Horicon Lake 3/27--Laughing Gull

Laughing Gull

Over the last week I've been adding to the year list, but the birds haven't been in range of a camera. 

On Sunday I drove down to Manahawkin at sunset, walked into the fields and waited for a few minutes until I heard "peent!" Turned around, went home with American Woodcock on the list and feeling like that was about the silliest thing I've done all year. I used to be able to hear them (and sometime see them) about a mile from here in our local community garden, but the past couple of years they've been absent, so desperate measures were required.

Tuesday I was at Tuckerton and scoped an Osprey on a snag, too far off for my camera, not that I need to add to the catalog of billions of Osprey photos. Then yesterday, walking down Hawkin Road in Colliers Mills, I heard my first Eastern Towhee of the year. Heard it calling multiple times, but it had no interest in posing for pictures. 

This morning it was raining so I decided to do a couple of stupid errands. The first was to drive to the dump and deposit our recycling can in the Rigid Plastics dumpster, since it had cracked from being thrown around so much by the waste management company and then I drove to Lowe's to get a new one. At least I could get rid of the old one. In Brooklyn I used to say that the only thing you couldn't throw away was a garbage can. 

Bald Eagle female before romance

By the time I was finished it had stopped raining, so I went over to Horicon Lake just to see what was around. Geese and Mallards of course, but looking over my shoulder, I saw a Bald Eagle in a nearby tree. Eagles certainly aren't rare at Horicon, but when another eagle flew in and, ahem, copulated with the other, that was a first for me, but then, I don't get out much. 

Walking along the lake shore there were a few Buffleheads and about 20 Ring-necked Ducks (you can't really count diving ducks because at any one time about a third of them are under water), but the year bird that made me say, "Finally," was a Laughing Gull that flew in to take a dip and then flew off again after a minute.  I had been contemplating going over to the Wawa on the Lakehurst Circle (which I just found out is officially the Eisenhower Circle) to see if any laughers were in the parking lot. I'd already checked out Costco a couple of days before. For my little walk I had 20 species.

Canada Goose  25
Mallard  8
Mallard (Domestic type)  1
American Black Duck  2
Ring-necked Duck  20
Bufflehead  6
Laughing Gull  1
Turkey Vulture  2
Bald Eagle  2     
Northern Flicker  2
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  2
Carolina Wren  1
American Robin  15
House Sparrow  5
Song Sparrow  1
Swamp Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  1
Common Grackle  1
Pine Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  1

Bye-bye