Holly Lake | Great Bay Blvd 2/13--Redhead, American Oystercatcher, Horned Grebe, Fox Sparrow

Horned Grebe, Great Bay Blvd

It shouldn't have taken until February 13th to find a Horned Grebe, but that's what happens when the bays freeze over and only polar explorers are willing to scan the ocean. I finally came across one this morning down on Great Bay Blvd, not in the cove at the head of the road where I often see them--it was of course solid ice, but farther down the road at the boat launch before the second wooden bridge. I walked onto the little beach, chasing away Canada Geese and Brants, and scanned the creek--mostly Buffleheads and black ducks, but there, riding high in the water, was my first Horned Grebe of the year. "Finally," I said to myself and was quite pleased because it was second year bird of the day. 

Redheads with Mallards and Canada Geese

The first one was a good surprise at Holly Lake, where I always stop to take a look. I expected the water to be frozen like everywhere else, but the back of the lake had open water and lots of waterfowl. I set up the scope and immediately saw American Wigeons, Ring-necked Ducks and the usual Mallards and black ducks. But then I saw a duck with a very red head--which is why that species is called Redhead. I'd pretty much given up on Redhead for the winter when I didn't find one at Lake of the Lilies and I had no appetite for scanning the waters off of Brick (if the water was even open) where large flocks sometimes congregate. The Redhead was so far in the back that I didn't expect that my camera lens was good enough to get anything, but luckily the light was strong, and you can easily see the duck. There were at least two drakes and a couple of hens. And then I noticed really big ducks with white bodies and green heads--Common Mergansers, very unusual for this spot, as are the Redheads, but then, with most of the water in the county solid, these ducks are plunking down wherever they can. 

American Oystercatcher, Great Bay 

Back at Great Bay Blvd I made my way to the inlet and scoping east found Shari's favorite bird, American Oystercatcher. While the bay here was open, there weren't many birds on the water--just a couple of loons and more Buffleheads. I took a walk up the road, hoping for some land birds, but the edges were fairly quiet except for the omnipresent robins until I got almost to the bridge where I saw a non-robin-like bird scratching in a patch of snow--my year Fox Sparrow and a very handsome example. 

Fox Sparrow

While I didn't record a lot of species, I was fairly satisfied with day's "work." Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to drive up to West Creek and try, for the third time, to find the Rough-legged Hawk that has been hunting the marshes there. It's a 2 1/2 mile drive from Route 9 to the bay, and the bird could be anywhere, but other people seem to have no problem finding it, why can't I? About a mile into the drive, I saw a hawk sitting on a wire. I didn't think it was the rough-leg--they're kind of big for sitting on wires--but I scoped it and took pictures and was fairly confident, despite the glare and mediocre pictures that it was a Red-shouldered Hawk. Not a bad bird, just not the bird I wanted. Nor was the Northern Harrier that flew across the road. 

Red-Shouldered Hawk, West Creek

Just for laughs, when I got home, I put the picture into one of the AI apps and asked for an identification. It came back as Red-tailed Hawk. "Are you sure?" I asked, it doesn't have a belly band, it has red striping on the breast and doesn't really look like a red-tail. "Oh no," the AI responded, it's a red-tail for this reason and that reason and red-shoulders don't sit on wires, and I can see why you'd think it was a red-shoulder, but really, it's a red-tail. 

Okay, that makes a certain amount of sense (if you were to read the long explanation you might agree with me) so I changed it on my list, posted it to eBird and dragged in the photos I had taken. Immediately, eBird's Merlin app kicks in and tells me that the pictures I've put under Red-tail Hawk are actually Red-shouldered Hawk. Which why every AI app has the disclaimer that it "may make mistakes." 

Two lists:

Holly Lake
14 species
Canada Goose  25
Mute Swan  5
American Wigeon  8
Mallard  20
American Black Duck  10
Redhead  4
Ring-necked Duck  15
Common Merganser  3
Ring-billed Gull  40
American Herring Gull  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  5
American Robin  1
Red-winged Blackbird  1

Great Bay Blvd

22 species
Brant  35
Canada Goose  45
American Black Duck  50
Greater Scaup  8
Bufflehead  55
Hooded Merganser  10
Red-breasted Merganser  21
American Oystercatcher  4
Ring-billed Gull  1
American Herring Gull  30
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Horned Grebe  1
Common Loon  2
Great Blue Heron  2
Turkey Vulture  1
Common Raven  1     Large croaking corvid
American Robin  125
Fox Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  4
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Boat-tailed Grackle  50
Yellow-rumped Warbler  4

Holly Lake | Great Bay Blvd 4/6--Clapper Rail, Black-bellied Plover, Caspian Tern, Forster's Tern, Glossy Ibis, Peregrine Falcon

Caspian Terns

I stopped in the little pull-in at Holly Lake on Great Bay Blvd to check the weather report. Even though it said it was merely cloudy in Tuckerton when I left the house, I couldn't see more than about 50 feet into the pond, such was the fog. The "haze" was supposed to last for a couple of more hours, so I resigned myself to only finding birds close to the road. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a white non-gull flying around in the gray and said to myself I might as well check it out to see if it's a Forster's Tern. I soon as I got bins on it, despite the poor lighting, I could see that it was a Caspian Tern instead, rare for this time of year. There's no doubting a Caspian Tern: on field trips it is required of the leader to proclaim that the Caspian Tern is the largest tern in the world. This one, with its huge red beak, full black cap, and rasping call, plunged dived into the water and came up with a fish. Already the day was a success. 

