February Review--15 Year Birds

Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich ssp), Barnegat Light SP, with bling

Birding as a hobby: I go out and I walk around and I look for birds. I enjoy the birds for themselves--I watch crows mob first a Red-tailed Hawk, then a Northern Harrier at Manasquan River WMA; or I notice the bands on an Ipswich Savannah Sparrow; or I just admire how clean and crisp the Herring Gulls suddenly look as spring get closer.

Birding as a game: How many birds can I see today? This month? This year? In this county? In that county? Am I wasting my time in that county when I could be building up my list in this county?

This month it seemed like I alternated the hobby with the game every other day, although the game is always being played at some level. It is most satisfying when the hobby finds a bird I "need" for the game. The least satisfying is when I deliberately go looking for one bird for the game...and don't find it. Those are the times I have to remind myself, forcefully, that it's just a game, it is just a bird.

Northern Saw-whet Owl

With all that said, it was a pretty good month for the hobby and the game. Birds I wasn't expecting turned up, like the Barred Owl Mike and I heard at Eno's Pond on Sunday in the middle of the afternoon. We were just looking around there (hobby) and heard "Who cooks for you!" three times, adding the bird to our state and county lists (game). And it was a pretty good month for owls with a count of 4 species for the month: Barred, Saw-whet, Long-eared, Short-eared. Now, if we could only figure out where there's a Barn Owl in the state (hobby), preferably in Ocean County (game).

Now for some arithmetic: the 15 birds I added to my year list bring me up to 151 in two months. That's half of what I hope to see in NJ for the year. For the remaining 10 months of the year I will have to average 15 new birds a month--that should be easy in April and May during warbler migration and maybe in August during shorebird migration, but difficult the rest of the year, especially since I don't do pelagics so all the birds I see will be from land. That means I better enjoy the hobby because the game gets much more challenging hereon in.

Counties birded: Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Warren
127 species:

Species            First Sighting

Snow Goose   Brig

Ross's Goose   Cream Ridge

Greater White-fronted Goose   Conine’s Millpond

Brant   Manasquan Inlet

Cackling Goose   Etra Lake

Canada Goose   Bamber Lake

Mute Swan   Waretown

Trumpeter Swan   Stone Tavern Lake

Tundra Swan   Bamber Lake

Muscovy Duck   Fletcher Lake

Wood Duck   Little Silver Lake

Northern Shoveler   Lake Takanassee

Gadwall   Lake Takanassee

Eurasian Wigeon   Fletcher Lake

American Wigeon   Lake Takanassee

Mallard   Marshall's Pond

American Black Duck   Barnegat Beach

Northern Pintail   Forsythe-Barnegat

Green-winged Teal   Brig

Canvasback   Riverfront Landing

Redhead   Lake Takanassee

Ring-necked Duck   Marshall's Pond

Greater Scaup   Waretown

Lesser Scaup   Lake Takanassee

Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Surf Scoter   Point Pleasant Beach

White-winged Scoter   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Black Scoter   Manasquan Inlet

Long-tailed Duck   Waretown

Bufflehead   Waretown

Common Goldeneye   Cloverdale Farm

Hooded Merganser   Bamber Lake

Common Merganser   Marshall's Pond

Red-breasted Merganser   Waretown

Ruddy Duck   Riverfront Landing

Wild Turkey   New Egypt

Pied-billed Grebe   Lake Takanassee

Horned Grebe   Barnegat Municipal Dock

Rock Pigeon   New Egypt

Mourning Dove   Waretown

American Coot   Lake of the Lilies

American Oystercatcher   Brigantine Island

Killdeer   Cape May Point SP

Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Sanderling   Manasquan Inlet

Dunlin   Manasquan Inlet

Purple Sandpiper   Manasquan Inlet

American Woodcock   Crestwood Village

Greater Yellowlegs   Eno’s Pond

Bonaparte's Gull   Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal

Ring-billed Gull   Waretown

Herring Gull   Bamber Lake

Iceland Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Lesser Black-backed Gull   Lake Takanassee

