Island Beach SP 4/4--Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Spizzle Creek

I knew it was just a tad too early for warblers along Reed's Road at Island Beach, but I went anyway. There are still so many "easy" birds not on my list that I felt it was inevitable that I'd run into one there. I didn't and judging from the other lists I've seen from the day, no one there saw anything I haven't. 

The "inevitable" didn't happen until my second stop, walking out from Spizzle Creek, about 8 miles down the road. There too it had been disappointing with very few birds around and nothing surprising. It was a beautiful morning, very little wind, in the mid-60's, sunny and warm enough to get the insects going which should get the birds going. But the birds have got to be there to get going. As I was leaving, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and the bird I saw was very small, so I was pretty certain it wasn't a warbler. Maybe a kinglet? It was flitting from branch to branch as kinglets will but once I saw the long tail I knew that I had a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and about time! As has been the routine this spring, the bird was persistently behind budding twigs (no doubt gleaning gnats), but I did manage one semi-clear shot. 

I made a few more stops going north. At Johnnie Allen Cove I saw a large flock of birds in the distance coming my way. I thought at first cormorants, then maybe Brant, but as they got closer I could see it was a flock of abut 40 Glossy Ibises.  That made up for the one distant bird I saw the other day at the Lighthouse Center. And it put me in mind of a funny incident quite a few years back when I was the end of Reed's Road with another birder. A large flock of glossies flew by and he, with his big machine gun-like camera, rattled off 50 shots. "Find the White-faced Ibis, in there," I joked. He went home, blew up his photos, and, wouldn't you know it, there was a White-faced Ibis flying with the glossies. This brought up the existential question of whether you could count a bird you saw but didn't know you were seeing. For me, the answer was I couldn't count it, but he could. And I think he did. 

Glossy Ibis, Johnnie Allen Cove

For the 5 stops, I made, all on the bayside, I managed 36 species. Meh. 

Brant
Mallard
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Merganser
Mourning Dove
Greater Yellowlegs
American Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Horned Grebe
Common Loon
Double-crested Cormorant
Glossy Ibis
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Osprey
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
American Crow
Common Raven
Carolina Chickadee
Tree Swallow
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Brown Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
Yellow-rumped Warbler

Whitesbog (Ocean County) 4/3--Palm Warbler

Palm Warbler

Another dreary morning turned brighter on the Ocean County side of Whitesbog when my informant, whom I hadn't seen since mid-December, pulled up behind me as I walked the road near Big Tank. Bad weather, icy roads, vacations, medical appointments, had conspired to keep us from running into each other for the entire winter. We both thought the worse. And both our wives bugged us to text the other to find out what was up, but we're guys and guys don't do that. After he parked at his spot we started to bird and immediately he pointed out a Palm Warbler in a budding red maple right in front of us. Not with the guy 5 minutes and I get a year bird. 

Common Loon, Big Tank

As we walked back toward the Upper Reservoir, we reviewed our sightings of the last couple of months--one of my most interesting ones had just occurred at Big Tank where I found a Common Loon in breeding plumage. My informant told me that he had seen them there occasionally, but usually on the reservoir. But here's the thing: he doesn't list so officially, this was the first Common Loon sighted on the Ocean County side of Whitesbog (to county birders it is an important distinction and there are records on the Burlco side). It's similar to describing a new species--it isn't necessarily the first person to find it; it is the person who describes it for science that gets the credit. I know this all sounds silly--it is--but silly is a large part of birding if you have any sense of humor. 

So to sum up, a year bird, a patch first record, and neither of us is dead. A good morning.

Coyote Scat.
One of the advantages of walking
 with my informant is the
 natural history lesson
you get with each step.

26 species

Canada Goose  14
Wood Duck  8
Mallard  7
Ring-necked Duck  2
Bufflehead  2
Greater Yellowlegs  2     Flyover
Common Loon  1     
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  5
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  1
Fish Crow  3
Carolina Chickadee  2
Tree Swallow  10
Golden-crowned Kinglet  1
Dark-eyed Junco  15
Song Sparrow  4
Swamp Sparrow  2
Red-winged Blackbird  15
Brown-headed Cowbird  2
Common Grackle  4
Palm Warbler  2
Pine Warbler  15

Bay Parkway | Lighthouse Center 4/2--White Ibis, Glossy Ibis

White Ibis, Waretown

On a thoroughly miserable morning--drizzly, cold, and windy--I was determined to get something new on the list. I started down at Eno's Pond in Forked River, thinking that I might find some new tweety birds in the woods--negative on that, but I did come across enough birds like a flock of Green-winged Teal and 3 Ospreys fighting over one platform, to keep it interesting and my mind off the damp conditions. 

