New Egypt 1/19--Pileated Woodpecker

I'll have to find a new nemesis bird for Ocean County, because this morning, after innumerable trips to the environs of New Egypt over the last couple of years, I finally tracked down a Pileated Woodpecker. I'd already gone to the Plumsted Recreational Park (New Egypt is part of Plumsted) a few times this year where the woodpeckers had been seen in the past, but this year I noticed that one birder was posting them as being in "North New Egypt." 

A little investigation with Google Street View showed that his location was actually on the Ocean County extension of the Union Transportation Trail which follows a power line cut laid down on the old right of way of the milk train that used to run from New Egypt to Cream Ridge. I took a chance and parked in a lot behind an Ace Hardware store, next to some charity bins. I didn't see any signs that said, "No Parking." This section, like the section a little farther north, is not finished with gravel like the Monmouth County section, but rather is just a mowed strip between bushes and tangles on one side and woods on the other. After passing through a short alley of abandoned truck trailers, I started up the trail, where a gigantic flock of Common Grackles were kretzing in the treetops. A little farther on a flock of White-throated Sparrows scared up from the bushes, and then I saw a big woodpecker fly across the trail, landing somewhere in the woods. I was pretty certain that was my bird, but the first two woodpeckers on tree trunks that I glassed were just a Red-bellied Woodpecker and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. But then, raising my binoculars to the height of the flight, there atop the bare tree was the huge black and white woodpecker with a red crest. Success at last! I moved up, hoping to get a better angle on the bird and maybe even a photo op, but, as so often happens, changing position lost me the bird. Still, I saw it, big as life. 

Pileated Woodpecker is rarely rare in NJ counties, but here in Ocean only the northern part of the county has suitable habitat. I guess they don't like pines. I've seen them all around Ocean: Burlco, Mercer, Monmouth, Middlesex, up norther in Warren & Somerset, down south in Cape May, but finding one here was starting to seem like my life's work. Lucky is that birder who made a video of one in his backyard in New Egypt. 

The rest of the morning was spent walking around Colliers Mills, which was full of sparrows and not much else. No good pictures today except for these two birds I can't count. I'm wondering what kind of pet an ostrich makes and why you'd want two.

Across from Colliers Mills on Hawkin Road. 

March--A Wide-ranging Month

Wood Ducks, Ditch Meadow, Whitesbog

I ended the month at Raritan Bay Waterfront Park in Middlesex County, another place I haven't visited since pre-pandemic, in this case just about two years, because that's when Scott runs a few trips there and I try to get up there in hopes that his expertise will pull out a white-winged gull from the flocks of usual gulls. It took a bit of doing but he got the group on an Iceland Gull flying out over the bay. Not the field guide looks you'd like but obvious enough.  Also new for me was Laughing Gull, though I wasn't too concerned about getting that species for the year. 

Being in Middlesex today made it the seventh New Jersey county I've birded this month, which is another thing I can say I haven't done since the pandemic started. Why that's one third of the counties in the state. But in Delaware we birded two thirds of the counties in the state. Impressive if you don't know there are only three in the state. 

Sandhill Cranes, New Egypt

On Sunday, Scott found a quartet of Sandhill Cranes in the storied corn field on Brynmore Road in New Egypt. They are off and on again habitués of that field over the years. Unfortunately, this is where my eschewing of social media and the GroupMe alerts bit me on the ass, because I didn't find out about it until late in the afternoon on Sunday. Monday & Tuesday we were in Delaware. Today, just as I was about to leave South Amboy and was checking eBird to see if anyone had seen the cranes today, Mike texted me that he had them again in the field. There's no good way to get there from South Amboy but I took the least bad way and made it there in a little over an hour. As always seems to be case with this species in NJ, they were hard to see in the corn stubble unless they stood straight up. Luckily, when I got there a couple were. Not a year bird; hell, not even a month bird since I saw pair fly over at the end of Scott's trip to Salem County early in the month which bled over into Gloucester County when we stopped at Pedricktown Marsh. 

I did one trip to Brig this month where I got the surprise of the King Rail and a long recording of it. The Delaware trip is documented above. Mostly, of course, I was in Ocean and Burlington Counties. I had a few great moments at Whitesbog this month like when I found the woodcocks in the triangle field pre-dawn, or came up the Wood Ducks above in Ditch Meadow. And here's a peculiarity: I now hold the Ocean County record for most Ring-necked Ducks seen in one place--665 at Colliers Mills, the vast majority of them staging the south end of Turnmill Pond. That was a memorable sight. And finding the Red-headed Woodpecker (twice) at Colliers Mills always seems like an accomplishment to me. 

