Colliers Mills 4/1--Brown Thrasher

Brown Thrasher

I guess it's going to be one at a time. I went to Colliers Mills early this morning, figuring the woods would fill in the lacunae on my year list, but as so often happens, the only new bird for the year was just a few steps away from my car. As soon as I got out, I was hit with birdsong from all points, mostly the familiar species, but there were more songs at a more rapid pace than you'd expect. And the songs were repeat twice. I walked back into the little maintenance yard hoping I could find the source--figuring it was a mimid I looked at the tops of all the trees and soon found my FOY Brown Thrasher. It's funny how you just know sometimes that the bird you're hearing is not the familiar one, but a close relative--to the naive ear, mockingbirds and thrashers sound pretty much the same, but once you become attuned to the difference, the thrasher is clearer, more articulate, and (this is the easiest part) mimics other birdsong twice, where a mockingbird tends to go thrice. Would that I could parse warbler song so easily. 

The rest of the list had a couple of interesting species on it--the Red-headed Woodpeckers were easy to find today and no playback required, and on Turnmill Lake I found two Horned Grebes, one of them already in full breeding plumage. Horned Grebes are very unusual at Colliers Mills--I thought they might be the first ones I'd seen there, but looking at my patch list, I found that I first saw them, on Turnmill, on March 31, 2015. I suppose every 11 years makes them infrequent. 

Horned Grebes

31 species
Canada Goose  7
Wood Duck  3
Mallard  3
Ring-necked Duck  2
Mourning Dove  4
Killdeer  1
Ring-billed Gull  1     Flyover
Horned Grebe  2
Great Blue Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Northern Flicker  7
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  6
Carolina Chickadee  7
Tufted Titmouse  6
Brown Thrasher  1
Northern Mockingbird  1
American Robin  13
Field Sparrow  2
Dark-eyed Junco  4
White-throated Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Swamp Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  1
Red-winged Blackbird  7
Brown-headed Cowbird  4
Pine Warbler  10
Northern Cardinal  5

March Review--Lion/Lamb Edition

Bald Eagle atop cell tower "disguised" as pine tree,
Bay Head

I have a birding friend who is quite a bit older than me. Exactly how old I don't know because my mother taught me it was impolite to talk about age or weight, but for the sake of this story, let's say he is around 10 years my senior, maybe a little more. When I first met him--well, it was hard not to meet him because he was everywhere, especially where a rare bird was reported. He is in pictures we have from the day in New Egypt when we found the lapwings--this was before I knew him.  He consistently led the state in species seen every year. The joke with we birders who were then clinging to the notion that we were still middle-aged was, "I want to be like D when I grow up." 

I remember once down at the Bridge to Nowhere, about a year after the lapwing sighting so it was January, we ran into each other and were chatting--down the road I saw a small falcon--"There's a Merlin," I said.

"I need Merlin for the year," D said, jumped in his car and raced down the road. 

I caught up to him a few minutes later and said to him, "D, you're gonna see a Merlin this year."

"You know, at my age, maybe not," he replied. 

Having had a significant birthday this month (remember it is impolite to discuss age), I was thinking that I was at least D's age now as he was then. So I asked myself, "Now that I'm grown up, am I like D?" 

Well, in terms of doggedness, in that I bird every day that I won't get soaked, yes, but only in that regard. It's an amusing habit.  I can't get so excited about a common bird that I'm going to race down a bumpy road to see it. My chasing circle gets smaller each year. I want the birds to be where I feel like being. Meanwhile, D is still leading the league in sightings. My wonder knows no bounds. 

For the month, which started off windy and snow-covered and ended in the 70's, I tallied 103 species, 14 of them year birds. That's a pretty low number for March, for me, according to my records, but I didn't get north of Manasquan Inlet nor south of Tuckerton this month--I stuck to Ocean and Burlington. I still haven't come across a catbird, a waxwing, a gnatcatcher, a thrasher--and you know, at my age...

