Manasquan Inlet 2/4--Red-necked Grebe

It wasn't until Mike & I made our last stop, at Manasquan Inlet, after birding 10 different spots, that I finally got a year bird, and it wasn't easy, standing in a light rain on the jetty, scanning the swells, waiting for the Red-necked Grebe to pop up from one of its dives. I thought I had had a year bird earlier in the day at Sylvan Lake when we found a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the mixed gull flock standing on the ice, but after checking my year list, it was only a county bird (Monmouth) as we had one in Burlington a couple of weeks ago. There was no chance I was going to get a photo of that grebe today, out in the mouth of the inlet, with my slow-focusing camera

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Trumpeter Swans on Assunpink Lake

We started the day at Assunpink. Four of the Trumpeter Swans continued on the main part of the lake and we saw another Cackling Goose as well. The lake was rich with waterfowl--we had Redheads, Canvasbacks, Ring-neck Ducks, pintails, Buffleheads and more. In all we had 43 species at that stop, but the one we had come to look for, the Long-eared Owl, we struck out on. A hard to find bird, even if you know exactly where it is, we only had a vague notion of the area in which had been sighted, and despite more than a half hour of looking for owl wash on pines and cedars, and debating whether the dried white stuff was shit or sap, we gave up. It didn't help my mood to see another birder list the owl a little while after we left.

We went to the Shark River to look for the long-staying Eurasian Wigeon and found no wigeons at all. Then we started heading south (had we gone north we might have been in the vicinity of a Barnacle Goose that was reported when we were too far away to head back) checking the various ponds. That's where we had the Lesser Black-backed Gull. Most of the ponds were mostly frozen, so there were lots of standing waterfowl. Unfortunately, at Wreck Pond, we couldn't come up with the Tufted Duck. Naturally, it was reported after we left from the only vantage point we didn't try. 

Do you detect a theme of frustration here? Good, because now we're bringing frustration up a level to jumping up and down aggravation. We decided to try Manasquan Inlet as the weather was deteriorating, but stopped first to check out the sand bar in the river from the dead end of Baltimore Avenue. I checked eBird and saw that not one, but two gulls I need as Ocean County lifers had been reported about an hour and a half earlier at Lake of the Lilies, 5 minutes away. We got over there and saw a decent sized flock of gulls mostly standing on the ice. They weren't there in overwhelming numbers, so we had a chance to look at each and every Ring-bill, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gull and not see either the  Iceland or Black-headed Gull that had been there in the morning. I need those gulls

A few years ago, if you wanted to find a Redhead in Ocean County, your best bet was to go to Riverfront Landing in Toms River, sort through the Canvasbacks and hope to fine one. So last year, local birders were astounding to find them in hundreds in the bay area off Brick. The trend continues with big numbers on Lake of the Lilies this year. And, unlike last year when they were bobbing in the bay, they are very close and photographable. 

After our third or fourth scan of the gull flock we got an alert from a couple of birders who had just departed the lake that the Red-necked Grebe was at the inlet. Another 5 minute drive plus a 5 minute walk onto the jetty. We ran into Scott and Linda who were just coming off the jetty and assured us the grebe was still there. After looking the entire length of the inlet, Mike spotted the bird and it dove. I didn't see it the first, second, or third time it came up from its dive, a couple of times mistaking a Red-breasted Merganser hen for the bird. But then, when I was just about to dismiss the bird I was looking at as the merganser again, I realized it wasn't a duck and was, thank you, the Red-necked Grebe. With the rain coming down ever harder, we decided that 70 species was a pretty good day despite missing so many targets. Our last bird of the day was a Merlin Mike spotted zooming through as we sat at a light on Highway 35 in Wall. It was the 2nd Merlin I've seen this year at a traffic light!

My list for the day, with the locations visited:
Assunpink WMA; Highway 35, Wall; Lake Como; Lake of the Lilies; Maclearie Park; Manasquan Inlet; Shark River; Shark River Inlet; Spring Lake, Sylvan Lake; Wreck Pond

Snow Goose   1

Brant   406

Cackling Goose   1

Canada Goose   960

Mute Swan   177

Trumpeter Swan   4

Northern Shoveler   6

Gadwall   8

American Wigeon   6

Mallard   45

American Black Duck   20

Northern Pintail   3

Canvasback   7

Redhead   55

Ring-necked Duck   25

Greater Scaup   10

Lesser Scaup   2

Surf Scoter   2

Black Scoter   5

Long-tailed Duck   20

Bufflehead   202

Common Goldeneye   1

Hooded Merganser   82

Common Merganser   300

Red-breasted Merganser   22

Ruddy Duck   30

Common Loon   19

Horned Grebe   4

Red-necked Grebe   1

Double-crested Cormorant   1

Great Blue Heron   1

Black Vulture   1

Turkey Vulture   1

Cooper's Hawk   1

Bald Eagle   1

Red-tailed Hawk   3

American Coot   30

Sanderling   15

Purple Sandpiper   40

Ring-billed Gull   469

Herring Gull   970

Lesser Black-backed Gull   2

Great Black-backed Gull   151

Rock Pigeon   8

Mourning Dove   16

Red-bellied Woodpecker   3

Downy Woodpecker   2

Hairy Woodpecker   1

Northern Flicker   1

Merlin   1

Blue Jay   3

American Crow   2

Fish Crow   1

Carolina Chickadee   2

Tufted Titmouse   1

White-breasted Nuthatch   2

Carolina Wren   1

American Robin   15

Northern Mockingbird   1

European Starling   5

Yellow-rumped Warbler   5

Field Sparrow   3

White-throated Sparrow   3

Song Sparrow   5

Northern Cardinal   1

Red-winged Blackbird   1000

Common Grackle   30

Boat-tailed Grackle   1

House Finch   1

American Goldfinch   1

House Sparrow   10