Marshall's Pond 12/11--Cackling Goose

I found it funny, in a non-funny way, this morning, that I saw more species (17) looking out the side window at our bird bath, suet feeders, and half-empty hopper feeder than I did in more than two hours and 4 miles of walking in the wind and cold at Double Trouble SP (15).  Winter birding (and it isn't even officially winter) can be slow in the Pine Barrens. So, when I got a text from Steve that there was a Cackling Goose at Marshall's Pond in Toms River, I was inclined to chase it, especially when I realized it was another waterfowl (like the Eurasian Wigeon at Lake of the Lilies last month), that I hadn't gotten onto the year list.

Marshall's Pond is about 15 miles away so about a half hour later I was at the site, and only then did it dawn on me that I would have to look through roughly 250 to 400 Canada Geese to find the one goose that was 2/3 the size of the rest of them with a stubby bill. Not as bad as looking through a thousand Snow Geese for the one Ross's Goose, but still, not much fun with the winds gusting to 36 mph and the real feel temperature around 17. Steve's photo had shown a neat little package of 3 Canada Geese with the Cackler tucked in. The reality of course was the flock of geese was spread out for a thousand feet and somewhere in there was the Cackler. I started at the outflow pipe and worked my way west to the sand bar without finding the goose, then proceeded to walk back east. When I got back to the outflow pipe, I stood on unstable rocks and scanned again. Suddenly it appeared. Then disappeared. Then appeared. As waterfowl are wont to do, it was playing the avian version of 3-card monte. Finally, I was able to keep it in sight long enough to get some pictures with it next to Canada Geese for comparison. 

American Wigeon with Canada Goose

I walked east to the end of the pond where there were a few duck species--Bufflehead, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Mallard, and Ring-necked Duck, then returned to the outflow pipe area. The trick to me, with a rare waterfowl, is if you can relocate it after you've gone for a few minutes. If you can, then you've really seen it. And I could. It took a little bit, but once again I found the Cackler, this time with its head tucked in floating amidst the larger geese. 

As I was telling Shari the story this evening at dinner, I remembered another little amusing fact--the first time we met Steve was at Marshall's Pond, on a cold January day many years ago (it might have been the first) when we were looking for another rare goose, either a Ross's or a Cackling, I can't recall which. Yesterday, I had been on Hooper Avenue for a doctor's appointment and considered going over to Marshall's Pond afterward to see what was there, but I thought it was too cold and windy to be appealing. And realistically, had I gone, I wouldn't have spent 40+ minutes looking through a flock of geese for the one outlier. When they were handing out patience, I was too impatient to stand in that line. 

Barnegat Light SP | Harvey Cedars Sunset Park 1/30--Harlequin Duck, Common Goldeneye, Purple Sandpiper

Common Goldeneye, Harvey Cedars

Today it was a "Let's get 'em on the list day" both for the year and the county. You can find them elsewhere, but supposedly the easiest place to get Harlequin Ducks and Purple Sandpipers is Barnegat Light SP.  Today it was not easy. My first climb up onto the jetty produced lots of other ducks but no Harlequins, nor were Purple Sandpipers in evidence. There were big flocks of ducks on the ocean, including my county Common Eiders, but it took a walk up to the end of the remnants of the old 8th St jetty to finally find a half dozen or so of the Harlequins, mixed in with Buffleheads and Long-tailed Ducks. In my experience, if you can't find them off the jetty, then the walk up the beach is a reliable Plan B, but unfortunately, not a photo op. 

Purple Sandpiper, Barnegat Light SP

I returned to the jetty and despite not liking to do it I clambered up it again. I was happy to get great looks at a small flock of skunkheads (Surf Scoters) and then, turning around, sitting on a rock in the water I found my first Purple Sandpiper, posing. It flew up very close to me (they and the Harlequins are extraordinarily tame), in fact too close for the camera to focus. Eventually, I found a few more out on the rocks on the ocean side, and even two more Harlequins (drake & hen) sitting on a distant stone. 

Walking back through the pond area, I added Snow Bunting to the county list with an active flock of about 15. In the pond itself, aside from the usual Mallards, black ducks, Brant, and geese, were a drake and hen
American Wigeon, fairly unusual for this site. 

Snow Buntings, Barnegat Light SP

For the park I had 28 species, a spectacular number compared to what I've been able to find walking around the Pine Barrens.

