Pemberton Lake | PPA | BC Fairgrounds 2/15--Wood Duck, Northern Pintail, American Kestrel, White-crowned Sparrow

American Kestrel
BC Fairgrounds

A Sunday morning in Burlco. I very often spend Sunday mornings at Reeve's Bogs, but since the great freeze over of 2026, that place is pretty much inaccessible, so I decided to try some Burlco spots that were yielding interesting reports. 

I started off at Pemberton Lake. No surprise that it was 75% frozen, but there was open water in the back and with my scope I was able to find a few ducks among the 100 or so Canada Geese. The first year bird for the day was a drake Wood Duck--it had been so long since I had seen one and it was so distant, that it took a moment for me to realize what I had in the scope. Next in view was a gorgeous drake Redhead, rare in county, and then the expected Mallards and a couple of Ring-necked Ducks. I ended my sweep when I got to a Bald Eagle on the ice, chowing down on a goose carcass. Swinging back, I came across a couple of Northern Pintails dabbling and a hen Lesser Scaup, fairly unusual for that spot. 

Then I drove over to the PPA--technically now the Pinelands Alliance Headquarters since they recently changed the name of the organization--where the walking was a little difficult, but where I found what I was looking for--a White-crowned Sparrow right in the brush where I parked the car. I tried for pictures, but the camera focused on the twigs the bird was behind. I also enjoyed a huge flock of Snow Geese that flew overhead--at least 150. 

Then it was on to the BC Fairgrounds. After not finding a Rough-legged Hawk 3 times in Ocean County, I thought maybe I would bump into the one reported there yesterday. But if not, I was fairly confident that I would see an American Kestrel there and I was right--after parking the car, I plunked down the scope, focused on the weather station at the back of the field, and there midway up the tower was the kestrel. That's a lot easier than cruising the roads of New Egypt, looking for one, which is what I spent part of yesterday morning doing. 

I scanned every stand of trees in the field and could not come up with the desired buteo. I took a long walk around the grounds, found one Northern Harrier and some usual land birds and when I returned to the car, about 45 minutes later, I saw a small bird in one of the trees. I thought the kestrel had moved. I got out the scope again and the small bird had turned into a large hawk. Could this be the rough-legged? It was really distant and the light was murky (as you can see from the picture of the kestrel) and I went back and forth on the identification, leaving it open until I got home where I could blow up the crappy photos I took.  I have been fooled more than once by a Red-tailed Hawk there when I wanted a rough-legged and today was the same story. And the small bird? My photos revealed that it had been a Norther Flicker that had to make way for the red-tail when the hawk decided that of all the branches in those woods, the branch the flicker was on was the one it wanted.

29 Species for the day.

Species           Location

Snow Goose    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Canada Goose    Pemberton Lake WMA

Wood Duck    Pemberton Lake WMA

Mallard    Pemberton Lake WMA

Northern Pintail    Pemberton Lake WMA

Redhead    Pemberton Lake WMA

Ring-necked Duck    Pemberton Lake WMA

Lesser Scaup    Pemberton Lake WMA

Mourning Dove    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Ring-billed Gull    BC Fairgrounds

Turkey Vulture    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Northern Harrier    BC Fairgrounds

Bald Eagle    Pemberton Lake WMA

Red-tailed Hawk    BC Fairgrounds

Red-bellied Woodpecker    Pemberton Lake WMA

Northern Flicker    BC Fairgrounds

American Kestrel    BC Fairgrounds

Blue Jay    Pemberton Lake WMA

American Crow    Pemberton Lake WMA

Tufted Titmouse    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

European Starling    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Eastern Bluebird    BC Fairgrounds

American Robin    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

House Sparrow    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Dark-eyed Junco    BC Fairgrounds

White-crowned Sparrow    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

White-throated Sparrow    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Song Sparrow    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Common Grackle    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Colliers Mills 2/14

Walking on the east side of Colliers Mills Lake this morning I saw a man and woman out on the ice. They were preparing to ice fish. The man waved Hello to me and I shouted back, "You're very brave." In response, he just sort of shrugged his shoulders and hollered back, "It's 9 inches thick." Which I guess is more than enough to safely stand on ice. But it made me wonder, who is the meshuggeneh that first goes out there with an augur to find out that the ice is thick enough to stand on and what if it isn't? And for what--the only fish in that water are pickerel and you'd need a lot of pickerel to make a meal. 

