Bay Parkway | Lighthouse Center 4/2--White Ibis, Glossy Ibis

White Ibis, Waretown

On a thoroughly miserable morning--drizzly, cold, and windy--I was determined to get something new on the list. I started down at Eno's Pond in Forked River, thinking that I might find some new tweety birds in the woods--negative on that, but I did come across enough birds like a flock of Green-winged Teal and 3 Ospreys fighting over one platform, to keep it interesting and my mind off the damp conditions. 

Then, despite hating gusty winds, I drove down the road a few miles to Bay Parkway in Waretown to check out the marsh. After missing them last time, I found a small gathering of White Ibis feeding just off the road--not the flock of 23 that had been reported, but just 9 in my count. But you only need one. I know I've pointed this out before, but there was a time not too long ago when one White Ibis had birders running from all over the state to see it, and now flocks of them are grazing in marshes all over the southern counties. They're not even listed as rare anymore. It struck me as significant that I listed White Ibis before I had seen the much more common Glossy Ibis.  

Tricolored Herons, Lighthouse Center

Which I remedied at my next stop down in Barnegat, the Lighthouse Center. It took me a while, but after standing on top of a bench and scanning the distant marsh, I found one Glossy Ibis feeding in the spartina. It was way too distant for photographs, especially since I could barely keep my balance in the wind, but I know I'll see enough of them during the course of the year. I suppose there was a one in ten thousand chance that the brown ibis could have been a White-faced Ibis, but you have to go with the odds--otherwise, your list will be all slashes and spuhs. 

Having seen two ibises for the morning, I decided that the weather wasn't going to improve--and it didn't--so called it a day and drove back home.