Forster's Tern

The Foster's Terns were added latter down the road, one sitting on a sign out in the marsh, others flying around and roosting on the pilings of the boat launch just before the second wooden bridge. I also heard and recorded Clapper Rails in a couple of different spots but never got eyes on any of them. As I normally do, I drove the length of the road down to the bay, walked the beach east & west, then walked up the road from the beach to the 2nd wooden bridge. It seemed like every time I put up my bins another interesting bird flew into view--one of them was a Peregrine Falcon hunting over the marsh, another was my first Black-bellied Plover (immature, or basic plumage, hard to say) way out in spartina that I found in the spot where there are often dozens, if not hundreds of them. I only need one. Finally, on my way back I saw a small flock of birds over the marsh which I at first took for more cormorants, but with the bins up I could see were my first Glossy Ibises of the year. Funny to get White Ibis last month at Brig before I get the common ibis of New Jersey. 

Black-bellied Plover

Glossy Ibises

Because the weather was so closed in, I didn't break out the scope until I was leaving. Usually, I stop at Tuckerton Cove on my way in, but this morning that would have been pointless. On the way out the weather had cleared enough for me to see the big flock of Green-winged Teal that lives there and, whaddya know, two Caspian Terns, sitting on a sand bar. A few years ago, a couple of birder friends showed me the little path that goes in through the cedars where you can view the cove because there was an out of season Caspian Tern there, so there might be something about that spot that attracts them--but it's a small sample size. I bet, though, that one of them was the bird I saw earlier at Holly Lake.

American Oystercatchers

For the morning, I had 39 species included 6 year birds. An excellent day, especially taking into consideration how unpromising the weather looked at 7:45 AM. T

Brant  25
Canada Goose  5
Mallard  4
American Black Duck  20
Green-winged Teal  50
Bufflehead  5
Red-breasted Merganser  13
Mourning Dove  8
Clapper Rail  3
American Oystercatcher  4
Black-bellied Plover  1
Killdeer  1
Greater Yellowlegs  14
American Herring Gull  40
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Caspian Tern  2     
Forster's Tern  12
Common Loon  1
Double-crested Cormorant  16
Glossy Ibis  5
Black-crowned Night Heron  1     Cedars
Tricolored Heron  1
Snowy Egret  11
Great Egret  19
Great Blue Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  8
Northern Harrier  1
Belted Kingfisher  2
Northern Flicker  4
Peregrine Falcon  1
Fish Crow  2
Tree Swallow  1
American Robin  2
Song Sparrow  10
Eastern Towhee  1     Cedars before first wooden bridge
Red-winged Blackbird  75
Boat-tailed Grackle  50
Northern Cardinal  3

Franklin Parker Preserve 1/13--Northern Shrike

That little gray & white pimple at the top of the tree is the Northern Shrike

The Year of Lousy Looks continues. This time, laziness was a factor. No matter where I stood as I circled the old cranberry bog where the long-staying and presumably returning Northern Shrike has been for the last couple of months, the shrike was always too far away to get a good look at it with binoculars. Had I lugged my scope out there I probably would have been able to see it more clearly. But that's a long haul on a cold morning. Fortunately, after I spotted a gray and white bird perched on a dead tree in the middle of the bog, it turned its head a few times letting me see its black mask, so I was able to rule out mockingbird. But again, had this been a life bird, it would have been a disappointing sighting. As it was, I was pleased that I found it on my own. Last time, 3 circuits of the bog were fruitless until a friend walked out there with me and spotted it right away. 

There were two species that actually were more interesting to me this morning than the shrike; one was the adult Bald Eagle with a ton of sticks in its talons, indicating a nearby nest and the other were the two Wilson's Snipes that flushed out of the frozen bog as I made my way around. Non-shore shorebirds are always a treat. 

Of course, lousy looks are better than no looks, which is how the rest of my day went. After lunch I had decided to go over to Toms River to see if I could spot the Canvasbacks there but just as I got in the car I received a text that a Common Gallinule had been spotted in Holly Lake in Tuckerton, so I drove down there first. 45 minutes later I was looking at a single American Coot diving beneath a dock, the only open water on the pond. I'm sure the gallinule was somewhere in the vicinity, hard up against the shore where I couldn't get an angle on it. A wise birder once told me you should stay in a place at least as long as it took you get there, but after 45 minutes I still only had the coot along with ducks, swans, and gulls...and a muskrat. 