Brant  150
Canada Goose  120
American Wigeon  2
Mallard  50
American Black Duck  30
Greater Scaup  60
Common Eider  20
Harlequin Duck  8
Surf Scoter  12
Black Scoter  15
Long-tailed Duck  100
Bufflehead  50
Red-breasted Merganser  70
Sanderling  20
Purple Sandpiper  7
Ring-billed Gull  1
American Herring Gull  300
Great Black-backed Gull  15
Common Loon  1
Double-crested Cormorant  2
Great Blue Heron  1
Blue Jay  1     Heard
American Crow  5
Common Raven  2     Large wedge-tailed croaking corvids
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1     Heard yank yank in cedars
Snow Bunting  15
Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich)  3
Yellow-rumped Warbler  15

Then I drove down to Harvey Cedars for another specialty of the site. Close to shore the water frozen, but farther out there were ducks, mostly Buffleheads and scaup too difficult to separate in the glare, but after the 40th Bufflehead I finally found what I was looking for--Common Goldeneye, actually two good-lucking drakes. For some inexplicable reason, Sunset Park in Harvey Cedars will almost always yield up a goldeneye or two, while you could look up and down the rest of Barnegat Bay and count yourself lucky to find one. 

Earlier in the month, when the deep freeze was on, someone asked me if I was interested in going to Barnegat Light and I said I could wait until March to get the ducks and sandpipers. But apparently the itch for them had to be scratched long before that. 

Franklin Parker Preserve 1/13--Northern Shrike

Northern Shrike

With the heavy rains and gusting winds of late causing coastal flood warnings all over, I knew my best strategy was to go inland. I drove down to Franklin Parker Preserve in the heart of the Pine Barrens for the second time this month. Even there, in old cranberry bogs that are reverting to wetlands, the water was high, making the trails impassable in some places. I bumped into a couple of Burlco birding buddies who were looking for an out-of-season Grasshopper Sparrow that had been photographed there a couple of days ago. My goal was a little less esoteric and they pointed me the way to go for the Northern Shrike that has, presumably, returned for the 3rd year in a row to the preserve, albeit on the on the west side of 563 this time. I climbed up the observation platform and after a few minutes found the bird in a tree with a lot of dead branches in the line of sight. Then it jumped up to the top of the tree and I managed some very distant doc shots, and I was happy. It seems that most of my shrike sightings are like this, a gray/white/black blob in the distance where I can barely make out the mask. I tried walking down a breached dam to get a better angle on the bird but couldn't it find in the mess of bare branches in front of me.

Walking south along the Bald Eagle Reservoir, I came to one of those impassable spots and turned left on a much less used trail. And there before me, sitting in a tree, was the shrike. It flew into the reservoir on the right and perched for a moment on a stick, flew, came back to the stick, and let me get a decent look at it and some very lousy photographs which I won't show you. 

Eastern Meadowlark

I continued walking down the dam.  I had no idea if it was breached or not. There wasn't much activity, the winds had kicked up and I suspected that was keeping the birds hunkered down, aside from a flock of robins. I got as far as I could reasonably go without bushwhacking and turned around. A bird flew down into the grass from a pine. I my first impression was that must have been a dove. I knew I'd flush the bird on the way back and when I did, I saw that it wasn't a dove. Eastern Meadowlark?

One of the sentences from Roger Tory Peterson's field guides that has always stuck with me was his discussion of habitat and birds. He wrote something to the effect, "A meadowlark needs a meadow." I have found this to be only generally true. I have seen meadowlarks in the marshes along Stafford Avenue, on the barren strip behind the firing range at Colliers Mills, among other non-meadow spots. The overgrown dam at Franklin Parker certainly doesn't qualify as a meadow, yet there was the bird, roosting now in a dead pine. I still wasn't entirely certain until it flew across the water, and I saw the white outer tail feathers spread in flight. It landed in another dead tree with its back to me and was very hard to find. But when it turned around, it was like a yellow light in all the brown and gray across the water. It actually pleased me more to find the meadowlark than the shrike. My philosophy is I only need one cool bird a day. The meadowlark made it two. 

Backyard Beetles & Moths

Imperial Moth

My brother, who has been coming to the Pine Barrens for more than 30 years for lepidoptery and other insects (beetles, mostly), set up his lights and sheets in our backyard last night to do some mothing. While he was setting up, I told him the story about Vladmir Nabokov's novel, Bend Sinister. Nabokov, who was, in addition to being one of the greatest, if not the greatest, writer of the 20th century, was also an expert lepidopterist and he often inserted references to moths and butterflies in his work. The last line of the novel is, "A good night for mothing." In the first edition of the book, the copy editor, never having seen the word, changed it to "A good night for nothing."  

Harry said that people who bird are of course, "birders," but people who go mothing have a hard time since they don't want to be confused with "mothers." 

His mothing array wasn't very elaborate: two sheets, one draped over our picnic table, the other over a couple of chairs, a pair of ultra-violet lights and an incandescent 180-watt bulb, a very long extension cord, and he was all set. He also went into the woods in back and smeared bait on the trees. The bait is a mixture of beer, fermented bananas, brown sugar and, I think, molasses. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, like bait for fishing. Last night, it didn't work. 

Polyphylla variolosa

As soon as it got dark, we had some activity, though at first, they were mostly beetles. There were two kinds of rather large beetles, both of which would go under the rubric June bug, though, as Harry pointed out, that's like saying "warbler" or "sparrow." It doesn't tell you much. Harry doesn't traffic much in common names, but the interesting beetle to him, and me, was Polyphylla variolosa, with big, feathery antennae. There are only two representatives of this genus, I believe he said, on the east coast, and this is the one you'll find in the Pine Barrens. 