It was a good month with 134 species listed of which 24 were year birds. April begins the craziness of warblers and shorebirds. I already have anticipation anxiety. 

Counties birded:
Delware: Kent, Sussex

New Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Gloucester, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Salem

Species               First Sighting

Snow Goose   Pemberton Lake WMA

Brant   MacLearie Park

Canada Goose   Deal Lake

Mute Swan   Silver Lake

Tundra Swan   Whitesbog

Wood Duck   Whitesbog

Blue-winged Teal   Bombay Hook

Northern Shoveler   Silver Lake

Gadwall   Holly Lake

Eurasian Wigeon   MacLearie Park

American Wigeon   MacLearie Park

Mallard   Deal Lake

American Black Duck   Whitesbog

Northern Pintail   Salem River WMA

Green-winged Teal   Whitesbog

Redhead   Whitesbog

Ring-necked Duck   Whitesbog

Greater Scaup   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Lesser Scaup   Silver Lake

King Eider   Manasquan Inlet

Common Eider   Manasquan Inlet

Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Black Scoter   Spring Lake

Long-tailed Duck   Manasquan Inlet

Bufflehead   MacLearie Park

Common Goldeneye   LBI Bayside

Hooded Merganser   Manahawkin WMA

Common Merganser   Pemberton Lake WMA

Red-breasted Merganser   Deal Lake

Ruddy Duck   Silver Lake

Wild Turkey   Wranglebrook Rd

Pied-billed Grebe   Bamber Lake

Horned Grebe   MacLearie Park

Rock Pigeon   Pilesgrove

Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd

King Rail   Brig

Clapper Rail   Prime Hook

American Coot   Lake of the Lilies

Sandhill Crane   Pedricktown Marsh

American Avocet   Bombay Hook

American Oystercatcher   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Black-bellied Plover   Bombay Hook

Killdeer   Compromise Rd.

Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Dunlin   Manasquan Inlet

Purple Sandpiper   Manasquan Inlet

American Woodcock   Crestwood Community Gardens

Wilson's Snipe   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Greater Yellowlegs   Eno's Pond

Lesser Yellowlegs   Eno's Pond

Bonaparte's Gull   Shark River

Laughing Gull   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Ring-billed Gull   Manahawkin WMA

Herring Gull   Deal Lake

Iceland Gull   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Lesser Black-backed Gull   Wreck Pond

Great Black-backed Gull   Deal Lake

Forster's Tern   Bombay Hook

Red-throated Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Common Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Northern Gannet   Island Beach SP

Great Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Double-crested Cormorant   Deal Lake

American Bittern   Island Beach SP

Great Blue Heron   Pemberton Lake WMA

Great Egret   Manahawkin WMA

Snowy Egret   Bombay Hook

Little Blue Heron   DuPont Nature Center

Black Vulture   Plumsted Recreation Park

Turkey Vulture   1398 State Highway 35

Osprey   Pedricktown Marsh

Northern Harrier   Manahawkin WMA

Cooper's Hawk   CVS parking lot Schoolhouse Rd.

Bald Eagle   Pemberton Lake WMA

Red-tailed Hawk   Whitesbog

Rough-legged Hawk   Featherbed Lane WMA

Short-eared Owl   Brig

Belted Kingfisher   Manahawkin WMA

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Whitesbog

Downy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd

Hairy Woodpecker   Whitesbog

Northern Flicker   Manahawkin WMA

American Kestrel   Colliers Mills WMA

Merlin   Mannington Marsh

Peregrine Falcon   Cedar Bonnet Island

Eastern Phoebe   Colliers Mills WMA

Blue Jay   35 Sunset Rd

American Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Fish Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Common Raven   Lake of the Lilies

Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd

Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd

Horned Lark   Sunset Park

Purple Martin   Bombay Hook

Tree Swallow   Reeves Bogs

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Whitesbog

Red-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

Brown Creeper   35 Sunset Rd

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Forest Resource Education Center

Marsh Wren   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Carolina Wren   1398 State Highway 35

