Harvey Cedars & Barnegat Lighthouse SP 1/8

Hen & drake Harlequin Ducks

I'm usually not a very good birding ambassador (I hear that some people even refer to me as "The Curmudgeon" hmph!), but sometimes, inadvertently, I'll find myself giving strangers birding advice, as I did today at Barnegat Lighthouse when I saw a couple on the concrete walkway excitedly taking pictures of Brant. "Well, photographers," I said to myself, "they take pictures of anything," but, when I saw them eyeing the jetty from the end of the walk, I asked them what they were looking for, knowing the answer was probably Harlequin Ducks, which it was.  As to the Brant, since they're from North Carolina, they turned out to be lifers for them, so their excitement was understandable. 

Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich ssp)

I told them they could walk the jetty, but since the Harlequins would be all the way at the end of it, the less hazardous, and more birdy, route was to walk around the pond, which is what I do. They took my advice, and we walked up the berm and around the pond. There were a few treats along the way, like a Snow Bunting posing and the Ipswich subspecies of Savannah Sparrow picking at the rocks along the jetty. When I got to end of the beach, I climbed up to the jetty and could see the Harlequins a little farther down where the jetty extends into the water. They climbed up and I pointed out the ducks, saying "I don't need photos, so this is as far as I go." I got photos anyway, as a couple of ducks were sitting on a rock, not too far from my position. 

I also saw my first Purple Sandpipers of the year, my first Dunlins, and my first Ruddy Turnstone, so I ticked all the boxes for what you'll usually get there this time of year. However, none of the rarities I'd been reading about on the eBird alerts were there that I could see. I look at flocks of gulls or shorebirds, but if something doesn't leap out at me the cold starts to seep in and I have to get moving again. I certainly don't spend time scanning an empty ocean or sky, waiting for the rare flyby.

Cackling Goose (probably), Canada Geese

But, speaking of leaping out at me--it didn't exactly happen like that at Harvey Cedars, where I stopped before going up to the tip of the Island, but I did find, I think, a Cackling Goose that was reported there. I purposely made it my first stop so I wouldn't be too tired after Barnegat to look for Common Goldeneye--Sunset Park is the go-to spot in Ocean County for that duck. On the lawn were about 50 Canada Geese. I can stand scanning a flock of 50. Nothing looked outstanding until I got to the last goose on the left--it seemed smaller, shorter necked, maybe the beak was stubbier than the others. It stood aloof from the rest of the geese, seeming not to want to have anything to do with them. I circled around the flock and half the time I said "no" to myself and half the time I said "yeah," and when it got to be 51% "yeah," I listed it as a Cackler. There are so many subspecies of Cackling Goose (as well as Canada Goose) and the variation so wide that unless the goose is the size of a Mallard (or someone much more knowledgeable tells me so), I'm never really convinced. 

And I found one Common Goldeneye in the bay. I only need one.