Species   First Sighting
Brant   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Canada Goose   Holly Lake
Mute Swan   Holly Lake
Tundra Swan   Cranberry Bogs
Wood Duck   Whitesbog
American Wigeon   Holly Lake
Mallard   Holly Lake
American Black Duck   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Northern Pintail   Whitesbog
Green-winged Teal   Holly Lake
Redhead   Holly Lake
Ring-necked Duck   Holly Lake
Greater Scaup   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Lesser Scaup   Double Trouble SP
Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Scoter   Island Beach SP
Long-tailed Duck   Island Beach SP
Bufflehead   Holly Lake
Common Goldeneye   Cranberry Bogs
Hooded Merganser   Holly Lake
Common Merganser   Lake Carasaljo
Red-breasted Merganser   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Ruddy Duck   Lake of the Lilies
Wild Turkey   35 Sunset Rd
Rock Pigeon   West Creek Dock Rd.
Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd
American Coot   Bunker Hill Bogs
American Oystercatcher   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Killdeer   Cranberry Bogs
Piping Plover   Island Beach SP
American Woodcock   Manahawkin WMA
Wilson's Snipe   Cranberry Bogs
Greater Yellowlegs   Manahawkin WMA
Laughing Gull   Horicon Lake
Ring-billed Gull   Lake Carasaljo
American Herring Gull   Holly Lake
Great Black-backed Gull   Holly Lake
Pied-billed Grebe   Double Trouble SP
Horned Grebe   Whitesbog
Common Loon   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Northern Gannet   Island Beach SP
Great Cormorant   Island Beach SP
Double-crested Cormorant   Lake Carasaljo
Black-crowned Night Heron   Bayview Ave Park
Little Blue Heron   Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education
Tricolored Heron   Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education
Snowy Egret   Waretown
Great Egret   Double Trouble SP
Great Blue Heron   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Black Vulture   Bamber Lake
Turkey Vulture   West Creek Dock Rd.
Osprey   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Cooper's Hawk   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Harrier   West Creek Dock Rd.
Bald Eagle   Whitesbog
Red-shouldered Hawk   Whitesbog
Red-tailed Hawk   Colliers Mills WMA
Belted Kingfisher   Whitesbog
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Downy Woodpecker   Manahawkin WMA
Hairy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Flicker   Whitesbog
American Kestrel   Cranberry Bogs
Eastern Phoebe   Cranberry Bogs
Blue Jay   35 Sunset Rd
American Crow   35 Sunset Rd
Fish Crow   West Creek Dock Rd.
Common Raven   35 Sunset Rd
Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd
Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd
Tree Swallow   Cranberry Bogs
Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Cranberry Bogs
Golden-crowned Kinglet   Bunker Hill Bogs
White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd
Red-breasted Nuthatch   Cranberry Bogs
Brown Creeper   Cranberry Bogs
Carolina Wren   Bamber Lake
European Starling   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Mockingbird   Crestwood Village
Eastern Bluebird   35 Sunset Rd
Hermit Thrush   Bunker Hill Bogs
American Robin   35 Sunset Rd
House Sparrow   West Creek Dock Rd.
House Finch   35 Sunset Rd
American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd
Chipping Sparrow   Whiting WMA
Field Sparrow   Whitesbog
Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd
White-throated Sparrow   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Savannah Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd
Swamp Sparrow   Whitesbog
Eastern Towhee   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-winged Blackbird   Holly Lake
Brown-headed Cowbird   Double Trouble SP
Common Grackle   Holly Lake
Boat-tailed Grackle   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Pine Warbler   Whitesbog
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Common Goldeneye hen with drake Ring-necked Duck, Cranberry Bogs

Bay Parkway 3/30--Snowy Egret

Snowy Egrets, Waretown

While I was on LBI yesterday, a big flock of White Ibises was found in the marshes of Forked River and Waretown on the western side of Barnegat Bay. White Ibis isn't the event it used to be, but it isn't a guaranteed species in Ocean County either. I enjoy birding those marshes anyway, so this morning I went to look.  I started off on Spoonbill Court (where the Roseate Spoonbills were last year) and worked my way south to Bay Parkway with no luck. I was especially annoyed after walking up and down Bay Parkway in Waretown to find that if I had skipped the first stop, I probably would have seen the flock, since it was reported before I got there. There's a lot of inaccessible marsh there, so they could have been behind a stand of trees by the time I arrived. Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else. 

Snowy Egret, Lighthouse Ctr

All I saw, at first, were 3 Great Egrets in the marsh and a Greater Yellowlegs, along with the expected, lingering winter waterfowl like Brants and Buffleheads. As I was driving north, though, I saw 3 egrets roosting in a tree and 2 of them were smaller. I pulled over and confirmed that I had my first Snowy Egrets of the year. 