Meanwhile, this meshuggeneh was walking on top of frozen snow in the woods north of Success Road looking for Red-headed Woodpeckers which finally turned up after I had walked farther than I planned. Two finally flew out of the woods, across the field, and into the next stand of trees, too far and too fast for photos, but at I had won my little game again. 

While Success Road was clear, nothing else was, so it was slow going through the fields and over the berm and down Hawkin Road. The temperature was just high enough to start melting the hard-packed snow so that occasionally my foot would plunge through it. Birds were at a premium--obviously no waterfowl today but walking down a side road I looked up and saw in the branches just above my head, a Red-shouldered Hawk which was very calm and didn't seem to care that I was right below it. 

Only 20 species for the day.

American Herring Gull  36
Turkey Vulture  1
Red-shouldered Hawk  1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  2     
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Downy Woodpecker  1
Blue Jay  5
Common Raven  1     Croaking
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tufted Titmouse  5
White-breasted Nuthatch  6
Brown Creeper  1
European Starling  1
Eastern Bluebird  1
American Robin  20
Dark-eyed Junco  25
Song Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  2
Northern Cardinal  1

Holly Lake | Great Bay Blvd 2/13--Redhead, American Oystercatcher, Horned Grebe, Fox Sparrow

Horned Grebe, Great Bay Blvd

It shouldn't have taken until February 13th to find a Horned Grebe, but that's what happens when the bays freeze over and only polar explorers are willing to scan the ocean. I finally came across one this morning down on Great Bay Blvd, not in the cove at the head of the road where I often see them--it was of course solid ice, but farther down the road at the boat launch before the second wooden bridge. I walked onto the little beach, chasing away Canada Geese and Brants, and scanned the creek--mostly Buffleheads and black ducks, but there, riding high in the water, was my first Horned Grebe of the year. "Finally," I said to myself and was quite pleased because it was second year bird of the day. 

Redheads with Mallards and Canada Geese

The first one was a good surprise at Holly Lake, where I always stop to take a look. I expected the water to be frozen like everywhere else, but the back of the lake had open water and lots of waterfowl. I set up the scope and immediately saw American Wigeons, Ring-necked Ducks and the usual Mallards and black ducks. But then I saw a duck with a very red head--which is why that species is called Redhead. I'd pretty much given up on Redhead for the winter when I didn't find one at Lake of the Lilies and I had no appetite for scanning the waters off of Brick (if the water was even open) where large flocks sometimes congregate. The Redhead was so far in the back that I didn't expect that my camera lens was good enough to get anything, but luckily the light was strong, and you can easily see the duck. There were at least two drakes and a couple of hens. And then I noticed really big ducks with white bodies and green heads--Common Mergansers, very unusual for this spot, as are the Redheads, but then, with most of the water in the county solid, these ducks are plunking down wherever they can. 

American Oystercatcher, Great Bay 

Back at Great Bay Blvd I made my way to the inlet and scoping east found Shari's favorite bird, American Oystercatcher. While the bay here was open, there weren't many birds on the water--just a couple of loons and more Buffleheads. I took a walk up the road, hoping for some land birds, but the edges were fairly quiet except for the omnipresent robins until I got almost to the bridge where I saw a non-robin-like bird scratching in a patch of snow--my year Fox Sparrow and a very handsome example. 