European Starling   35 Sunset Rd

Brown Thrasher   Manahawkin WMA

Northern Mockingbird   New Egypt

Eastern Bluebird   Colliers Mills WMA

Wood Thrush   Manahawkin WMA

American Robin   Silver Lake

House Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

House Finch   35 Sunset Rd

Purple Finch   Island Beach SP

Pine Siskin   35 Sunset Rd

American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd

Chipping Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA

Field Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA

American Tree Sparrow   Island Beach SP

Fox Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd

White-throated Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Savannah Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Song Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Swamp Sparrow   Meadowview Lane

Eastern Towhee   Bombay Hook

Red-winged Blackbird   Whitesbog

Brown-headed Cowbird   Whitesbog

Rusty Blackbird   Reeves Bogs

Common Grackle   Plumsted Recreation Park

Boat-tailed Grackle   Manahawkin WMA

Pine Warbler   Cloverdale Farm

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Island Beach SP

Yellow-throated Warbler   Prime Hook

Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Conine's Millpond | Lenape Trail 1/12--Cackling Goose, Lark Sparrow

Lark Sparrow, Lenape Trail, Plainsboro

The day started to get a little out of control toward the middle of the afternoon. Scott & Linda had an Assunpink trip this morning and we birded the hell out of the place without much to show for our efforts, besides the continuing Trumpeter Swans. I did get my year Field Sparrow over at Stone Tavern Lake, but that's not exactly a momentous find. The lake at Assunpink was virtually empty of ducks and geese, and Stone Tavern was worse with only two Mute Swans floating around. The weather was warm, which was great, but the weather is probably warm(ish) up north, so ducks and geese don't feel compelled to head south.

Scott suggested we try nearby Mercer Corporate Park and Conine's Millpond. There were a smattering of geese at the Corporate Park, so we didn't bother to check them out, but on the millpond we found out where all the geese in the area were. We figured 2500 of them honking their hearts out. Among them were a 4 Ring-necked Ducks, 4 Mallards, and 2 Common Mergansers, but best of all, and finally, a Cackling Goose which Scott was able to tease out of the flock. It's a talent that I do not possess, the ability to look at every goose thoroughly but quickly and find the one or two that are different.  In a flock of that many geese, Scott figures the odds are with you to find a cackler, but in flock that size they all quickly blur into "goose" to me.

A Cackling Goose and a new sparrow would have been good enough for me for one day and as I was just about to leave for home one of our group received a text that there was a Barnacle Goose and 3 hybrids at Thompson Park. I had no idea where Thompson Park was. When I Googled it, I came up with a park in Monmouth County which I remembered going by a few years ago. However, there is another Thompson Park, in Middlesex County, which is where the geese were. I was reluctant to head north so late in the day, but Barnacle Goose isn't exactly a gimmee in the state, so off I went with the correct GPS coordinates in my phone. It was about a half hour drive. The park itself seemed like nothing but a big lake, full of Ring-billed Gulls and Canada Geese. We located a couple of birders we knew, got on the geese and, disappointingly, the geese in question turned out to be four hybrids of, presumably, Barnacle Goose and Cackling Goose. Some people find hybrids fascinating. Some people like teasing out the various genetic strains. I'm not one of those people. I have a hard enough time identifying full species, I don't want to spend my energy figuring out if this goose is the product of a coupling of Barnacle Goose with Canada Goose or Cackling Goose, or what sub-species of either of those geese. I just spent close to an hour with a Cackling Goose and it wasn't until the end of the 50 minutes we were there that I was able to really convince myself that I had seen enough of the goose to say it was really a Cackling Goose. So, I felt like I'd been enticed to Middlesex County until false pretenses. I wasn't angry, exactly, but I wasn't happy. I suppose if there had really been a Barnacle Goose up there and I'd missed it, I'd be unhappy, but as it was a phantom goose, I was...just ready to quit for the day.

But wait, as they used to say in the infomercials, there's more! Wherever the hell we were in Middlesex County, nearby in Plainsboro, which was, according to who you were talking to was either 10 or 20 minutes away, there was a Lark Sparrow that was very cooperative. Lark Sparrow is bird that you don't get too often and as I was up there anyway and the whole gang was going for it, I followed them to the Lenape Trail in Plainsboro near a shopping center and power line cut. It was getting late and we were in danger of losing the light, but, as advertised, the bird was very cooperative. It took me a bit longer than everyone else to find on the construction planking next to the trail, but when I finally go the right angle I saw it well. They are neat little birds, with a harlequin facial pattern and a big dot in the middle of the breast. The photo below shows the unlikely habitat it has found to its liking for the last two weeks.

