Manahawkin WMA 8/2--Roseate Spoonbill

There aren't many birds that would get me to abandon Whitesbog while the bogs are drawn down (FOMO), but a Roseate Spoonbill is definitely one of them.  And, since I stubbornly refuse to subscribe to most of the rare bird alerts (it's a signal to noise ratio problem), it was simply dumb luck that I found out about it. I was standing on the cross dike between the Middle & Upper Bogs with Scott and Debra when Scott got the alert that there was a spoonbill in Manahawkin. "I gotta go," I said half excited, half dreading the 40 minute drive down. But I figured the bird would stick and a big pink wading bird will usually stand out even from a distance. 

Of course Scott and Debra also went down and we added to the crowd of 20+ birders already there. Stafford Avenue has probably never had that much traffic on it. Cars were strewn everywhere. 

The spoonbill was easy to see in the shallow pool from a little hill at the trail head, but impossible to photograph with all the phragmites and vegetation blowing back and forth. Fortunately, I was wearing my permethrin pants and socks so I plunged into the waist-high grass--Manahawkin is mowed for the hunters in the fall, the birders they don't care about. My only fear was that I would flush the bird and ruin it for the others but I found an opening far enough away that afforded a decent angle and was still distant enough not to perturb the bird. The results, as you can see, are not going to win any awards. The bird eventually flew to the far shore of the pool (not my fault) where it was not blocked by green stuff but smaller in the photos. And I seem to have escaped tick-free.

A very cool county bird, one that I have chased a couple of times with no luck--once, at Island Beach on a hot weekend and once at an obscure marina down at Tuckerton. 

And tomorrow: Back to Whitesbog--the Middle Bog is drawing down.