I then drove farther south to the Lighthouse Center, hoping that its marshes would host the white ibises--I've seen the species a few times there. I ran into another birder and she gave me the "Oh you just missed it" story, but what I had just missed--Little Blue Herons and Tricolored Herons--I already had for the year--from the Lighthouse Center as it happens. They were rare in the winter and they're still considered rare, but judging from reports, the window of migration may have shifted.  Later, standing on a bench so I could overlook the phragmites, I found a few far back against the woods, and then later, closer in. What I did miss that she had were Willets and a Glossy Ibis--but those birds are guaranteed unless something catastrophic occurs--to me or to Ocean County. There were at least 5 Snowy Egrets there also along with more Great Egrets. Oddly, Great Blue Herons are getting harder to find. So I had to settle for the Snowy Egrets for my one addition to the year list. 

Little Blue Heron, Lighthouse Ctr

Bayview Ave Park 3/29--Black-crowned Night-Heron

Black-Crowned Night-Herons

Sometimes they're there, and sometimes they're not. There is a semi-secret roost to the north of Bayview Ave Park on LBI which I like to check periodically. Before someone opened up a pathway into the cedars, it was more of a hunt to find a Black-crowned Night-Heron in the trees. Some years there were none--speculation was that a Great Horned Own had taken up residence, causing the roost to be abandoned. But today, when I turned into the partially overgrown path, after two steps--BOOM, a slew of kwoks flew out of the roost from all directions. I would have been happy to find one and felt a little guilty for having disturbed so many, but then I was really expecting the trees to be occupied--it has been a while since I've seen the roost have such a large population--in fact, I'm not certain that I've ever seen so many night-herons there--I listed 15, which of course, broke the eBird filter, but I'm sure there were more than that--they just kept flying out of the trees like clowns tumbling out of a VW at the circus. 

American Oystercatcher, Barnegat Lighthouse SP (for Shari)

Earlier in the day I took a quick walk around Cedar Bonnet Island and then walked the beach at Barnegat Lighthouse SP where I was happy to see 7 Piping Plovers on the beach--this bodes well for nesting--and unhappy to find 7 dead Brant near the plover pool, presumably more victims of avian influenza. 

For my morning on LBI, 37 species:

Species    First Sighting
Brant    Cedar Bonnet Island
Canada Goose    Cedar Bonnet Island
Mallard    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Black Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Eider    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Scoter    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Long-tailed Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Bufflehead    Cedar Bonnet Island
Red-breasted Merganser    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Mourning Dove    Cedar Bonnet Island
American Oystercatcher    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Piping Plover    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Herring Gull    Cedar Bonnet Island
Great Black-backed Gull    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Loon    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Cormorant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black-crowned Night-Heron   Bayview Ave Park
Great Egret    Cedar Bonnet Island
Northern Flicker    Cedar Bonnet Island
Blue Jay    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Crow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Raven    Bayview Ave Park
Carolina Chickadee    Cedar Bonnet Island
European Starling    Cedar Bonnet Island
Northern Mockingbird    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Robin    Cedar Bonnet Island
House Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
House Finch    Cedar Bonnet Island
White-throated Sparrow    Cedar Bonnet Island
Savannah Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow    Cedar Bonnet Island
Red-winged Blackbird    Cedar Bonnet Island
Brown-headed Cowbird    Cedar Bonnet Island
Common Grackle    Cedar Bonnet Island
Northern Cardinal    Cedar Bonnet Island

Cranberry Bogs 3/28--Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Embarrassingly bad photo of 
Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Winter returned this morning, and aside from a lot of Field Sparrows, I didn't hear much singing this morning trekking through the Cranberry Bogs along Dover Road, nor did I see anything unexpected after walking all the way back past the large reservoir and onto the power line cut.  Turning around, I was curious if I could avoid walking back through the meadow where the buildings once stood; instead, as I was wearing my Muck Boots, I wondered if I could just walk out along the trail that is always flooded from a breached bog. The water in the bigger puddles around the bogs seemed to have receded somewhat so I thought it might be feasible. 

