Sandy Hook & the North Shore 1/14--11 year birds

Cedar Waxwings, Boy Scout Camp parking lot, Sandy Hook

I looked up "idiot (n)" in the dictionary and next to the definition of "one who hates the cold but insists on going up to Sandy Hook with the temperature in the low teens and the wind in the low twenties" was my picture. But Scott and Linda were running one of my favorite trips so I put on five layers above the waist and two layers below and two sets of gloves and two pairs of socks and it wasn't so bad except I couldn't feel my feet after about a half hour and just getting my car keys out of my pocket required complicated logistics in order to expose my hand to the weather for the minimum amount of time possible.

However, no sooner had I pulled into Parking Lot B at the Hook, long before the scheduled start time,  than I got a year bird, a Northern Mockingbird. That, at least, is what's good about this time of the year--you have to get even the most common birds a first time, so that keeps your mind off the fact that frost bite is imminent. We did some seawatching from the beach and I added White-winged Scoter to the year list, which I thought was great since last year it took until November before I had that duck on the list.  Conditions were painful there with the wind; fortunately, Scott knows a few sites on the Hook that are protected from the wind, so we headed north up the peninsula stopping to look at both the bay and ocean in several spots. Highlights for me were my first Cedar Waxwings (a household favorite) at the Boy Scout Camp parking lot, and Snow Buntings, American Tree Sparrows and an immature White-crowned Sparrow at North Beach.
24 species
Brant 30
Canada Goose 60
Greater Scaup 2
White-winged Scoter 20
Black Scoter 15
Long-tailed Duck 30
Bufflehead 3
Common Goldeneye 3
Red-breasted Merganser 1 Horseshoe Cove
Common Loon 1
Ring-billed Gull 20
Herring Gull 115
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Robin 10
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 5
Cedar Waxwing 10
Snow Bunting 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
American Tree Sparrow 4
White-crowned Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 2
Late morning we left the Hook for various spots along the North Shore. We didn't linger very long in any one spot; if there was nothing "interesting" at one site, we'd just go south to another. Monmouth Beach didn't have anything new, but Seven Presidents Park in Long Branch turned up a couple of year birds for me:
5 species
Canada Goose 25
Long-tailed Duck 3
Bonaparte's Gull 1
Gray Catbird 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5
Then it was on to Lake Takanassee to look for rare gulls, none of which were present. However, this is also a reliable spot for American Coot and as it happened, I "needed" American Coot. I was so intent on getting the coot that I missed 3 Snow Geese that were mixed in with the Canada Geese. Fortunately, I didn't "need" Snow Goose, not even for Monmouth County.

American Coot, Lake Takanassee

8 species
Canada Goose 100
Mute Swan 1
Mallard 2 Drake & Hen
American Black Duck 3
Hooded Merganser 1 Drake
American Coot 3
Ring-billed Gull 100
Herring Gull 25
Nothing much at Pullman Avenue, a few blocks south and most of the group called it a day there. However, a few stalwart souls continued down to Corlies Avenue in Allenhurst, just north of Asbury Park. It was there, in the breakers, that I got my last year bird for the day, a very fleeting look at a Horned Grebe bobbing in the waves. 
6 species
Greater Scaup 50
Long-tailed Duck 20
Horned Grebe 1
Sanderling 11
Ring-billed Gull 100
Herring Gull 50
Toward the end of the day the temperatures had risen to the high twenties. It was almost pleasant, out of the wind. "Now would be a great time to bird," I thought. "And if I could just feel my feet, I might consider it."