February Wrap-up--Blizzard Edition

Tundra Swans walking on the ice of Union Pond, Whitesbog

The icy aftermath of the storm at the end of the January and the Blizzard of 2026 at the end of this month served to put a kibosh on a lot of my birding--I spent an inordinate amount of time staring out our windows at our feeders.  At least I was rewarded with our first backyard Orange-crowned Warbler.  

I did manage to get around in the two weeks between the ice melting and the blizzard. Some year birds weren't recounted here because they eluded photography.  Two of the birds this month were "hard," (for me at least) --a Purple Finch that I heard at the Manahawkin WMA and a Glaucous Gull at Island Beach, whose presence I was alert to by Steve the previous day. I made the long trek out to the north jetty not really expecting to find the bird when a large white-winged light-gray mantled gull flew in from Barnegat Light, came in low over my head, then made a U-turn back to the south. In almost every other county of New Jersey, Glaucous Gull is considered rare but not in Ocean, inexplicably.  Believe it--they're rare. I also, on my trek along the south end of IBSP came across my first Lesser Black-backed Gull. I was about to photograph it when it was flushed by the only other person I saw walking on the beach that day--typical. 

The final year bird of the month was a rarity, but only because of time of year--a Blue-winged Teal at Lake of the Lilies that I spotted the day before the blizzard hit. I was about to give up on finding it when a birding group came along and one of the leaders got it in his scope--on the far shore weaving in and out of the phragmites. Not the greatest looks, but the facial crescent was clearly seen. That was a beautifully warm winter day--it was hard to imagine that a gigantic snowstorm was on its way. But just because you can't imagine doesn't mean it won't happen. 30 inches of snow and we weren't plowed out until late Tuesday night. Fortunately, for the birds, I had filled up our feeders the day before--fortunately for me too because otherwise I'd have been looking at a blank expanse of snow for most of the week. 

Backyard birding: Mourning Dove

Eastern Bluebird

103 species for the month, which was actually quite a bit better than last year when I couldn't even break the century mark.

Species           First Sighting
Snow Goose   Manasquan Inlet
Brant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Canada Goose   35 Sunset Rd
Mute Swan   Manahawkin Lake
Tundra Swan   Bamber Lake
Wood Duck   Pemberton Lake WMA
Blue-winged Teal   Lake of the Lilies
American Wigeon   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Mallard   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Black Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Northern Pintail   Pemberton Lake WMA
Canvasback   Lake of the Lilies
Redhead   Holly Lake
Ring-necked Duck   Holly Lake
Greater Scaup   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Lesser Scaup   Lake of the Lilies
Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Surf Scoter   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
White-winged Scoter   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Scoter   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Long-tailed Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Bufflehead   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Goldeneye   Sloop & Potter Creek Marshes
Hooded Merganser   Bay Pkwy
Common Merganser   Holly Lake
Red-breasted Merganser   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Ruddy Duck   Lake of the Lilies
Rock Pigeon   New Egypt
Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd
American Coot   Lake of the Lilies
American Oystercatcher   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Black-bellied Plover   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Greater Yellowlegs   Manahawkin WMA
Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Sanderling   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Dunlin   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Purple Sandpiper   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Razorbill   Manasquan Inlet
Ring-billed Gull   Jakes Branch County Park
American Herring Gull   Jakes Branch County Park
Great Black-backed Gull   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Glaucous Gull   Island Beach SP
Lesser Black-backed Gull   Island Beach SP
Horned Grebe   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Red-necked Grebe   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Red-throated Loon   Manasquan Inlet
Common Loon   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Blue Heron   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Vulture   Whiting
Turkey Vulture   235 Brynmore Rd, New Egypt
Sharp-shinned Hawk   New Egypt
Northern Harrier   West Creek Dock Rd.
Bald Eagle   New Egypt
Red-shouldered Hawk   West Creek Dock Rd.
Red-tailed Hawk   BC Fairgrounds
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   35 Sunset Rd
Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Downy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Hairy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Flicker   Whitesbog
American Kestrel   BC Fairgrounds
Merlin   Double Trouble SP
Blue Jay   35 Sunset Rd
American Crow   New Egypt
Fish Crow   Sands Point Park
Common Raven   New Egypt
Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd
Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd
Horned Lark   New Egypt
Golden-crowned Kinglet   Lake Carasaljo
White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd
Brown Creeper   Colliers Mills WMA
Carolina Wren   New Egypt
European Starling   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Mockingbird   New Egypt
Eastern Bluebird   35 Sunset Rd
Hermit Thrush   Whitesbog
American Robin   35 Sunset Rd
House Sparrow   New Egypt
House Finch   35 Sunset Rd
Purple Finch   Manahawkin WMA
American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd
Snow Bunting   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Chipping Sparrow   Whitesbog
Field Sparrow   Whitesbog
American Tree Sparrow   Shelter Cove Park
Fox Sparrow   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd
White-crowned Sparrow   Pinelands Alliance Headquarters
White-throated Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd
Savannah Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow   New Egypt
Red-winged Blackbird   Lake of the Lilies
Brown-headed Cowbird   New Egypt
Common Grackle   Whitesbog
Boat-tailed Grackle   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Orange-crowned Warbler   35 Sunset Rd
Yellow-rumped Warbler   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Shelter Cove 2/17--American Tree Sparrow

Disappointed, he trudged through the ice and slush of the Shelter Cove soccer fields on his way back to his car, not realizing that by quitting his search he had set in motion the Second Law of Birding, which states that you will not see the bird until you have (truly) given up on seeing it. There, right in the parking lot next to his car, 6 birds flew up at his approach. When he spotted them in the copse of trees where he had first looked a half hour ago, he saw the American Tree Sparrows he had come for. They flew off when as he turned toward them, flying into the mini-wetlands behind the trees. He chased them as well as he could through the ice and brambles, getting some unsatisfactory, barely usable photos. Mostly he got very good pictures of twigs. 

He returned to his car, with a semblance of a feeling of accomplishment, when the irony continued. After putting away his camera and taking off his bins, the sparrows returned to the spot where he originally had seen them. He was able to take much better photos through the window of his car. 

American Tree Sparrow
with the classic "stick pin" on the breast

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.