   Manasquan Inlet
White-winged Scoter   Manasquan Inlet
Black Scoter   Manasquan Inlet
Long-tailed Duck   Lake of the Lilies
Bufflehead   Manasquan Inlet
Red-breasted Merganser   Lake of the Lilies
Ruddy Duck   Lake of the Lilies
Mourning Dove   Lake of the Lilies
American Coot   Lake of the Lilies
Razorbill   Manasquan Inlet
Ring-billed Gull   Lake of the Lilies
American Herring Gull   Lake of the Lilies
Great Black-backed Gull   Lake of the Lilies
Red-throated Loon   Manasquan Inlet
Common Loon   Manasquan Inlet
Great Blue Heron   Little Silver Lake
Blue Jay   Lake of the Lilies
House Sparrow   Lake of the Lilies
House Finch   Lake of the Lilies
Red-winged Blackbird   Lake of the Lilies
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Lake of the Lilies

Barnegat Lighthouse SP 2/3--Common Eider, Ruddy Turnstone, Red-necked Grebe

Red-necked Grebe

Talk about your Frozen Wastes. This morning, having determined yesterday that there is nothing by icy paths and roads at all my usual spots, I tried Barnegat Lighthouse SP, figuring that the beach would clear of snow from wind and waves. The temperature was a balmy 27 degrees when I got there and the view from the concrete walkway showed I was partially right in my assumption. Not that that there weren't some slippery slidey parts of the walkway itself. Scoping out over the inlet, I saw mostly Red-breasted Mergansers and Common Loons. If I wanted to see anything new for the year, I was going to have to make my way out to the ocean, I thought. I was weighing my adventurous potential on the way back toward the lighthouse, reminding myself that slush was safer to walk on than what might be hidden beneath snow, when I turned to my right just at the entrance and saw a bird I hadn't seen all of last year. With its long, yellow, dagger-like beak and bulky body, there was no mistaking a Red-necked Grebe. The question was, with three pairs of gloves on would I be able to extricate my camera from my bag and would if I could, would I be able to take photos before the bird dove or disappeared. The answer was obviously "yes" but it wasn't easy especially considering that the outer pair of gloves were actually mittens. I may as well have been wearing boxing gloves. 

Ruddy Turnstones

But the sight of the grebe reinvigorated me and, after eschewing the ice-caked steps down to the beach and taking another path instead, I made my way across the permafrost to the inland pond which was almost completely frozen. Some of the walking was fine, frozen sand, and some of the walking was on and occasionally through 6 or 7 inches of ice and snow. When I finally made my way out to the ocean I was rewarded with the sight of 7 Common Eiders, new for the year, along with lots of Great Cormorants on the jetty and far out along the rocks 4 Harlequin Ducks. Scanning along the jetty (which was totally inaccessible) looking for Purple Sandpipers, I came across some sleeping Ruddy Turnstones another bird that has avoided me this year. A couple of big flocks of Dunlins flew onto the jetty and in the second one I managed to find the Purple Sandpiper scattered through the flock. 

Now, I only needed one more species to make the trek more or less a success. I turned off the beach and walked through what in the summer would be the pond's mud flats, looking for land birds of which there were none. Back up on the slope overlooking the pond, I found a few more new species for the day, including a couple of Black-bellied Plovers and then, out of nowhere, the birds I was hoping for--Snow Buntings--flew over my shoulder and practically landed on my toes before moving along in front of me. While I had Snow Bunting for the year, up at Sandy Hook, I hadn't come across them yet in county.

For the morning's efforts 36 species, which is way more than I've been getting in the frozen parks and bogs. They were:

Brant  5
Canada Goose  10
American Wigeon  1     Inlet!
Mallard  10
American Black Duck  40
Greater Scaup  2
Common Eider  7
Harlequin Duck  4
Surf Scoter  2
White-winged Scoter  3
Black Scoter  25
Long-tailed Duck  50
Bufflehead  15
Red-breasted Merganser  100
Black-bellied Plover  2
Ruddy Turnstone  11
Sanderling  6
Dunlin  125
Purple Sandpiper  13
American Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  30
Red-necked Grebe  1
Great Cormorant  30     Many. Probably more
Double-crested Cormorant  10
Great Blue Heron  1
Bald Eagle  1     Flew over inlet toward IBSP
American Crow  1
Horned Lark  1     Pool
European Starling  15
American Robin  25
House Sparrow  1
Snow Bunting  20     Pool
Savannah Sparrow  1
Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich)  2
Song Sparrow  6
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  1

January Wrap-up

Greater White-Fronted Goose

It's winter in New Jersey; it's supposed to be cold. But I don't remember a stretch a sub-freezing weather lasting this long--over a week--where the mid-20's might be the high for the day. And with no temperatures above 32 that leaves the 9 or so inches of ice-covered snow still on the ground. Which really cuts down on the places one can bird, since paths through woods or fields don't usually get ploughed. I went to Whitesbog this week to check out what was accessible, since it is part of my territory for the Pinelands Winter Bird Count which was scheduled for tomorrow. Happily, that got postponed, since only a very small portion of Whitesbog was clear enough to walk. The conditions around here are so bad that I can't even get to our feeders because the backyard is like an ice rink and as much as I love birds, I'm not going to break a leg for them. 

