Kick Off the New Year 1/1--American White Pelican, Red-necked Grebe, Yellow-breasted Chat

American White Pelican, Tip Seaman County Park

We started off the new year with last year's last rarity. Yesterday our friend Bob Auster came down to bird with us and stay over for our trip down to Cape May today. Bob hadn't had a Snowy Owl this year, so we went to Island Beach SP to look for one that has been reported on & off the last week or so. No luck there and with a wind gusting to around 30 mph, it was no fun birding, either on the ocean side or the bay side. We had practically nothing to show for our efforts by lunch time at the Winter Anchorage. Then a text alert came in that an American White Pelican was in the lake at Tip Seaman Park in Tuckerton. Bob didn't have that bird either for the year so we scurried on down there and found it before the car was even parked. But then the bird is as big as a bus, so it wasn't exactly like turning up a skulking sparrow. Thanks to Becky Laboy who found the bird after stopping there on a whim.

Last night Shari suggested that we leave a little early for Cape May and detour to Tuckerton on our way to get the pelican for this year. What a great idea! Unfortunately, when we got to the park, the gates were locked. A park closed for New Year's Day? But Shari had another brainstorm, so we got back in the car, drove back onto Rt 9, parked across the street and from the sidewalk we immediately spotted the big white bird, dwarfing the nearby Mute Swans. Great bird to start the year.

On the way down on the parkway, Bob & I discussed just how obsessive we were going to be this year about chasing down rarities and by about mile marker 40 Shari was sick of listening to us debate the various levels of neurosis that chasing involves so she ordered us to change the subject. Silence in the car for a few minutes. Then, "Gee, Bob, doesn't that cloud look like a duck?"

At Cape May SP we joined a large group of birders for a Cape May Bird Observatory Kick Off Your Year List trip. After birding from the Hawk watch and looking at Lighthouse Pond where I was the only one of our threesome to spot the Yellow-breasted Chat that 10 different people were giving 10 different instructions to find, and only because I was looking through someone else's scope for a Brown Thrasher which I didn't find, we wandered around the lower Cape, ticking off a number of "good" birds, like Bonaparte's Gull and Purple Sandpiper at the Concrete Ship and Tundra Swan at the Cape May Meadows.  All day the weather was perfect with a warming sun and barely a hint of breeze.

We then crossed the canal and stopped at a couple of spots on the east side of the peninsula, the last stop being Sunset Lake which was remarkably smooth. In with a couple of Common Loons Shari spotted an odd bird that said "grebe" but in the fading light was hard to see. I kick myself because I should have known just from the large "dagger-like" bill what the bird was, but it was only after she dug out the field guide from the car that we realized it was a Red-necked Grebe. The trip leader confirmed our i.d., saying that part of our confusion stemmed from its incomplete molt. But the bill should have told me. Unless it is a very cold winter, Red-necked Grebes are relatively rare in these parts, so it was a good bird to start the year. We might not see another all year.

In the end, with all our birds, including a Bald Eagle in Atlantic County, seen on its typical perch along the parkway just before exit 48, I had 68 species for the day, which is just under 25% of what I'll probably see in New Jersey all year.

And Bob: I still don't know how obsessive I'm going to be this year and Shari: I promise, I'm not doing Bird A Day.

My first 2017 day list:

Species   First Sighting

Brant   Cape May Harbor.

Canada Goose   35 Sunset Rd

Mute Swan   Tip Seaman Park

Tundra Swan   Cape May Meadows

Gadwall   Cape May Point SP

American Wigeon   Cape May Point SP

American Black Duck   Cape May Point SP

Mallard   Cape May Point SP

Northern Shoveler   Cape May Point SP

Northern Pintail   Cape May Point SP

Green-winged Teal   Lily Lake

Ring-necked Duck   Lily Lake

Greater Scaup   CMBO Northwood Center

Surf Scoter   Cape May NWR--Two Mile Unit

Black Scoter   Cape May Meadows

Bufflehead   Lily Lake

Hooded Merganser   Cape May Point SP

Red-breasted Merganser   Cape May Harbor.

Red-throated Loon   Coral Ave. dune crossing

Common Loon   Cape May Harbor.

Horned Grebe   Sunset Lake

Red-necked Grebe   Sunset Lake

Northern Gannet   Coral Ave. dune crossing

Double-crested Cormorant   Cape May Point SP

American White Pelican   Tip Seaman Park

Great Blue Heron   Cape May Point SP

Great Egret   Cape May Point SP

Turkey Vulture   Tip Seaman Park

Cooper's Hawk   Lily Lake

Bald Eagle   GSP MM 48

Red-shouldered Hawk   Cape May Point SP

American Coot   Cape May Point SP

Ruddy Turnstone   Coral Ave. dune crossing

Sanderling   Coral Ave. dune crossing

Dunlin   Cape May NWR--Two Mile Unit

Purple Sandpiper   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Bonaparte's Gull   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Ring-billed Gull   Cape May Point SP

Herring Gull   Tip Seaman Park

Great Black-backed Gull   Cape May Meadows

Rock Pigeon   Cape May Point SP

Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd

Red-bellied Woodpecker   CMBO Northwood Center

Downy Woodpecker   CMBO Northwood Center

Northern Flicker   Cape May Point SP

Blue Jay   Cape May Point SP

American Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Tree Swallow   Cape May Meadows

Carolina Chickadee   Cape May Point SP

Tufted Titmouse   CMBO Northwood Center

Red-breasted Nuthatch   Harvard Ave, Cape May Pt

White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

Carolina Wren   Cape May Point SP

American Robin   Coral Ave. dune crossing

Gray Catbird   Cape May Point SP

Northern Mockingbird   Cape May SP--entrance

European Starling   Cape May Point SP

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Cape May Point SP

Yellow-breasted Chat   Cape May Point SP

White-throated Sparrow   Cape May Point SP

Song Sparrow   Cape May Point SP

Northern Cardinal   Cape May Point SP

Red-winged Blackbird   Cape May Point SP

Common Grackle   Coral Ave. dune crossing

Brown-headed Cowbird   Coral Ave. dune crossing

House Finch   35 Sunset Rd

American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd

House Sparrow   Cape May--Lehigh Ave