Great Black-backed Gull   Waretown

Red-throated Loon   Brigantine Island

Pacific Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Common Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Northern Gannet   Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship

Great Cormorant   Sayreville Marsh

Double-crested Cormorant   Riverfront Landing

Great Blue Heron   Cloverdale Farm

Black-crowned Night-Heron   Brig

Black Vulture   Pinehurst Rd

Turkey Vulture   Pinehurst Rd

Northern Harrier   Barnegat Municipal Dock

Sharp-shinned Hawk   Lake Takanassee

Cooper's Hawk   Colliers Mills WMA

Bald Eagle   Waretown

Red-shouldered Hawk   Cape May Point SP

Red-tailed Hawk   New Egypt

Rough-legged Hawk   BC Fairgrounds

Barred Owl   Eno’s Pond

Long-eared Owl   Assunpink WMA

Short-eared Owl   Pole Farm

Northern Saw-whet Owl   Pole Farm

Belted Kingfisher   Cattus Island County Park

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Downy Woodpecker   Collinstown Rd

Hairy Woodpecker   New Egypt

Pileated Woodpecker   Assunpink WMA

Northern Flicker   New Egypt

American Kestrel   Plumsted

Merlin   Cranberry Bogs

Peregrine Falcon   Sayreville Marsh

Eastern Phoebe   Assunpink WMA

Blue Jay   Poplar St Boat Ramp

American Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Fish Crow   New Egypt

Common Raven   Cranberry Bogs

Carolina Chickadee   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Black-capped Chickadee   Merrill Creek Reservoir

Boreal Chickadee   Merrill Creek Reservoir

Tufted Titmouse   Collinstown Rd

Red-breasted Nuthatch   Collinstown Rd

White-breasted Nuthatch   Cloverdale Farm

Brown Creeper   Colliers Mills WMA

Carolina Wren   Collinstown Rd

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Brig

Eastern Bluebird   Cloverdale Farm

Hermit Thrush   Collinstown Rd

American Robin   Bamber Lake

Gray Catbird   Assunpink WMA

Northern Mockingbird   Collinstown Rd

European Starling   Barnegat Municipal Dock

House Finch   Collinstown Rd

Pine Siskin   Cloverdale Farm

American Goldfinch   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Chipping Sparrow   Manasquan River WMA

Field Sparrow   New Egypt

American Tree Sparrow   Shelter Cove Park

Fox Sparrow   Collinstown Rd

Dark-eyed Junco   Collinstown Rd

White-throated Sparrow   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Savannah Sparrow   Pole Farm

Song Sparrow   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Swamp Sparrow   Whitesbog

Eastern Meadowlark   Pole Farm

Red-winged Blackbird   Barnegat

Brown-headed Cowbird   New Egypt

Rusty Blackbird   Oros Wildlife Preserve

Common Grackle   New Egypt

Boat-tailed Grackle   Manasquan Inlet

Pine Warbler   Colliers Mills WMA

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Poplar St Boat Ramp

Northern Cardinal   Poplar St Boat Ramp

House Sparrow   Barnegat

Common Goldeneye, Cloverdale Farm

Merrill Creek Reservoir 2/25--Black-capped Chickadee, Boreal Chickadee

Boreal Chickadee
Photo courtesy and copyright Ernest P. Hahn

There are parallels between the stock market and birding. In the stock market, you invest money and the payoff is...more money. In birding, you invest time and the payoff is...birds. Of course, it doesn't always work out this way. Sometimes you lose money. Sometimes you don't get the bird. These thoughts started to occur to me on Saturday when I got the first alert that a Boreal Chickadee, a bird of the northern forests and a bird that hadn't been seen in NJ in over 30 years, was at the Visitor's Center of Merrill Creek Reservoir up in Warren County, a 4 hour round trip drive from my house. I didn't, as they say in investing, like the risk/reward of driving over 100 miles for a tiny bird that might not stick around.