So, with those lousy conditions at the end of the month, how did I do? 105 species. Exactly the same as last January, which was, according to Jersey Central Power & Light, actually 2 degrees colder on average than this month. It was a good month for the rare geese--Cackling Goose, Ross's Goose, and the Greater White-fronted Geese Mike & I found on the CBC. I got the immature Trumpeter Swan on the year and county list before it disappeared from Stafford Forge. The early herons at the Lighthouse Center were the last new birds I listed for the month before the deep freeze set in. 

But, you know me: Always the optimist, always the one looking for the positive aspect of any situation and here's the good news about the relentlessly bitter weather: It will keep the tick population down this summer because even now the inner fluids of those little bastards are freezing beneath the snow and they are exploding from the internal pressure. Thus, the happy consequence of this weather: Death.

Species              First Sighting
Ross's Goose   Maris Stella
Greater White-fronted Goose   Ocean Acres Park
Brant   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Cackling Goose   Marshall's Pond
Canada Goose   Sandy Hook
Mute Swan   Holly Lake
Trumpeter Swan   Stafford Forge WMA
Tundra Swan   Bamber Lake
Northern Shoveler   Marshall's Pond
Gadwall   Marshall's Pond
American Wigeon   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Mallard   Sandy Hook
American Black Duck   Sandy Hook
Green-winged Teal   Ocean Acres Pond
Ring-necked Duck   Stanley H. 'Tip' Seaman County Park
Greater Scaup   Sandy Hook
Lesser Scaup   Lake Carasaljo
Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Surf Scoter   Sandy Hook
White-winged Scoter   Sandy Hook
Black Scoter   Sandy Hook
Long-tailed Duck   Sandy Hook
Bufflehead   Sandy Hook
Common Goldeneye   Sandy Hook
Hooded Merganser   Bridge to Nowhere
Common Merganser   Lake Carasaljo
Red-breasted Merganser   Sandy Hook
Ruddy Duck   Cattus Island County Park
Rock Pigeon   Wawa South Toms River
Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd
Black-bellied Plover   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Killdeer   Ocean Acres Park
Greater Yellowlegs   Eno’s Pond
Sanderling   Sandy Hook
Dunlin   Holgate
Purple Sandpiper   Seven Presidents Park
Razorbill   Island Beach SP
Ring-billed Gull   35 Sunset Rd
American Herring Gull   Sandy Hook
Great Black-backed Gull   Sandy Hook
Pied-billed Grebe   Lake Carasaljo
Red-throated Loon   Island Beach SP
Common Loon   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant   Sandy Hook
Little Blue Heron   Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education
Tricolored Heron   Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education
Great Egret   West Creek Dock Rd.
Great Blue Heron   Holly Lake
Black Vulture   Manahawkin
Turkey Vulture   Stafford Township
Sharp-shinned Hawk   Stafford Township
Cooper's Hawk   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Northern Harrier   Bridge to Nowhere
Bald Eagle   Stanley H. 'Tip' Seaman County Park
Red-shouldered Hawk   Butterfly Bogs WMA
Red-tailed Hawk   Colliers Mills WMA
Eastern Screech-Owl   Beach Ave
Great Horned Owl   Beach Ave
Belted Kingfisher   Manahawkin WMA
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Stanley H. 'Tip' Seaman County Park
Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker   Sandy Hook
Downy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Hairy Woodpecker   Beach Ave
Northern Flicker   Beach Ave
Merlin   Cranberry Bogs
Blue Jay   35 Sunset Rd
American Crow   35 Sunset Rd
Fish Crow   Mud City
Common Raven   Stanley H. 'Tip' Seaman County Park
Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd
Black-capped Chickadee   Sandy Hook
Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd
Horned Lark   Sandy Hook
Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Manahawkin WMA
Golden-crowned Kinglet   Manahawkin WMA
White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd
Red-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd
Brown Creeper   Colliers Mills WMA
Carolina Wren   35 Sunset Rd
European Starling   Stanley H. 'Tip' Seaman County Park
Northern Mockingbird   Sandy Hook
Eastern Bluebird   35 Sunset Rd
Hermit Thrush   Stanley H. 'Tip' Seaman County Park
American Robin   35 Sunset Rd
House Sparrow   Holly Lake
House Finch   35 Sunset Rd
Red Crossbill   Whitesbog
American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd
Lapland Longspur   Sandy Hook
Snow Bunting   Sandy Hook
Chipping Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA
Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd
White-throated Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd
Savannah Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow   Stanley H. 'Tip' Seaman County Park
Swamp Sparrow   Beach Ave
Red-winged Blackbird   Manahawkin WMA
Brown-headed Cowbird   Little Egg Harbor Twp
Rusty Blackbird   Manahawkin WMA
Common Grackle   Cattus Island County Park
Boat-tailed Grackle   West Creek Dock Rd.
Yellow-rumped Warbler   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Lighthouse Center 1/23--Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron

Little Blue Heron

 I had never been to the Lighthouse Center in the winter, but since I was in the neighborhood this morning, I swung by there. I know from the Barnegat CBC that it can be a productive spot and with the two over-wintering rarities that I found there, it turned out to be so. 

