Bay Parkway 3/30--Snowy Egret

Snowy Egrets, Waretown

While I was on LBI yesterday, a big flock of White Ibises was found in the marshes of Forked River and Waretown on the western side of Barnegat Bay. White Ibis isn't the event it used to be, but it isn't a guaranteed species in Ocean County either. I enjoy birding those marshes anyway, so this morning I went to look.  I started off on Spoonbill Court (where the Roseate Spoonbills were last year) and worked my way south to Bay Parkway with no luck. I was especially annoyed after walking up and down Bay Parkway in Waretown to find that if I had skipped the first stop, I probably would have seen the flock, since it was reported before I got there. There's a lot of inaccessible marsh there, so they could have been behind a stand of trees by the time I arrived. Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else. 

Snowy Egret, Lighthouse Ctr

All I saw, at first, were 3 Great Egrets in the marsh and a Greater Yellowlegs, along with the expected, lingering winter waterfowl like Brants and Buffleheads. As I was driving north, though, I saw 3 egrets roosting in a tree and 2 of them were smaller. I pulled over and confirmed that I had my first Snowy Egrets of the year. 

I then drove farther south to the Lighthouse Center, hoping that its marshes would host the white ibises--I've seen the species a few times there. I ran into another birder and she gave me the "Oh you just missed it" story, but what I had just missed--Little Blue Herons and Tricolored Herons--I already had for the year--from the Lighthouse Center as it happens. They were rare in the winter and they're still considered rare, but judging from reports, the window of migration may have shifted.  Later, standing on a bench so I could overlook the phragmites, I found a few far back against the woods, and then later, closer in. What I did miss that she had were Willets and a Glossy Ibis--but those birds are guaranteed unless something catastrophic occurs--to me or to Ocean County. There were at least 5 Snowy Egrets there also along with more Great Egrets. Oddly, Great Blue Herons are getting harder to find. So I had to settle for the Snowy Egrets for my one addition to the year list. 

Little Blue Heron, Lighthouse Ctr

Bayview Ave Park 3/29--Black-crowned Night-Heron

Black-Crowned Night-Herons

Sometimes they're there, and sometimes they're not. There is a semi-secret roost to the north of Bayview Ave Park on LBI which I like to check periodically. Before someone opened up a pathway into the cedars, it was more of a hunt to find a Black-crowned Night-Heron in the trees. Some years there were none--speculation was that a Great Horned Own had taken up residence, causing the roost to be abandoned. But today, when I turned into the partially overgrown path, after two steps--BOOM, a slew of kwoks flew out of the roost from all directions. I would have been happy to find one and felt a little guilty for having disturbed so many, but then I was really expecting the trees to be occupied--it has been a while since I've seen the roost have such a large population--in fact, I'm not certain that I've ever seen so many night-herons there--I listed 15, which of course, broke the eBird filter, but I'm sure there were more than that--they just kept flying out of the trees like clowns tumbling out of a VW at the circus. 

American Oystercatcher, Barnegat Lighthouse SP (for Shari)

Earlier in the day I took a quick walk around Cedar Bonnet Island and then walked the beach at Barnegat Lighthouse SP where I was happy to see 7 Piping Plovers on the beach--this bodes well for nesting--and unhappy to find 7 dead Brant near the plover pool, presumably more victims of avian influenza. 

For my morning on LBI, 37 species:

Species    First Sighting
Brant    Cedar Bonnet Island
Canada Goose    Cedar Bonnet Island
Mallard    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Black Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Eider    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Scoter    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Long-tailed Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Bufflehead    Cedar Bonnet Island
Red-breasted Merganser    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Mourning Dove    Cedar Bonnet Island
American Oystercatcher    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Piping Plover    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Herring Gull    Cedar Bonnet Island
Great Black-backed Gull    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Loon    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Cormorant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black-crowned Night-Heron   Bayview Ave Park
Great Egret    Cedar Bonnet Island
Northern Flicker    Cedar Bonnet Island
Blue Jay    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Crow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Raven    Bayview Ave Park
Carolina Chickadee    Cedar Bonnet Island
European Starling    Cedar Bonnet Island
Northern Mockingbird    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Robin    Cedar Bonnet Island
House Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
House Finch    Cedar Bonnet Island
White-throated Sparrow    Cedar Bonnet Island
Savannah Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow    Cedar Bonnet Island
Red-winged Blackbird    Cedar Bonnet Island
Brown-headed Cowbird    Cedar Bonnet Island
Common Grackle    Cedar Bonnet Island
Northern Cardinal    Cedar Bonnet Island

