Manasquan Inlet 2/6--Razorbill

Razorbill
Photo: Peggy Cadigan

I was standing at the grassy edge of Lake of the Lilies in Point Pleasant Beach, counting coots, when my friend Peggy Cadigan pulled up. Yesterday, I had noticed, she found a Razorbill off the jetty at the Manasquan Inlet and it was in my mind to take a look to see if it (or another very much like it) would still be there. She was also heading that way, so after adding American Coot and Lesser Scaup to my Ocean County list, I met her at the end of the jetty. You don't get many alcids from shore in New Jersey, despite the Dovekie that some lucky birder found off the jetty at Barnegat Light yesterday, so it's always worth a look. But there is a lot of ocean you can see from the jetty and I wasn't really that hopeful. We were chatting about past Razorbills we'd seen at the inlet and some of them had been very cooperative and near while I scanned the water with the scope. I was just doing a slow sweep through scattered gulls and loons when, boing! "And there it is," I said.

Just dumb luck. Now the trick was to get Peggy on it which was a little difficult since the bird must get frequent diver points. Every time Peggy looked in my scope the all she saw was blue water. Finally, after about 5 tries the bird stayed up long enough for her to get a shot with her camera, for which I am very grateful as mine doesn't have the power or the fast-focusing ability to make getting a doc shot possible. Peggy also took a photo of a Horned Grebe that I missed. I stayed for about 20 minutes after she left, but never did find it. A lot of ocean out there.

End of the jetty, Manasquan Inlet

For my 50 minutes of standing there in surprisingly pleasant winter weather (it is Point Pleasant after all) I had 10 species:

Brant  50
American Black Duck  1
Long-tailed Duck  8     most close to jetty
Red-breasted Merganser  1     Far jetty
Common Loon  10     Ocean and inlet
Purple Sandpiper  3
Razorbill  1
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  25
Great Black-backed Gull  1