Barnegat Lighthouse SP 6/18--Roseate Tern

Roseate Tern

The weather didn't look promising this morning, but I'd already decided to go to Barnegat Lighthouse SP where some interesting terns have been reported the last few days. The park can be a little difficult to bird once it has been cordoned off for the nesting birds (skimmers, oystercatchers, Piping Plovers, Least Terns) because the pool beyond the strings is only visible through breaks in the dunes. Walking the narrow corridor between the jetty and dunes I did see the Piping Plovers scurrying around and the oystercatchers running along the beach, but the pool itself didn't seem to hold much beyond gulls. 

Brants

I did find a rarity though--2 summering Brants were loafing near the jetty. As someone who doesn't like to travel, my sympathy was with them. I can just imagine one saying to the other, "Do you really want to fly all the way up to the Arctic, stay a few weeks, and then come all the way back here? For what? The hell with propagating our genes, let's stay here and eat eelgrass." 

Meanwhile, the air was getting milkier as I got closer to the ocean. I'd already given up on finding the rare terns and was just hoping that I'd see a pelican before the air got too tense. Using my scope, I could barely make out a big flock of Black Scoters beyond the old 8th Street jetty--a few Black Scoters in summer is not unusual, but this big a flock broke, around 25, broke the eBird filter. Turning around, I saw some gulls sitting on the beach and just beyond them the first stationary terns of the day--lots had been flying around, including some aggressive Least Terns. Turning my scope to them I immediately saw the tern I'd come for--a Roseate Tern with 6 or 7 Common Terns and a couple of Least Terns. Roseate Tern is a hard bird for me to find--this is only my third sighting. I've probably overlooked them lots of times, since they're so similar to Common Terns--their roseate blush is subtle to say the least. In my photos I can see a hint of it, but through the scope it didn't show. What alerted me to the possibility was an unfamiliar tern call. I played the call and thought that it might match what I'd heard from a bird flying overhead, but I certainly wasn't about to list a bird on that basis. There have been as many as 7 Roseate Terns reported there the last couple of days, and in the now dense fog, I thought I might have seen a second, but I dast not approach any closer, less I flush them. As it was, after a few minutes and a few photos through the scrim, they flew off toward the ocean. Which I could no longer see. Nor could I see the jetty from where I stood, nor could I see more than about 50 feet south of me. I looked at my scope and just laughed. 

Black Skimmer

Fortunately, as I walked away from the water, visibility improved. I never did see a pelican but logged 39 species in the gloaming. 

Brant  2     
Mallard  2
Black Scoter  25     
Mourning Dove  3
American Oystercatcher  7
Piping Plover  5
Willet  3
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1     Stringed off area
Laughing Gull  30
American Herring Gull  25
Great Black-backed Gull  10
Black Skimmer  2
Least Tern  7
Common Tern  25
Roseate Tern  1     
Double-crested Cormorant  11
Glossy Ibis  1
Black-crowned Night Heron  1
Snowy Egret  1
Osprey  1
Willow Flycatcher  1     Heard dunes
Eastern Kingbird  1
White-eyed Vireo  1     Heard parking lot
Fish Crow  3
Carolina Chickadee  1     Heard parking lot
Barn Swallow  2
Carolina Wren  1
European Starling  1
Northern Mockingbird  1
American Robin  1
House Sparrow  15
House Finch  4
Song Sparrow  5
Eastern Towhee  1
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Boat-tailed Grackle  4
Common Yellowthroat  2
Yellow Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  3