Short answer: No. But I'm glad I tried, because as I was standing in water just one inch below my boot tops, I saw a bird fly out of the brush and swoop over a bog. My first thought was that it was another Tree Swallow, but I quickly saw that it was bigger and it was brown. Then I saw another and another, and altogether 7, zipping right by me and it was obvious that I had my first Northern Rough-winged Swallows of the year, still considered rare here in Ocean County but apparently in their accepted window for migration. 

I have zero chance of photographing a speeding swallow on the wing with my unsophisticated camera, but one decided to take a rest from hunting (what insects it could be finding is a mystery to me) and perch on twig. I took a bunch of shots, but of course, the camera focused on the foliage in front of the bird and not the bird itself. Posted here is the best of a lot of really lousy shots. 

For the morning 25 species:

Canada Goose  4
Wood Duck  1     Heard bogs
Mallard  6
American Black Duck  16     Bogs and large reservoir
Ring-necked Duck  23
Mourning Dove  4
Great Blue Heron  1
Northern Flicker  2
American Crow  1
Carolina Chickadee  2
Tufted Titmouse  1
Tree Swallow  3
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  7     
Eastern Bluebird  1
American Robin  2
House Finch  5
American Goldfinch  2
Chipping Sparrow  1
Field Sparrow  6
Dark-eyed Junco  3
Song Sparrow  3
Swamp Sparrow  1     Bogs
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Pine Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  1

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

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. 

Cranberry Bogs 3/10--Eastern Phoebe, Tree Swallow

Tree Swallow

Go looking for one bird, find a different one...and then find the bird you were looking for. That's a decent day in the field even if both birds fall into the "gimme" category. I went to the abandoned Cranberry Bogs in South Toms River this morning, which started out foggy but soon cleared to be a precursor of springtime. At the top of the big hill around the sand pit I came across a nice little flock of tweety birds including a Red-breasted Nuthatch, which I hadn't seen for a while, and a Brown Creeper more visible than usual as the sun was shining directly on the tree it was walking up on.  I thought that bode well for the rest of the morning, but I didn't find any other passerines of note for quite a while. 

Ducks were still abundant--I counted 123 Ring-necked Ducks in 3 different bodies of water which broke the eBird filter, but in March the Ring-necks seem to gather in big flocks before moving north. 5 years ago to the day, I counted 665 Ring-necks on Turnmill Lake at Colliers Mills, so this could be considered a small gathering. Besides Mallards and black ducks, I also had 3 Wood Ducks (including a pair in appropriate habitat), some Hooded Mergansers, 7 Green-winged Teal that made a touch and go, and a couple of Buffleheads. 

Tree Swallow house, 2016

Superstitiously, I stopped at the shell of a pumphouse where I often find my day's target bird as they like to nest there, but it wasn't around. Not until I had walked almost to the far end of the large reservoir did I get my first year bird and not the one I was looking for--a single Tree Swallow perched on a dead tree in the middle of the water. Earlier, on the bogs, with a cloud of midges around my face, I was thinking that this would be a good time for swallows to show up. Years ago, when these were working bogs, somebody had put up two large swallow houses in the middle of that large reservoir and dozens of swallows would nest in them, but time and storms eventually destroyed them both. 

Eastern Phoebe on old pumphouse 2016

Walking back, I decided to take a path that is totally overgrown and that I probably won't walk on again until the winter since in warm weather it is tick-infested to the nth degree. But on that trail is another old pumphouse skeleton and I wanted to look at for the bird I'd originally set out for.  Again, not there, but I did see the Green-winged Teal in an impoundment along the way. And as I was watching them fly off, I heard it--the pissed-off FEE-BEE! "song" of the Eastern Phoebe, the bird I was seeking. It was somewhere off to my right but just then the grassy trail became a flooded one, and by the time I sloshed to the spot where I thought it was "singing" it was gone. I know I'll see plenty of others, but the first one is the most gratifying. 

For the morning 28 species:

Canada Goose  150
Wood Duck  3
Mallard  15
American Black Duck  6     Bogs
Green-winged Teal  7     Landed in bog for less than a minute then flew off. All drakes
Ring-necked Duck  123     Exact count. 83,12,28 in bogs and large reservoir
Bufflehead  2
Hooded Merganser  6
Mourning Dove  2
Killdeer  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Northern Flicker  3
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  1
Common Raven  1     Croaking
Carolina Chickadee  11
Tufted Titmouse  2
Tree Swallow  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1     Big hill
Brown Creeper  1     Big hill
Eastern Bluebird  2
House Finch  5
Song Sparrow  7
Red-winged Blackbird  50
Pine Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  4

Whitesbog | Backyard 3/9--Wild Turkey, Pine Warbler

Now that we are almost a third of the way through March, I have been getting a little antsy to get some of the "gimme" birds onto my year list. Today, a couple of species added themselves to list. 