If a Cackling Goose hadn't been found at Deerhead Lake in Ocean County I would have counted the day a complete success. But, as the Third Rule of Birding states Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else. However, I understand there were approximately 500 geese on Deerhead Lake. My chances of finding the Cackler?

Barnegat Light SP 3/3--A Nemesis No More

Iceland Gull, center

It had become a standing joke among my birding buddies: I didn't have Iceland Gull on my Ocean County list. I've seen Glaucous Gull, which is considered more of a rarity, a number of times in the county--twice this year in fact. I go to Barnegat Light, Manasquan Inlet, and Island Beach a lot. Yet, never did I stumble upon this white-winged gull. Scott, in particular, found it hard to believe since he thinks Glaucous Gull is a much harder bird to find. I've come close: I once saw an Iceland Gull fly over my head on the north side of Manasquan Inlet, which, unfortunately is the southern extreme of Monmouth County.

The last time I saw Scott, I said to him, "Someday, we'll be at Barnegat Light on one of your trips and you'll point one out to me." I said this with confidence, despite having gone on probably 10 trips to the Light with Scott & Linda. Today, Mike and I went over to LBI for the trip. We'd just been there on Wednesday--naturally no Iceland Gull.

Scott and Linda pulled in to the lot and then I saw that Scott had brought a heavy hitter when Jason climbed out of the back seat. I had been on Jason's trip to the Edison Boat Launch and Sayreville Marsh last month and, naturally, got my year Iceland Gull up there--In Middlesex County.

Of course, one of the reasons I've never found an Iceland Gull around here, aside from sheer incompetence, is that I don't particularly find gulls and their permutating molts particularly fun to sort through. Jason does. Jason has spent probably thousands of hours studying gulls. So today, when the group started to scan the bay from the picnic area of the park, it wasn't long before Scott and Jason were conferring and then, with much ceremony, Jason lowered his scope so that I could see, across the way, on a sand bar off Island Beach, my county lifer Iceland Gull.

I reached over my shoulder, grabbed that monkey off my back, and threw it into Barnegat Bay!

But it gets better. After we had walked on concrete covered part of the jetty, the group drove over to 9th St so we could walk the beach to the jetty without actually walking on the jetty and risking cracked skulls and (even more importantly) the estimated $35,000 worth of optics everyone was carrying. There, Jason set up shop again, and while everyone else was looking for Harlequin Ducks, Common Eiders, and Purple Sandpipers (all of which were found), he came up with a second Iceland Gull, this one much closer, on the north side of the jetty, and easier to see since its white body contrasted starkly with the algae-covered rocks of the jetty. Iceland Gull might not be considered rare in the county, but two Iceland Gulls trips the eBird filter. So it isn't like they're everywhere for the asking.

We got a decent number of the expected birds at the Light, though no year birds, but the day, for me was a roaring success. Now, I have to practice looking through gull flocks for the remainder of the year so I can find another one in 2020.

My list for the state park. Mike also had a Cooper's Hawk while my back was turned.

23 species

Brant  50

Greater Scaup  2

Common Eider  200

Harlequin Duck  4

Black Scoter  2

Long-tailed Duck  50

Bufflehead  12

Red-breasted Merganser  3

Ruddy Turnstone  4

Dunlin  100

Purple Sandpiper  5

Herring Gull  200

Iceland Gull  2   

Great Black-backed Gull  3

Red-throated Loon  1

Common Loon  20

Northern Gannet  6

Great Cormorant  5

Double-crested Cormorant  1

American Crow  1

European Starling  10

Northern Cardinal  1

House Sparrow  1

Oros Preserve 2/19--Rusty Blackbird

I was up in Woodbridge Township to visit my mother (she's fine, thanks) but before I arrived at the ancestral home, I stopped off at the Ernest L. Oros Wildlife Preserver in the Avenel section, within view of the green dome of Rahway State Prison (name now softened to East Jersey State Prison so that Rahway isn't stigmatized). It's an interesting plot, wetlands with Woodbridge Creek (a tributary of the Rahway River) running through it.

Each time I got there (which is usually in the spring) the habitat improves through whose efforts I'm not certain, but I appreciate it. Great spot for warblers in May. I first got to know it when Red-headed Woodpeckers were wintering there a few years ago. They seem to have disappeared, but the other specialty bird, Rusty Blackbird, can still be found there and it didn't take me long to find a small flock of these glossy, yellow-eyed birds, which, for your convenience, are not rusty in winter, although, when the light was right, I was able to see a little brown on the napes of their necks.