Tricolored Herons are turning up more frequently in winter and in more places in the county than in previous years. It used to be that you'd be able to find one on LBI in the marshes off Bayview Avenue, but this year there are confirmed reports from Island Beach SP, Manahawkin, and the Lighthouse Center as well as LBI. Today, the tide was very low, so I was able to walk around a point and up a little creek that empties into the bay. About 100 yards into the marsh, I saw four Great Egrets and with them, two Tricolored Herons. Great Egrets do hang around in small numbers, but four, to eBird is apparently not a small number. I tried to very surreptitiously creep up a little closer, getting behind a stand of phragmites while I dug my camera out of my bag, but I wasn't sneaky enough since all six birds flew off. As I stood on the bank of the creek cursing, I saw one more white heron way out in the marsh. I took a couple of shots of what I though was one of the egrets since I already had my camera out. However, when I looked at the bird blown up in the viewfinder, I saw that it had a gray/blue beak and realized that it was an immature Little Blue Heron hunkered down in the reeds. It's a crappy shot, but it's all I got. 

I walked around some and then returned to the creek, hoping that the birds would have returned. I looked out in the marsh where I had previously seen them and they weren't there. But much closer, standing in the creek, was one of the Tricoloreds, which promptly flew away as soon as I reached for my camera. More cursing. 

In a few months, these two herons won't be rare. It hasn't been an especially warm winter, but the marshes freeze at a little lower temperature than the freshwater ponds, so there has been food for them to find. With the oncoming storm and absolutely frigid temperatures for the next few days, it will be interesting to see if they stick around. 

27 species
Brant  40
Canada Goose  7
Mute Swan  8
American Black Duck  7
Greater Scaup  20
Long-tailed Duck  2
Bufflehead  50
Red-breasted Merganser  8
Mourning Dove  3
Killdeer  4
American Herring Gull  5
Common Loon  1
Little Blue Heron  1     
Tricolored Heron  2     
Great Egret  4     
Great Blue Heron  1
Northern Harrier  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Northern Flicker  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  1
Tufted Titmouse  1
American Robin  50
House Finch  1
Song Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  2
Yellow-rumped Warbler  3

Marshall's Pond 1/15--Cackling Goose

I don't like puzzles. When I see someone doing a jigsaw puzzle, my eyes glaze over. I'm not interested in finding the six differences between two seemingly identical pictures. I don't care where Waldo is. 

So when Steve texted me this afternoon that the Cackling Goose was back at Marshall's Pond, I was almost glad that I was stuck in the house waiting for a repairman to show up, because looking for a cackler in a spread-out flock of 300 Canada Geese is not an easy puzzle to solve. 

Back in December I ran over to the same pond to get a Cackling Goose, but whether this is the same one or another (there may even be two, judging from one of my photos where a second small goose seems to be photobombing me), who knows. My friend Bob Auster claims that if you look at any large flock of Canada Geese, you'll probably find a Cackler. Where's Waldo? Maybe he's there and maybe he isn't. 

Goose the size of a Mallard

But a couple of hours later, I was free to go and since I already had the rarer Greater White-fronted Goose and Ross's Goose on the year list, I figured it was worth a drive into Toms River. Marshall's Pond isn't all that large and the geese tend to congregate in its western section, so they're fairly close to the edge of the water and Steve had given me a landmark where he had last seen the bird but even with all those advantages, it still took me over 20 minutes to finally locate the cackler in the honking, ever-shifting flock of Canada Geese. It was a Mallard that helped me. In the middle of the flock the duck was floating around and right next to it was a goose no bigger than it--and then I saw the stubby bill and the short neck and knew I had the cackler, but if it hadn't been next to the duck, I'd probably never have found it, because all the geese are in different positions, sometimes stretching their necks, sometimes hunkering down, sometimes scooping water, sometimes having their heads tucked into their wings. But a goose the size of a duck? Puzzle solved. 

Red-shouldered Hawk

The other cool bird of the day came in the morning when I was knocking around Jackson. After a couple of unexciting walks through some local spots there, I drove over to Butterfly Bogs where there are usually a lot of ducks--I was hoping for something new but I all I saw were the expected species--lots of them, but nothing new. I went back to the car and as I was opening up the hatch I turned to my right and saw, low in a tree not 15 feet away from me, a Red-shouldered Hawk, apparently oblivious to my presence. I quietly put my scope in the back of the car, got my camera off my shoulder and took some photos of a bird I more often hear ("keer, keer, keer") than see, and certainly have never seen this close. Not a rarity, but a nice little exclamation point on an otherwise dull morning.