Cranberry Bogs 3/28--Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Embarrassingly bad photo of 
Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Winter returned this morning, and aside from a lot of Field Sparrows, I didn't hear much singing this morning trekking through the Cranberry Bogs along Dover Road, nor did I see anything unexpected after walking all the way back past the large reservoir and onto the power line cut.  Turning around, I was curious if I could avoid walking back through the meadow where the buildings once stood; instead, as I was wearing my Muck Boots, I wondered if I could just walk out along the trail that is always flooded from a breached bog. The water in the bigger puddles around the bogs seemed to have receded somewhat so I thought it might be feasible. 

Short answer: No. But I'm glad I tried, because as I was standing in water just one inch below my boot tops, I saw a bird fly out of the brush and swoop over a bog. My first thought was that it was another Tree Swallow, but I quickly saw that it was bigger and it was brown. Then I saw another and another, and altogether 7, zipping right by me and it was obvious that I had my first Northern Rough-winged Swallows of the year, still considered rare here in Ocean County but apparently in their accepted window for migration. 

I have zero chance of photographing a speeding swallow on the wing with my unsophisticated camera, but one decided to take a rest from hunting (what insects it could be finding is a mystery to me) and perch on twig. I took a bunch of shots, but of course, the camera focused on the foliage in front of the bird and not the bird itself. Posted here is the best of a lot of really lousy shots. 

For the morning 25 species:

Canada Goose  4
Wood Duck  1     Heard bogs
Mallard  6
American Black Duck  16     Bogs and large reservoir
Ring-necked Duck  23
Mourning Dove  4
Great Blue Heron  1
Northern Flicker  2
American Crow  1
Carolina Chickadee  2
Tufted Titmouse  1
Tree Swallow  3
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  7     
Eastern Bluebird  1
American Robin  2
House Finch  5
American Goldfinch  2
Chipping Sparrow  1
Field Sparrow  6
Dark-eyed Junco  3
Song Sparrow  3
Swamp Sparrow  1     Bogs
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Pine Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  1

Horicon Lake 3/27--Laughing Gull

Laughing Gull

Over the last week I've been adding to the year list, but the birds haven't been in range of a camera. 

On Sunday I drove down to Manahawkin at sunset, walked into the fields and waited for a few minutes until I heard "peent!" Turned around, went home with American Woodcock on the list and feeling like that was about the silliest thing I've done all year. I used to be able to hear them (and sometime see them) about a mile from here in our local community garden, but the past couple of years they've been absent, so desperate measures were required.

Tuesday I was at Tuckerton and scoped an Osprey on a snag, too far off for my camera, not that I need to add to the catalog of billions of Osprey photos. Then yesterday, walking down Hawkin Road in Colliers Mills, I heard my first Eastern Towhee of the year. Heard it calling multiple times, but it had no interest in posing for pictures. 

This morning it was raining so I decided to do a couple of stupid errands. The first was to drive to the dump and deposit our recycling can in the Rigid Plastics dumpster, since it had cracked from being thrown around so much by the waste management company and then I drove to Lowe's to get a new one. At least I could get rid of the old one. In Brooklyn I used to say that the only thing you couldn't throw away was a garbage can. 

Bald Eagle female before romance

By the time I was finished it had stopped raining, so I went over to Horicon Lake just to see what was around. Geese and Mallards of course, but looking over my shoulder, I saw a Bald Eagle in a nearby tree. Eagles certainly aren't rare at Horicon, but when another eagle flew in and, ahem, copulated with the other, that was a first for me, but then, I don't get out much. 

Walking along the lake shore there were a few Buffleheads and about 20 Ring-necked Ducks (you can't really count diving ducks because at any one time about a third of them are under water), but the year bird that made me say, "Finally," was a Laughing Gull that flew in to take a dip and then flew off again after a minute.  I had been contemplating going over to the Wawa on the Lakehurst Circle (which I just found out is officially the Eisenhower Circle) to see if any laughers were in the parking lot. I'd already checked out Costco a couple of days before. For my little walk I had 20 species.