On Sunday it was still there. I felt like a good stock was getting away from me, getting too expensive because now the drive was the same but the risk of it leaving was even more. When more and more reports kept rolling in the concept of "capitulation" came into play. When a stock is rocketing (or in the other extreme, dropping like a falling knife), even though you know it is a bad idea to chase it (or dump it) you do it anyway. When Mike, on Sunday afternoon, suggested we go up to Merrill Creek on Monday morning, I capitulated.

There is also a concept in technical investing called "The Three Day" rule which goes roughly like this: On the first day the smart money buys, on the second day, the semi-smart money buys, on the third day, the dumb money buys (or the inverse). The weather forecast for today was for high winds--gusts of 40 to 60 mph. The last thing Shari said to me last night before we fell asleep was "You know, when it's windy, birds hunker down." I was afraid we were going to be the birding equivalent of dumb money.

However, the dumb money can be successful (read: lucky) if it transacts its business early in the day before everything collapses, so Mike and I were on the road at 7 for the 2 hour drive to the reservoir. Halfway there we got an alert that the bird was still present. Upon arrival, instead of the mob scene of the weekend that had been described to me, there were only 4 or 5 old retired guys, like us standing beneath a Norway spruce. The bird had been seen very recently. Mike went off to the Visitor's Center. I stood with the guys, a couple of whom I knew (including Ernie, who provided the photo above). Within 5 minutes the bird flew into the spruce. I got brief, decent looks at it. Mike, however, was still inside. When he emerged, I told him I was ready to go. I am still alive.

We stood around some more, but not very long, as more birders arrived, more of whom we knew and then the bird, like a bullet, came out of the spruce and landed in a thicket behind us. Great naked eye looks at the bird.

Black-capped Chickadee

Oddly, I thought, the chickadee wasn't going to the feeders maintained by the staff of the very handsome and comfortable (and warm) Visitor's Center. Black-capped Chickadees, however, were, and these birds were also new state year birds for us. Amusingly, the other rare bird at the feeders was a Carolina Chickadee, identified by the small amount of white on its wings and not the "hockey stick" pattern of the black-capped. The ranges of Black-caps and Carolinas have been moving and merging and the birds do hybridize and probably if it weren't for the extensive DNA research done on these two species they'd be lumped as one.

Having two year birds, why not try for a third? A hen Barrow's Goldeneye has been present on the reservoir for a while. Not an easy bird to identify and though someone said there was one in his scope, Mike and I decided to get our scopes out of the car and walk closer to the water's edge (and out of the wind) to scan the goldeneye flock. Despite about an hour of serious scanning, we couldn't come up with the Barrow's. I should have looked in that guy's scope, but I doubt I would have found the duck from that distance. We did see a hen Long-tailed Duck, which didn't really register as anything special to us--we're from Ocean County--but on an inland body of water, that duck comes up as rare too.

So, one mega-rarity for the day and two very common south Jersey birds that were about 50 miles out of their range. The wind was, as forecast, brutal. That we lasted for over 2 hours is a testament to either our fortitude or silliness. But overall, I'd say it was a good investment of our time.

21 species

Long-tailed Duck  1    

Bufflehead  5

Common Goldeneye  30

Hooded Merganser  2

Common Merganser  3

Bald Eagle  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2

Downy Woodpecker  1

Hairy Woodpecker  1    Heard

Northern Flicker  1

Blue Jay  1    Heard

American Crow  1    Heard

Carolina Chickadee  1   

Black-capped Chickadee  5

Boreal Chickadee  1    

Tufted Titmouse  2

White-breasted Nuthatch  2

Eastern Bluebird  4

Dark-eyed Junco  6

White-throated Sparrow  1

Song Sparrow  2    Heard