Wawa South Toms River 4/1--Laughing Gull

On my way up to Sandy Hook for Scott's flash field trip, I stopped at the Wawa in South Toms River for auto and body fuel. Among my many quirks, I keep a list of birds I've seen at the various Wawas I've stopped at (best bird: Muscovy Duck in Cape Coral, Florida), so I'm always on the lookout for interesting birds, especially on the first day of the month when all the birds are "new."

There was a fair-sized flock of Fish Crows making noise around the parking lot. They were chasing a few gulls around which I didn't think much of until I remembered that even before this Wawa was built, this little section of road, right before the parkway, with a couple of cheesy strip malls and a now practically moribund 7-11, has been a spot where I've seen Laughing Gulls as a year and/or county bird, and, sure enough, those were LAGUs being harassed by the crows.

And that, despite watching a great raptor flight at the Hook and seeing plenty of other birds, was my only year bird for the day, because, typically, I missed the couple of Palm Warblers that a few in the group spotted.

Since I don't like to frequent to hawk watches (was that a hawk or a floater?), I have never seen as many Red-shouldered Hawks--and good looks, not just soaring silhouettes--as I did today. I listed 8, but there could have been 10, 12--it's hard to say since we had the impression that birds would fly north, take one look at the bay, decide against trying to fly across to NY, and turn south, so we were wary of double-counting. Other raptors we saw were Cooper's Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, American Kestrels, and, just standing around in the parking, a couple of Northern Harriers, not to mention the already ubiquitous Ospreys.

Since my Wawa list is not very long or interesting, below is my kick off the month list from Sandy Hook:
58 species
Brant 150
Canada Goose 22
Mute Swan 1 North Pond
Mallard 2 Salt Pond
American Black Duck 4
Ring-necked Duck 4
Bufflehead 15
Red-breasted Merganser 25
Red-throated Loon 1
Common Loon 1
Pied-billed Grebe 1 North Pond
Horned Grebe 4
Northern Gannet 3
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Egret 4
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 16
Osprey 9
Northern Harrier 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 6
Cooper's Hawk 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 8
Red-tailed Hawk 2
American Oystercatcher 14
Black-bellied Plover 16
Piping Plover 4
Killdeer 1
Sanderling 1
Herring Gull 275
Great Black-backed Gull 25
Mourning Dove 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 3 Scattered around the hook
American Kestrel 2
Merlin 1
Eastern Phoebe 5
American Crow 1
Fish Crow 5
Common Raven 1 Possibly two. Heard one radar area, saw one at Coast Guard Station
Tree Swallow 10
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren 1 Heard
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 10
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 100
Cedar Waxwing 15
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Field Sparrow 2 Heard
Song Sparrow 3
Swamp Sparrow 1
Eastern Towhee 2
Northern Cardinal 2 Heard
Red-winged Blackbird 25
Common Grackle 8
Boat-tailed Grackle 1 Spermaceti Cove
House Finch 3 Bike Trail near Boy Scout Camp