LBI 1/6--Ross's Goose and Lots of Ducks

Ross's Geese

 On Sunday's Barnegat Christmas Bird Count, two rare species of geese were found--the Greater White-fronted Geese that Mike and I discovered in a town park in Ocean Acres, and two Ross's Geese on the lawn of Maris Stella, a Catholic conference center on LBI. According to my de facto rules, these were worth chasing, but I wasn't able to until this morning. Of course, when I drove up to the property on Long Beach Boulevard, there wasn't a goose in sight. Ah well, on to Barnegat Light SP where I could do some real birding.

At the park I ticked off the Barnegat Light specialties--Harlequin Duck, Purple Sandpiper, Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich ssp.), along with Great Cormorants and a lot of different ducks, including all 3 scoter species. The scoters made me especially happy, because for some reason, it is always difficult for me to track down White-winged Scoter in the county. I also had a couple of American Wigeon in the pool behind the dunes, which is unusual for the park, and a small flock of Black-bellied Plovers standing on the edge of the pool. 

Harlequin Ducks

I couldn't get onto the jetty from the beach. The tide was as high as I've seen it, and the tidal pools ran the length of the jetty so there was no access to it unless you ducked under the railings at the end of the concrete walkway and walked that slippery path--which I don't do no more. It was fine, I could see the Harlequins from the beach, and the other ducks were easily viewed from other points. 

The duck I don't get at the light is Common Goldeneye, so I left some energy to go down to Sunset Park in Harvey Cedars to look for them in that historical spot. On the way down I passed the Maris Stella conference center and saw 9 geese feeding on the grass. (Orthographic digression: it is Maris Stella which means Ocean Star instead of the expected Stella Maris which would mean Star of the Sea and the transposition that a lot of birders have put down for the Ross's Geese. I hate the spelling of "Ross's." I was taught that a to make the possessive of a word that ends in 's' you merely put the apostrophe at the end of the word, avoiding the ugly double "s's." With "Ross's" you wind up with three esses in a row--really atrocious typography.) 

It was easy to see that there were no Ross's in with the 9 geese and I was just about to completely pass the center when I saw a bigger flock of geese in the back. Screeching to a halt, I got out, walked back to the driveway where I could get a better angle, and there, feeding next to a shed and partially blocked by a wooden platform, were the two Ross's. According to one birder, he'd see them at Sunset Park early in the morning, and then they flew up to the center's grounds. Very satisfying to find them.

At Sunset Park, there were about a billion Brant, lots of Buffleheads, a few mergansers and Greater Scaup, but no goldeneyes that I could find in what open water there was. I stopped at my back up spot at 24th Street where I almost always find a goldeneye in winter, and there may have been one there but if it was, it was mixed in with a mile-long skein of scaup and I had neither the optics nor the patience to find one. Next time. 

32 species for a winter day.

Species   Count
Ross's Goose   2
Brant   350
Canada Goose   95
American Wigeon   2
Mallard   38
American Black Duck   30
Greater Scaup   25
Harlequin Duck   9
Surf Scoter   3
White-winged Scoter   1
Black Scoter   2
Long-tailed Duck   32
Bufflehead   137
Red-breasted Merganser   23
Black-bellied Plover   20
Sanderling   4
Purple Sandpiper   1
American Herring Gull   155
Great Black-backed Gull   3
Common Loon   5
Great Cormorant   12
Great Blue Heron   1
American Crow   1
Carolina Wren   1
European Starling   60
American Robin   27
House Sparrow   1
House Finch   5
Savannah Sparrow   1
Song Sparrow   1
Yellow-rumped Warbler   4
Northern Cardinal   3