For unpleasant reasons, I had to spend the last 3 days in Browns Mills, so in the mornings I've been going to Whitesbog. Yesterday, once the fog lifted, I saw two grebes in the Middle Bog, which I at first assumed were Pied-billed Grebes, not an especially unusual species for the bogs, but always a happy sighting. Except something about them didn't look right in the gray light. When I drove back, I stopped, broke out the scope and after scanning through a small flock of Hooded Mergansers I relocated the two grebes which turned out to be, as I suspected, Horned Grebes. I was pretty certain those were the first Horned Grebes I'd seen at Whitesbog and checking later, I found I was correct. What I didn't realize was that they were the first Horned Grebes for my Burlington County list which wasn't that surprising when I thought about it, since I rarely go anywhere in the county where you might encounter them, like the Delaware River. 

Today, to change it up, I decided to walk the Ocean County section. There were lots of migrating geese and some ducks in the various flooded and abandoned blueberry fields, including a couple of Lesser Scaup, which are scarce there. But it wasn't until I was on the return leg that I got my first year bird. Scott has often said how superstitious birders are--if you saw a great bird one spot, then you'll always look in that spot again, no matter how unlikely it is for history to repeat. Today, as I was walking toward the main road, I stopped and decided to walk on a grassy trail that that runs behind a field--a couple of years ago I had come across a Great Horned Owl in there at mid-day, so who knows, maybe there would be another. Of course, there wasn't, but I did hear, and eventually track down, my first Pine Warbler of the year. So the superstition pays off. Normally, in the winter, we have Pine Warblers at our suet, but this has not been a normal winter and only Yellow-rumps (and--much more exciting--an Orange-Crowned Warbler) have been nibbling away at the fatty cakes. 

This afternoon, as I was going outside to check on more tree damage from the blizzard, I saw a big blur dash behind the house--rounding the corner I saw it was my first Wild Turkey of the year, another bird that usually doesn't take this long to appear. I thought it was just the single tom, but when I went out to the brushy area beyond our lawn I saw there was an entire flock out there--Shari & I eventually counted 26 on our lawn, attracted, no doubt by all the seed I flung out there. Where the turkeys have been hiding out all winter I don't know, but driving back from an errand late this afternoon, I saw a couple more a few blocks away, so soon they'll be stopping traffic and antagonizing dogs. Which passes for entertainment on Sunset Road. 

February Wrap-up--Blizzard Edition

Tundra Swans walking on the ice of Union Pond, Whitesbog

The icy aftermath of the storm at the end of the January and the Blizzard of 2026 at the end of this month served to put a kibosh on a lot of my birding--I spent an inordinate amount of time staring out our windows at our feeders.  At least I was rewarded with our first backyard Orange-crowned Warbler.  

I did manage to get around in the two weeks between the ice melting and the blizzard. Some year birds weren't recounted here because they eluded photography.  Two of the birds this month were "hard," (for me at least) --a Purple Finch that I heard at the Manahawkin WMA and a Glaucous Gull at Island Beach, whose presence I was alert to by Steve the previous day. I made the long trek out to the north jetty not really expecting to find the bird when a large white-winged light-gray mantled gull flew in from Barnegat Light, came in low over my head, then made a U-turn back to the south. In almost every other county of New Jersey, Glaucous Gull is considered rare but not in Ocean, inexplicably.  Believe it--they're rare. I also, on my trek along the south end of IBSP came across my first Lesser Black-backed Gull. I was about to photograph it when it was flushed by the only other person I saw walking on the beach that day--typical. 