Canada Goose  25
Mallard  8
Mallard (Domestic type)  1
American Black Duck  2
Ring-necked Duck  20
Bufflehead  6
Laughing Gull  1
Turkey Vulture  2
Bald Eagle  2     
Northern Flicker  2
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  2
Carolina Wren  1
American Robin  15
House Sparrow  5
Song Sparrow  1
Swamp Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  1
Common Grackle  1
Pine Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  1

Bye-bye

Island Beach SP 3/20--Piping Plover, Northern Gannet

Because I didn't really feel like walking the beach at the southern end of Island Beach SP, I made a deal with myself: as soon as I saw the birds I was looking for, I would turn around. If I saw them after 50 feet, turn around. But if I had to walk all the way to jetty, I would. Of course, I could slog through the mile or so of sand down to the jetty and still not see my birds, but that's what makes it fun, right? 

The sea was rough and the water was coming up almost to the dunes, so in some places it was hard going and in some places the sand was like cement--the problem being that the soft stuff and hard stuff were almost indistinguishable. There wasn't much bird activity along the way--even the gulls were scarce.  I'd seen a few Long-tailed Ducks in the surf and a couple of Great Black-backed Gulls on the beach after about a 3/4 of a mile when in front of me, in a tire track, I saw two little sand-colored shorebirds scurrying away from me. "Please don't be Sanderlings," I said, and put my scope on them. Yes, what I'd come for, Piping Plovers. Steve thinks they're harbingers of spring and since today is the equinox, maybe they are. 

It seems to me that only recently have Piping Plovers made their way north over the inlet to Island Beach--Barnegat Light was the spot you had to go to find them, walking along the stringed off alley that the beach wardens would create to protest their nests. Now they seem to have discovered Island Beach, much to the chagrin of fishermen because at Island Beach they close off an entire section to protect the nesting birds. 

I also thought it was interesting that there were no bands that I could see on these two birds. They're so threatened that I thought every bird was tracked but these two rogues escaped surveillance, so far. 

I was good to my word to myself, even though I was pretty close to the jetty. Instead, I stood there for a while and scanned the ocean, getting a bonus species when 3 Northern Gannets flew north, low over the water. One of my favorite bird activities to watch is gannets plunge diving into the ocean, but these birds weren't hunting, they were traveling. 

I spent the rest of the morning at various spots in the park, looking to fill the lacunae in my list with land birds I have missed so far and didn't find a one. I knew from looking at list the few days that there weren't many birds being found, but still, when you can't find them, you can't help but feel you're doing something wrong. 

Cranberry Bogs 3/10--Eastern Phoebe, Tree Swallow

Tree Swallow

Go looking for one bird, find a different one...and then find the bird you were looking for. That's a decent day in the field even if both birds fall into the "gimme" category. I went to the abandoned Cranberry Bogs in South Toms River this morning, which started out foggy but soon cleared to be a precursor of springtime. At the top of the big hill around the sand pit I came across a nice little flock of tweety birds including a Red-breasted Nuthatch, which I hadn't seen for a while, and a Brown Creeper more visible than usual as the sun was shining directly on the tree it was walking up on.  I thought that bode well for the rest of the morning, but I didn't find any other passerines of note for quite a while. 

Ducks were still abundant--I counted 123 Ring-necked Ducks in 3 different bodies of water which broke the eBird filter, but in March the Ring-necks seem to gather in big flocks before moving north. 5 years ago to the day, I counted 665 Ring-necks on Turnmill Lake at Colliers Mills, so this could be considered a small gathering. Besides Mallards and black ducks, I also had 3 Wood Ducks (including a pair in appropriate habitat), some Hooded Mergansers, 7 Green-winged Teal that made a touch and go, and a couple of Buffleheads. 

Tree Swallow house, 2016

Superstitiously, I stopped at the shell of a pumphouse where I often find my day's target bird as they like to nest there, but it wasn't around. Not until I had walked almost to the far end of the large reservoir did I get my first year bird and not the one I was looking for--a single Tree Swallow perched on a dead tree in the middle of the water. Earlier, on the bogs, with a cloud of midges around my face, I was thinking that this would be a good time for swallows to show up. Years ago, when these were working bogs, somebody had put up two large swallow houses in the middle of that large reservoir and dozens of swallows would nest in them, but time and storms eventually destroyed them both. 