The trails there are rudimentary and can be muddy but today the ground was frozen as was some of the water. In the back there is a kind of pond with open water and it was there that I saw most of my waterfowl for the day. Including an American Wigeon and a couple of Gadwalls, both unusual for the area  and both new for me in Middlesex County.

In less than an hour and a half I thoroughly covered the preserve, which is a good thing when Mom is waiting. In that time span I had 19 species, not bad for a few acres enclosed by railroad tracks and truck routes.

Canada Goose  12

Gadwall  2    

American Wigeon  1    

Mallard  29

Mourning Dove  10

Herring Gull  1    Flyover

Great Blue Heron  1

Belted Kingfisher  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1

Downy Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  1

Blue Jay  7

American Robin  1

European Starling  1

Song Sparrow  7

Red-winged Blackbird  5

Brown-headed Cowbird  1    Front section, in thickets near gazebo

Rusty Blackbird  6    I.

Common Grackle  1    Near stream in front, with flicker, Red-bellied Woodpecker and jays

Edison Boat Launch 2/16--Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull, middle

Well, if I can't find an Iceland Gull in my home county of Ocean, at least I can find one in my boyhood home county of Middlesex. Actually, I didn't find it, it was pointed out to me by Jason on his and Patrick's field trip to a couple of unpicturesque spots on the Raritan River where it flows past the Edgeboro Landfill and through the Sayreville Marsh, making it perfect habitat for gulls--lots of gulls.

When I arrived at the Edison Boat Launch, a spot I'd only heard about, there were, as advertised, thousands of gulls on the water, on the roofs of the warehouses behind me, and flying in great circles over the active landfill. Some people, like Jason, enjoy sorting through all the standard issue gulls looking for the rarity and, having spent hundreds of hours doing it, can pick out the "white-winged gull" from the mass very quickly. When I was in printing, after looking at copy for 20 or 30 years, typos would just jump out at me. Iceland Gulls, Glaucous Gulls, Little Gulls...these are the misprints of the Laridae.

Today, the only rarity were the two Iceland Gulls we saw at the boat ramp, one a glistening white gull, the other a first cycle, light coffee colored bird. Because the Iceland Gull is just slightly larger than a Ring-bill Gull and just slightly smaller than a Herring Gull, even when one was identified, it was awfully hard to pick it out from the ever-shuffling flock. A Glaucous Gull, being huge, at least would have stood out.

After about an hour and half in Edison, the group drove to the other side of the river to Ken Buchanan Park in Sayreville. While as the gull flies it is only a mile and half away, as the car drives it is a 12 mile, 20 minute ride, not including the Wawa stop (another new one for me!). In Sayreville, the river had comparatively few gulls, but the raptor show was better featuring Northern Harriers, a nicely perched Peregrine Falcon, and nesting Bald Eagles. A Common Raven was calling but I couldn't find it and there were 5 or 6 Great Cormorants affording nice looks of the brood patches on their flanks. Great Cormorant is usually a distant bird for me, so it was a treat to find them relatively close.

For the last stop of the day about half the group drove over to South Amboy's Raritan Bay Waterfront Park where we picked up Brant, Sanderling, Horned Grebe, and Red-throated Loon for the day.

Sanderlings on the rocky coast of South Amboy

35 species on the day

Species              First Sighting

Brant   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Canada Goose   Edison Boat Launch

Mallard   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

American Black Duck   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Greater Scaup   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Bufflehead   Edison Boat Launch

Common Goldeneye   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Common Merganser   Edison Boat Launch

Red-breasted Merganser   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Horned Grebe   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Rock Pigeon   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Sanderling   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Ring-billed Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Herring Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Iceland Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Great Black-backed Gull   Edison Boat Launch

Red-throated Loon   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Common Loon   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Great Cormorant   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Double-crested Cormorant   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Black Vulture   Sayreville

Turkey Vulture   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Northern Harrier   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Bald Eagle   Edison Boat Launch

Red-tailed Hawk   Edison Boat Launch

Belted Kingfisher   Edison Boat Launch

Peregrine Falcon   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Blue Jay   Edison Boat Launch

Fish Crow   Edison Boat Launch

Common Raven   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

European Starling   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

White-throated Sparrow   Edison Boat Launch

Song Sparrow   Edison Boat Launch

Red-winged Blackbird   Edison Boat Launch

House Sparrow   Edison Boat Launch