Then, despite hating gusty winds, I drove down the road a few miles to Bay Parkway in Waretown to check out the marsh. After missing them last time, I found a small gathering of White Ibis feeding just off the road--not the flock of 23 that had been reported, but just 9 in my count. But you only need one. I know I've pointed this out before, but there was a time not too long ago when one White Ibis had birders running from all over the state to see it, and now flocks of them are grazing in marshes all over the southern counties. They're not even listed as rare anymore. It struck me as significant that I listed White Ibis before I had seen the much more common Glossy Ibis.  

Tricolored Herons, Lighthouse Center

Which I remedied at my next stop down in Barnegat, the Lighthouse Center. It took me a while, but after standing on top of a bench and scanning the distant marsh, I found one Glossy Ibis feeding in the spartina. It was way too distant for photographs, especially since I could barely keep my balance in the wind, but I know I'll see enough of them during the course of the year. I suppose there was a one in ten thousand chance that the brown ibis could have been a White-faced Ibis, but you have to go with the odds--otherwise, your list will be all slashes and spuhs. 

Having seen two ibises for the morning, I decided that the weather wasn't going to improve--and it didn't--so called it a day and drove back home. 

Colliers Mills 4/1--Brown Thrasher

Brown Thrasher

I guess it's going to be one at a time. I went to Colliers Mills early this morning, figuring the woods would fill in the lacunae on my year list, but as so often happens, the only new bird for the year was just a few steps away from my car. As soon as I got out, I was hit with birdsong from all points, mostly the familiar species, but there were more songs at a more rapid pace than you'd expect. And the songs were repeat twice. I walked back into the little maintenance yard hoping I could find the source--figuring it was a mimid I looked at the tops of all the trees and soon found my FOY Brown Thrasher. It's funny how you just know sometimes that the bird you're hearing is not the familiar one, but a close relative--to the naive ear, mockingbirds and thrashers sound pretty much the same, but once you become attuned to the difference, the thrasher is clearer, more articulate, and (this is the easiest part) mimics other birdsong twice, where a mockingbird tends to go thrice. Would that I could parse warbler song so easily. 

The rest of the list had a couple of interesting species on it--the Red-headed Woodpeckers were easy to find today and no playback required, and on Turnmill Lake I found two Horned Grebes, one of them already in full breeding plumage. Horned Grebes are very unusual at Colliers Mills--I thought they might be the first ones I'd seen there, but looking at my patch list, I found that I first saw them, on Turnmill, on March 31, 2015. I suppose every 11 years makes them infrequent. 

Horned Grebes

31 species
Canada Goose  7
Wood Duck  3
Mallard  3
Ring-necked Duck  2
Mourning Dove  4
Killdeer  1
Ring-billed Gull  1     Flyover
Horned Grebe  2
Great Blue Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Northern Flicker  7
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  6
Carolina Chickadee  7
Tufted Titmouse  6
Brown Thrasher  1
Northern Mockingbird  1
American Robin  13
Field Sparrow  2
Dark-eyed Junco  4
White-throated Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Swamp Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  1
Red-winged Blackbird  7
Brown-headed Cowbird  4
Pine Warbler  10
Northern Cardinal  5

March Review--Lion/Lamb Edition

Bald Eagle atop cell tower "disguised" as pine tree,
Bay Head

I have a birding friend who is quite a bit older than me. Exactly how old I don't know because my mother taught me it was impolite to talk about age or weight, but for the sake of this story, let's say he is around 10 years my senior, maybe a little more. When I first met him--well, it was hard not to meet him because he was everywhere, especially where a rare bird was reported. He is in pictures we have from the day in New Egypt when we found the lapwings--this was before I knew him.  He consistently led the state in species seen every year. The joke with we birders who were then clinging to the notion that we were still middle-aged was, "I want to be like D when I grow up." 

I remember once down at the Bridge to Nowhere, about a year after the lapwing sighting so it was January, we ran into each other and were chatting--down the road I saw a small falcon--"There's a Merlin," I said.

"I need Merlin for the year," D said, jumped in his car and raced down the road. 

I caught up to him a few minutes later and said to him, "D, you're gonna see a Merlin this year."

"You know, at my age, maybe not," he replied. 