Eastern Phoebe on old pumphouse 2016

Walking back, I decided to take a path that is totally overgrown and that I probably won't walk on again until the winter since in warm weather it is tick-infested to the nth degree. But on that trail is another old pumphouse skeleton and I wanted to look at for the bird I'd originally set out for.  Again, not there, but I did see the Green-winged Teal in an impoundment along the way. And as I was watching them fly off, I heard it--the pissed-off FEE-BEE! "song" of the Eastern Phoebe, the bird I was seeking. It was somewhere off to my right but just then the grassy trail became a flooded one, and by the time I sloshed to the spot where I thought it was "singing" it was gone. I know I'll see plenty of others, but the first one is the most gratifying. 

For the morning 28 species:

Canada Goose  150
Wood Duck  3
Mallard  15
American Black Duck  6     Bogs
Green-winged Teal  7     Landed in bog for less than a minute then flew off. All drakes
Ring-necked Duck  123     Exact count. 83,12,28 in bogs and large reservoir
Bufflehead  2
Hooded Merganser  6
Mourning Dove  2
Killdeer  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Northern Flicker  3
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  1
Common Raven  1     Croaking
Carolina Chickadee  11
Tufted Titmouse  2
Tree Swallow  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1     Big hill
Brown Creeper  1     Big hill
Eastern Bluebird  2
House Finch  5
Song Sparrow  7
Red-winged Blackbird  50
Pine Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  4

Whitesbog | Backyard 3/9--Wild Turkey, Pine Warbler

Now that we are almost a third of the way through March, I have been getting a little antsy to get some of the "gimme" birds onto my year list. Today, a couple of species added themselves to list. 

For unpleasant reasons, I had to spend the last 3 days in Browns Mills, so in the mornings I've been going to Whitesbog. Yesterday, once the fog lifted, I saw two grebes in the Middle Bog, which I at first assumed were Pied-billed Grebes, not an especially unusual species for the bogs, but always a happy sighting. Except something about them didn't look right in the gray light. When I drove back, I stopped, broke out the scope and after scanning through a small flock of Hooded Mergansers I relocated the two grebes which turned out to be, as I suspected, Horned Grebes. I was pretty certain those were the first Horned Grebes I'd seen at Whitesbog and checking later, I found I was correct. What I didn't realize was that they were the first Horned Grebes for my Burlington County list which wasn't that surprising when I thought about it, since I rarely go anywhere in the county where you might encounter them, like the Delaware River. 

Today, to change it up, I decided to walk the Ocean County section. There were lots of migrating geese and some ducks in the various flooded and abandoned blueberry fields, including a couple of Lesser Scaup, which are scarce there. But it wasn't until I was on the return leg that I got my first year bird. Scott has often said how superstitious birders are--if you saw a great bird one spot, then you'll always look in that spot again, no matter how unlikely it is for history to repeat. Today, as I was walking toward the main road, I stopped and decided to walk on a grassy trail that that runs behind a field--a couple of years ago I had come across a Great Horned Owl in there at mid-day, so who knows, maybe there would be another. Of course, there wasn't, but I did hear, and eventually track down, my first Pine Warbler of the year. So the superstition pays off. Normally, in the winter, we have Pine Warblers at our suet, but this has not been a normal winter and only Yellow-rumps (and--much more exciting--an Orange-Crowned Warbler) have been nibbling away at the fatty cakes. 

This afternoon, as I was going outside to check on more tree damage from the blizzard, I saw a big blur dash behind the house--rounding the corner I saw it was my first Wild Turkey of the year, another bird that usually doesn't take this long to appear. I thought it was just the single tom, but when I went out to the brushy area beyond our lawn I saw there was an entire flock out there--Shari & I eventually counted 26 on our lawn, attracted, no doubt by all the seed I flung out there. Where the turkeys have been hiding out all winter I don't know, but driving back from an errand late this afternoon, I saw a couple more a few blocks away, so soon they'll be stopping traffic and antagonizing dogs. Which passes for entertainment on Sunset Road.