The final year bird of the month was a rarity, but only because of time of year--a Blue-winged Teal at Lake of the Lilies that I spotted the day before the blizzard hit. I was about to give up on finding it when a birding group came along and one of the leaders got it in his scope--on the far shore weaving in and out of the phragmites. Not the greatest looks, but the facial crescent was clearly seen. That was a beautifully warm winter day--it was hard to imagine that a gigantic snowstorm was on its way. But just because you can't imagine doesn't mean it won't happen. 30 inches of snow and we weren't plowed out until late Tuesday night. Fortunately, for the birds, I had filled up our feeders the day before--fortunately for me too because otherwise I'd have been looking at a blank expanse of snow for most of the week. 

Backyard birding: Mourning Dove

Eastern Bluebird

103 species for the month, which was actually quite a bit better than last year when I couldn't even break the century mark.

Species           First Sighting
Snow Goose   Manasquan Inlet
Brant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Canada Goose   35 Sunset Rd
Mute Swan   Manahawkin Lake
Tundra Swan   Bamber Lake
Wood Duck   Pemberton Lake WMA
Blue-winged Teal   Lake of the Lilies
American Wigeon   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Mallard   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Black Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Northern Pintail   Pemberton Lake WMA
Canvasback   Lake of the Lilies
Redhead   Holly Lake
Ring-necked Duck   Holly Lake
Greater Scaup   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Lesser Scaup   Lake of the Lilies
Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Surf Scoter   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
White-winged Scoter   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Scoter   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Long-tailed Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Bufflehead   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Goldeneye   Sloop & Potter Creek Marshes
Hooded Merganser   Bay Pkwy
Common Merganser   Holly Lake
Red-breasted Merganser   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Ruddy Duck   Lake of the Lilies
Rock Pigeon   New Egypt
Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd
American Coot   Lake of the Lilies
American Oystercatcher   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Black-bellied Plover   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Greater Yellowlegs   Manahawkin WMA
Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Sanderling   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Dunlin   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Purple Sandpiper   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Razorbill   Manasquan Inlet
Ring-billed Gull   Jakes Branch County Park
American Herring Gull   Jakes Branch County Park
Great Black-backed Gull   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Glaucous Gull   Island Beach SP
Lesser Black-backed Gull   Island Beach SP
Horned Grebe   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Red-necked Grebe   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Red-throated Loon   Manasquan Inlet
Common Loon   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Blue Heron   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Vulture   Whiting
Turkey Vulture   235 Brynmore Rd, New Egypt
Sharp-shinned Hawk   New Egypt
Northern Harrier   West Creek Dock Rd.
Bald Eagle   New Egypt
Red-shouldered Hawk   West Creek Dock Rd.
Red-tailed Hawk   BC Fairgrounds
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   35 Sunset Rd
Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Downy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Hairy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Flicker   Whitesbog
American Kestrel   BC Fairgrounds
Merlin   Double Trouble SP
Blue Jay   35 Sunset Rd
American Crow   New Egypt
Fish Crow   Sands Point Park
Common Raven   New Egypt
Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd
Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd
Horned Lark   New Egypt
Golden-crowned Kinglet   Lake Carasaljo
White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd
Brown Creeper   Colliers Mills WMA
Carolina Wren   New Egypt
European Starling   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Mockingbird   New Egypt
Eastern Bluebird   35 Sunset Rd
Hermit Thrush   Whitesbog
American Robin   35 Sunset Rd
House Sparrow   New Egypt
House Finch   35 Sunset Rd
Purple Finch   Manahawkin WMA
American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd
Snow Bunting   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Chipping Sparrow   Whitesbog
Field Sparrow   Whitesbog
American Tree Sparrow   Shelter Cove Park
Fox Sparrow   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd
White-crowned Sparrow   Pinelands Alliance Headquarters
White-throated Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd
Savannah Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow   New Egypt
Red-winged Blackbird   Lake of the Lilies
Brown-headed Cowbird   New Egypt
Common Grackle   Whitesbog
Boat-tailed Grackle   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Orange-crowned Warbler   35 Sunset Rd
Yellow-rumped Warbler   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Shelter Cove 2/17--American Tree Sparrow

Disappointed, he trudged through the ice and slush of the Shelter Cove soccer fields on his way back to his car, not realizing that by quitting his search he had set in motion the Second Law of Birding, which states that you will not see the bird until you have (truly) given up on seeing it. There, right in the parking lot next to his car, 6 birds flew up at his approach. When he spotted them in the copse of trees where he had first looked a half hour ago, he saw the American Tree Sparrows he had come for. They flew off when as he turned toward them, flying into the mini-wetlands behind the trees. He chased them as well as he could through the ice and brambles, getting some unsatisfactory, barely usable photos. Mostly he got very good pictures of twigs. 

