Adventures in Chasing: Ocean County 9/3--Wood Stork, Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope, New Egypt

Quite a day in Ocean County. It isn't too often that I can list two county lifers in the same day.

Yesterday, early in the morning, there was a text alert from Alex and Karmela that they had 2 Wood Storks down in the Barnegat impoundments. Caveat: they were in a boat. Birds weren't viewable from land. I felt a mixture of regret and relief--regret that I couldn't add this very cool wanderer to my OC list, relief that I didn't have to drag Shari out of bed to go try for it. Instead, we went to Burlington County and added Upland Sandpiper to her year list.

Today I was up in Monmouth County, walking on the Union Transportation Trail, about a quarter mile from my car when Karmela again sent out an alert about the storks--this time they were roosting in a tree and could be viewed (scope necessary) from the cut on Bayshore Drive. I ditched my plan to go look for a Monmouth County uppie and drove 40+ miles down to Barnegat. I missed the Roseate Spoonbill earlier this summer, I didn't want to let this one get away.

When I arrived, a group of birders were standing around and within a minute I saw the two storks--big white lumps in a distant tree, but their dark heads, long bills, and black wing tips were showing, so I knew I wasn't just looking at a couple of egrets. I took some very bad digiscope photos. This is the best of them:

Wood Storks

Not nearly the looks I got at Sandy Hook last month, but then, Sandy Hook isn't in Ocean County.

I got home, feeling pretty good, when my phone started blowing up with alerts and texts: there was a Red-necked Phalarope in the magic cattle fields (to call them pastures would be to insult grass) out in New Egypt. I have a proprietary feeling about those fields, since that's where Shari & I found the Northern Lapwings 4 years ago. I had just stopped there on Friday and noted that the puddles had a few shorebirds in them. Before I was diverted by the Wood Storks, I had planned to stop there again today after looking for uppies. The best laid plans...

I put my boots back on, ran back out to the car, explained to the quizzical neighbors who had just seen me come home that there was a rare bird and in 20 minutes I was out in the fields, which really, really stink, by the way, and the smell clings to your car long after you've left. Red-necked Phalarope is a distinctive looking bird. I knew exactly where to look. The puddles were close by the road. And fortunately there was a birder I knew there, because it took me a long time, with her patient directions, before I could find the bird. Suddenly, after almost random scanning, it popped into my scope view. She left to go for the Wood Storks and I stayed on for a while. The phalarope, despite being white on the flanks and face, disappeared into the mud and shit easily, especially when it went into the water--then its patterned back and black-capped head would blend nicely with surround muck and mire.

Of course, it didn't help when the cattle decided to clomp through the puddle, sending the phalarope off to another part of the field. I thought I'd lost it for good when it came flying back to the same spot. It must really like that puddle. I had digiscoped one photo (above) but now that it was a bit closer, I took out my camera and started taking some shots.

And, naturally, as I was taking photographs of this very active little bird, this stomped into my viewfinder:


And then this guy/gal came to check me out (female longhorns also have horns and I wasn't inclined to peer back and behind). This seemed like a good time to pack it in--especially since some of the cattle were getting through the fence and flopping down on the road

Neither bird was a year bird. But both are very nice additions to my county life list which stands at 282.

After the cattle moved out of the way