Having had a significant birthday this month (remember it is impolite to discuss age), I was thinking that I was at least D's age now as he was then. So I asked myself, "Now that I'm grown up, am I like D?" 

Well, in terms of doggedness, in that I bird every day that I won't get soaked, yes, but only in that regard. It's an amusing habit.  I can't get so excited about a common bird that I'm going to race down a bumpy road to see it. My chasing circle gets smaller each year. I want the birds to be where I feel like being. Meanwhile, D is still leading the league in sightings. My wonder knows no bounds. 

For the month, which started off windy and snow-covered and ended in the 70's, I tallied 103 species, 14 of them year birds. That's a pretty low number for March, for me, according to my records, but I didn't get north of Manasquan Inlet nor south of Tuckerton this month--I stuck to Ocean and Burlington. I still haven't come across a catbird, a waxwing, a gnatcatcher, a thrasher--and you know, at my age...

Species   First Sighting
Brant   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Canada Goose   Holly Lake
Mute Swan   Holly Lake
Tundra Swan   Cranberry Bogs
Wood Duck   Whitesbog
American Wigeon   Holly Lake
Mallard   Holly Lake
American Black Duck   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Northern Pintail   Whitesbog
Green-winged Teal   Holly Lake
Redhead   Holly Lake
Ring-necked Duck   Holly Lake
Greater Scaup   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Lesser Scaup   Double Trouble SP
Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Scoter   Island Beach SP
Long-tailed Duck   Island Beach SP
Bufflehead   Holly Lake
Common Goldeneye   Cranberry Bogs
Hooded Merganser   Holly Lake
Common Merganser   Lake Carasaljo
Red-breasted Merganser   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Ruddy Duck   Lake of the Lilies
Wild Turkey   35 Sunset Rd
Rock Pigeon   West Creek Dock Rd.
Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd
American Coot   Bunker Hill Bogs
American Oystercatcher   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Killdeer   Cranberry Bogs
Piping Plover   Island Beach SP
American Woodcock   Manahawkin WMA
Wilson's Snipe   Cranberry Bogs
Greater Yellowlegs   Manahawkin WMA
Laughing Gull   Horicon Lake
Ring-billed Gull   Lake Carasaljo
American Herring Gull   Holly Lake
Great Black-backed Gull   Holly Lake
Pied-billed Grebe   Double Trouble SP
Horned Grebe   Whitesbog
Common Loon   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Northern Gannet   Island Beach SP
Great Cormorant   Island Beach SP
Double-crested Cormorant   Lake Carasaljo
Black-crowned Night Heron   Bayview Ave Park
Little Blue Heron   Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education
Tricolored Heron   Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education
Snowy Egret   Waretown
Great Egret   Double Trouble SP
Great Blue Heron   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Black Vulture   Bamber Lake
Turkey Vulture   West Creek Dock Rd.
Osprey   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Cooper's Hawk   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Harrier   West Creek Dock Rd.
Bald Eagle   Whitesbog
Red-shouldered Hawk   Whitesbog
Red-tailed Hawk   Colliers Mills WMA
Belted Kingfisher   Whitesbog
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Downy Woodpecker   Manahawkin WMA
Hairy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Flicker   Whitesbog
American Kestrel   Cranberry Bogs
Eastern Phoebe   Cranberry Bogs
Blue Jay   35 Sunset Rd
American Crow   35 Sunset Rd
Fish Crow   West Creek Dock Rd.
Common Raven   35 Sunset Rd
Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd
Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd
Tree Swallow   Cranberry Bogs
Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Cranberry Bogs
Golden-crowned Kinglet   Bunker Hill Bogs
White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd
Red-breasted Nuthatch   Cranberry Bogs
Brown Creeper   Cranberry Bogs
Carolina Wren   Bamber Lake
European Starling   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Mockingbird   Crestwood Village
Eastern Bluebird   35 Sunset Rd
Hermit Thrush   Bunker Hill Bogs
American Robin   35 Sunset Rd
House Sparrow   West Creek Dock Rd.
House Finch   35 Sunset Rd
American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd
Chipping Sparrow   Whiting WMA
Field Sparrow   Whitesbog
Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd
White-throated Sparrow   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Savannah Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd
Swamp Sparrow   Whitesbog
Eastern Towhee   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-winged Blackbird   Holly Lake
Brown-headed Cowbird   Double Trouble SP
Common Grackle   Holly Lake
Boat-tailed Grackle   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Pine Warbler   Whitesbog
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Common Goldeneye hen with drake Ring-necked Duck, Cranberry Bogs

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