He returned to his car, with a semblance of a feeling of accomplishment, when the irony continued. After putting away his camera and taking off his bins, the sparrows returned to the spot where he originally had seen them. He was able to take much better photos through the window of his car. 

American Tree Sparrow
with the classic "stick pin" on the breast

Pemberton Lake | PPA | BC Fairgrounds 2/15--Wood Duck, Northern Pintail, American Kestrel, White-crowned Sparrow

American Kestrel
BC Fairgrounds

A Sunday morning in Burlco. I very often spend Sunday mornings at Reeve's Bogs, but since the great freeze over of 2026, that place is pretty much inaccessible, so I decided to try some Burlco spots that were yielding interesting reports. 

I started off at Pemberton Lake. No surprise that it was 75% frozen, but there was open water in the back and with my scope I was able to find a few ducks among the 100 or so Canada Geese. The first year bird for the day was a drake Wood Duck--it had been so long since I had seen one and it was so distant, that it took a moment for me to realize what I had in the scope. Next in view was a gorgeous drake Redhead, rare in county, and then the expected Mallards and a couple of Ring-necked Ducks. I ended my sweep when I got to a Bald Eagle on the ice, chowing down on a goose carcass. Swinging back, I came across a couple of Northern Pintails dabbling and a hen Lesser Scaup, fairly unusual for that spot. 

Then I drove over to the PPA--technically now the Pinelands Alliance Headquarters since they recently changed the name of the organization--where the walking was a little difficult, but where I found what I was looking for--a White-crowned Sparrow right in the brush where I parked the car. I tried for pictures, but the camera focused on the twigs the bird was behind. I also enjoyed a huge flock of Snow Geese that flew overhead--at least 150. 

Then it was on to the BC Fairgrounds. After not finding a Rough-legged Hawk 3 times in Ocean County, I thought maybe I would bump into the one reported there yesterday. But if not, I was fairly confident that I would see an American Kestrel there and I was right--after parking the car, I plunked down the scope, focused on the weather station at the back of the field, and there midway up the tower was the kestrel. That's a lot easier than cruising the roads of New Egypt, looking for one, which is what I spent part of yesterday morning doing. 

I scanned every stand of trees in the field and could not come up with the desired buteo. I took a long walk around the grounds, found one Northern Harrier and some usual land birds and when I returned to the car, about 45 minutes later, I saw a small bird in one of the trees. I thought the kestrel had moved. I got out the scope again and the small bird had turned into a large hawk. Could this be the rough-legged? It was really distant and the light was murky (as you can see from the picture of the kestrel) and I went back and forth on the identification, leaving it open until I got home where I could blow up the crappy photos I took.  I have been fooled more than once by a Red-tailed Hawk there when I wanted a rough-legged and today was the same story. And the small bird? My photos revealed that it had been a Norther Flicker that had to make way for the red-tail when the hawk decided that of all the branches in those woods, the branch the flicker was on was the one it wanted.

29 Species for the day.

Species           Location

Snow Goose    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Canada Goose    Pemberton Lake WMA

Wood Duck    Pemberton Lake WMA

Mallard    Pemberton Lake WMA

Northern Pintail    Pemberton Lake WMA

Redhead    Pemberton Lake WMA

Ring-necked Duck    Pemberton Lake WMA

Lesser Scaup    Pemberton Lake WMA

Mourning Dove    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Ring-billed Gull    BC Fairgrounds

Turkey Vulture    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Northern Harrier    BC Fairgrounds

Bald Eagle    Pemberton Lake WMA

Red-tailed Hawk    BC Fairgrounds

Red-bellied Woodpecker    Pemberton Lake WMA

Northern Flicker    BC Fairgrounds

American Kestrel    BC Fairgrounds

Blue Jay    Pemberton Lake WMA

American Crow    Pemberton Lake WMA

Tufted Titmouse    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

European Starling    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Eastern Bluebird    BC Fairgrounds

American Robin    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

House Sparrow    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Dark-eyed Junco    BC Fairgrounds

White-crowned Sparrow    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

White-throated Sparrow    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Song Sparrow    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters

Common Grackle    Pinelands Alliance Headquarters