Island Beach SP 3/20--Piping Plover, Northern Gannet

Because I didn't really feel like walking the beach at the southern end of Island Beach SP, I made a deal with myself: as soon as I saw the birds I was looking for, I would turn around. If I saw them after 50 feet, turn around. But if I had to walk all the way to jetty, I would. Of course, I could slog through the mile or so of sand down to the jetty and still not see my birds, but that's what makes it fun, right? 

The sea was rough and the water was coming up almost to the dunes, so in some places it was hard going and in some places the sand was like cement--the problem being that the soft stuff and hard stuff were almost indistinguishable. There wasn't much bird activity along the way--even the gulls were scarce.  I'd seen a few Long-tailed Ducks in the surf and a couple of Great Black-backed Gulls on the beach after about a 3/4 of a mile when in front of me, in a tire track, I saw two little sand-colored shorebirds scurrying away from me. "Please don't be Sanderlings," I said, and put my scope on them. Yes, what I'd come for, Piping Plovers. Steve thinks they're harbingers of spring and since today is the equinox, maybe they are. 

It seems to me that only recently have Piping Plovers made their way north over the inlet to Island Beach--Barnegat Light was the spot you had to go to find them, walking along the stringed off alley that the beach wardens would create to protest their nests. Now they seem to have discovered Island Beach, much to the chagrin of fishermen because at Island Beach they close off an entire section to protect the nesting birds. 

I also thought it was interesting that there were no bands that I could see on these two birds. They're so threatened that I thought every bird was tracked but these two rogues escaped surveillance, so far. 

I was good to my word to myself, even though I was pretty close to the jetty. Instead, I stood there for a while and scanned the ocean, getting a bonus species when 3 Northern Gannets flew north, low over the water. One of my favorite bird activities to watch is gannets plunge diving into the ocean, but these birds weren't hunting, they were traveling. 

I spent the rest of the morning at various spots in the park, looking to fill the lacunae in my list with land birds I have missed so far and didn't find a one. I knew from looking at list the few days that there weren't many birds being found, but still, when you can't find them, you can't help but feel you're doing something wrong.