So, back to plan A, a drive up to Toms River but by the time I got there, what with the fishermen on a sandy spit and paddleboarder making his way around the ice floes, the ducks on the water didn't seem happy and none of the unhappy ducks were Canvasbacks. Had you traced my path at both Mathis and Riverfront you would have thought I was executing a problem in trigonometry as I set up the scope at various points in both places. Big birds, hard to miss, but I missed them. Wonder where they went? 

Great Bay Blvd 3/4--American Oystercatcher

Here's another bird I usually get a lot earlier in the year, albeit not in this county. Early every year I'd make a trip down to Brigantine Island with Mike to look for the winter shorebirds that congregate there--godwits, Willets, and oystercatchers. This year I didn't feel like driving all the way down there so it wasn't until yesterday, when I was pretty certain I'd find them, that I put American Oystercatcher on the year list. 

They were down on the beach, off to the north where I thought they might be, hunkered down with a flock of Brant. I'd seen reports of them from a couple of other spots, but one was a flyby at Manasquan Inlet and the other was on LBI where I did not feel like braving the winds just to see a bird I knew I'd eventually get. But there is a sense of accomplishment when you go looking for a specific bird in a specific spot and actually find. It gives you the illusion that you know what you're doing. 

I was thinking yesterday, at Manahawkin, then Holly Lake and Great Bay Blvd, while I was looking at all the ducks, that these are the waning days for building a big list with waterfowl. Soon the scaup, Buffleheads, mergansers, Ring-neck Ducks, Snow Geese will have flown north. The Brant tend to stick farther into the spring because their breeding grounds are so much farther north, but soon it will be Canada Geese, Mallards, black ducks, and Wood Ducks if you know where to look. Nice weather ahead, but a lot harder birding picking out the warblers from the budding trees and separating the sandpipers when the sun glare always seems to be in your eyes 

Holly Lake 3/29--Snowy Egret

Snowy Egrets

Holly Lake is really just a pond, and a drained one at that, all but hidden on Great Bay Blvd about a mile north of where the WMA starts. When it was full, there would be, at most, a couple of swans in it, maybe a Mallard. But now that it is mostly mud flats, with water toward the back, it is worth stopping and taking look. This morning there was a good variety of ducks on it, including 60 Green-winged Teal. After a few minutes of scoping, I continued onto the WMA, where the tide was coming in, so there wasn't much room for shorebirds. I did manage to find a couple of yellowlegs, about 30 Dunlin, and a couple of Black-bellied Plovers. Great Egrets are back in good numbers. I listed 20 and there were probably more. Two Ospreys were on a platform. The inlet itself was empty of birds.

It was dank and murky, with a wet wind. Normally, I'll walk from the inlet up to the first wooden bridge and back, but the marshes along there looked empty when I drove by and I just didn't feel like it. So I drove back north, figuring I'd hit a couple of other spots and maybe, as predicted, the sun would come out and I'd find a more productive place to walk. As I was driving by Holly Lake I took another look through the little opening where the culvert is. It is amazing, as Mike has pointed out, how, after a while, you can recognize a bird just by shape or behavior. I saw two white birds dancing at the back of the pond. "Those aren't Great Egrets," I said to myself. I pulled over, pulled out the scope, but even in my binoculars I could see the "golden slippers" of Snowy Egrets. They weren't there on the first pass. Nor was the Greater Yellowlegs standing on the mud flats in front of me, nor the Killdeer behind it. So, now Holly Lake is going to be a two stop spot.

Laughing Gull

I drove up to the Barnegat Municipal Dock, where the gulls like to sit in the parking lot. As I was hoping, there were a few Laughing Gulls there. Now they're on my county list. There were also at least 4 Horned Grebes out in the bay, one of them already having pretty much molted in breeding plumage. Much too far, and still too gray, for photography.

I decided to drive up to Cloverdale Farm to get my walk in, now that I had a couple of list birds. Just as I was about to make the left onto the dirt entry road, the sun came out. The most interesting bird I saw there was a Common Raven, supposedly rare in the county. It was harassing a Red-tailed Hawk before it it went on its way, flying right over me, a huge corvid with a big beak and wedge-shaped tail. What called my attention to it was the "gronk!" I heard overhead. At first I looked up, searching for a Great Blue Heron. No heron, only an aerial battle.

Speaking of aerial contests, I also saw two Belted Kingfishers going at it with each other. Whether they were male and female doing a mating ritual, or two males fighting over territory I couldn't determine through the little window I had in the trees, but the rattling they made was extraordinary.