Fox Sparrow

While I didn't record a lot of species, I was fairly satisfied with day's "work." Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to drive up to West Creek and try, for the third time, to find the Rough-legged Hawk that has been hunting the marshes there. It's a 2 1/2 mile drive from Route 9 to the bay, and the bird could be anywhere, but other people seem to have no problem finding it, why can't I? About a mile into the drive, I saw a hawk sitting on a wire. I didn't think it was the rough-leg--they're kind of big for sitting on wires--but I scoped it and took pictures and was fairly confident, despite the glare and mediocre pictures that it was a Red-shouldered Hawk. Not a bad bird, just not the bird I wanted. Nor was the Northern Harrier that flew across the road. 

Red-Shouldered Hawk, West Creek

Just for laughs, when I got home, I put the picture into one of the AI apps and asked for an identification. It came back as Red-tailed Hawk. "Are you sure?" I asked, it doesn't have a belly band, it has red striping on the breast and doesn't really look like a red-tail. "Oh no," the AI responded, it's a red-tail for this reason and that reason and red-shoulders don't sit on wires, and I can see why you'd think it was a red-shoulder, but really, it's a red-tail. 

Okay, that makes a certain amount of sense (if you were to read the long explanation you might agree with me) so I changed it on my list, posted it to eBird and dragged in the photos I had taken. Immediately, eBird's Merlin app kicks in and tells me that the pictures I've put under Red-tail Hawk are actually Red-shouldered Hawk. Which why every AI app has the disclaimer that it "may make mistakes." 

Two lists:

Holly Lake
14 species
Canada Goose  25
Mute Swan  5
American Wigeon  8
Mallard  20
American Black Duck  10
Redhead  4
Ring-necked Duck  15
Common Merganser  3
Ring-billed Gull  40
American Herring Gull  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  5
American Robin  1
Red-winged Blackbird  1

Great Bay Blvd

22 species
Brant  35
Canada Goose  45
American Black Duck  50
Greater Scaup  8
Bufflehead  55
Hooded Merganser  10
Red-breasted Merganser  21
American Oystercatcher  4
Ring-billed Gull  1
American Herring Gull  30
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Horned Grebe  1
Common Loon  2
Great Blue Heron  2
Turkey Vulture  1
Common Raven  1     Large croaking corvid
American Robin  125
Fox Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  4
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Boat-tailed Grackle  50
Yellow-rumped Warbler  4

Whitesbog 2/10--Field Sparrow

Field Sparrow

Whitesbog is walkable--to a certain degree. For the first time in more than two weeks I was able to take a decent walk on dirt, instead of shuffling along on ice like Arte Johnson on the old Laugh-In. The Upper, Lower, and Middle bogs along with Union Pond are still too icy to negotiate, but the Village is clear and the dikes along the Fenwick bogs have been ploughed (in order for the farmer to make certain his gates are open), and the road that runs past Rome Pond is also pretty much down to the dirt. Now all I needed were birds.  

They were hard to come by, but there were a few interesting sightings--a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the Fenwick Bogs, a black duck with a flock of Mallards and geese on the ice in one of the bogs, a couple of Hermit Thrushes, one eating greenbrier berries, and a few sparrows. Along the entrance road I came upon a Field Sparrow, which I didn't realize was a year bird until after it flew off. However, when I came back to the parking lot (which was ploughed out, unlike my last visit in late January) after searching along a path in the old blueberry field and finding only Chipping Sparrows and juncos, there was another one, feeding in the gravel. Field Sparrows are more fun in the spring and summer when their eye rings are more pronounced, giving them a startled look that is very amusing along with their song, like a ping-pong ball falling off a table. But I'm happy to get it on the list. 

Hermit Thrush

The day list:

22 species
Canada Goose  29
Mallard  18
American Black Duck  1
Mourning Dove  2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  1     
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  3
Common Raven  5     Croaking & soaring in village. 3 landed atop water tower briefly
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tufted Titmouse  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Hermit Thrush  2
American Robin  12
House Finch  2
Chipping Sparrow  3     
Field Sparrow  2     
Dark-eyed Junco  12
White-throated Sparrow  3
Song Sparrow  6
Common Grackle  15

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