He went to check his bait and I heard him call out "Ho ho," and what he came back with was not a moth, but a caterpillar that he called a "filament" something or other because of the long spike protruding from its thorax. They feed on greenbrier, of which there is plenty to feed on around here. Since he found it on the bark of a tree, he suspects it was looking for a place to pupate. It will now pupate in Westchester County, NY. 

"Filament caterpillar"

Not many moths were showing up on the sheet. I was amazed at how many of the Polyphylla we were attracting, but the one species of moth he found interesting was a Gracilis Underwing, an example of which I remembered seeing on the Wawa wall before they renovated and changed the lights. Around 11 he left for his motel, but he left the lights on. At 5:30 this morning he was back to see what had come in overnight. To me, it just looked like a smattering of uninteresting little insects, but to him, those nondescript moths are very interesting. He also told me that you have to carefully look underneath the drapes and folds of the sheet, because they often work their way in there. Sure enough, when he took the sheet off the two chairs, there on the seat, was a beauty of an Imperial Moth. And then, from underneath the table, he extracted a perfect specimen of an Apple Sphinx Moth. Along with the rare fly he found last night, he was pretty happy with his haul, since of the 3 families of moths he is most interested in, he'd found an example of each.

Apple Sphinx Moth

And then he found the really interesting moth, sitting inside the lip of his lamp. At first he thought it was Cactoblastis cactorum, but what surprised him was that its range map doesn't include New Jersey. It turned out to be Melitara prodenialis.  The caterpillars of this moth feed on prickly pear cactus, of which, again, there is plenty of around here.  There are other records of this moth in New Jersey, but not a lot, and oddly, there is a gap between NJ and North Carolina where the moth has not been recorded. Obviously, prickly pear is all along that stretch. If nothing else, if my brother hasn't come across one in his decades of mothing in New Jersey, you can be sure it is rare.

And right in my own backyard. 

Melitara prodenialis

Large Maple Spanworm

Manasquan River WMA | STR Cranberry Bogs 2/15--Common Raven, Chipping Sparrow

Common Raven, Cranberry Bogs, South Toms River
Click photos to enlarge

I visited a couple of places I haven't been to in quite some time. The Manasquan River WMA is about as far north as you can get in Ocean County--in fact, only half of it is this county with a large part being in Monmouth. It certainly is outside the Pine Barrens. The WMA is not heavily birded in the winter so I thought I might find a couple of overlooked birds there and I came up with two.

Gray Catbird
If you squint, you can see it.

The first, Gray Catbird, I had a notion might be there, though I had to bushwhack to find it. Despite the name, on the Ocean County side the river is not really accessible unless you're wearing hip boots since the trail that leads to it trickles away to a muddy path between and ending in impenetrable, 7 foot high phragmites, but before that there is a little path among the thickets, where last year I found my FOY Hermit Thrush and this year, in about the same spot, I came upon the catbird, one more check mark on the county list.. The tangles of bushes allow for only a suggestion of the bird in my photos. The reason I thought I might see one there is the similarity in habitat to Assunpink, where I've seen the species twice so far this year.

In spring & summer the WMA is a good place to find some of the more out of the way warblers like Hooded & Blue-winged. In winter, sparrows abound. While walking around the 2nd big field little groups flew out of the high grass into the trees on the edge of the trail. Most of them were Song Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows, but I also snagged a couple of Field Sparrows, one American Tree Sparrow, a nice reddish Fox Sparrow and, year bird alert, my first Chipping Sparrows.

22 species

Mourning Dove  1

Herring Gull  25    Flyover toward Brick Reservoir

Turkey Vulture  1

Northern Harrier  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2

Downy Woodpecker  5

Carolina Chickadee  3

Tufted Titmouse  4

White-breasted Nuthatch  2    Heard

Carolina Wren  3    Heard

Eastern Bluebird  2    On nest box

American Robin  100

Gray Catbird  1    

American Goldfinch  5

Chipping Sparrow  2

Field Sparrow  2

American Tree Sparrow  1

Fox Sparrow  1

White-throated Sparrow  20

Song Sparrow  15

Red-winged Blackbird  1    female near Ridge Road east of parking lot

Northern Cardinal  2    south side of first big field, near old building

Tundra Swans

On the way home I stopped at the cranberry bogs in South Toms River--the undeveloped part of Double Trouble Park. Again, not a place heavily birded (it's been almost 2 years since anyone other than me has posted an eBird list there), but I almost always find something interesting there. Interesting today included 7 Tundra Swans, one Merlin, and the Common Raven that I at first heard croaking, coming from the direction of Jake's Branch Park and then located, behind me, on a power line tower. Even my distant photos show the huge beak on this corvid and the flight shot that happenstance provided shows the wedge-shaped tail. Ravens are considered rare in the county but today alone, besides this one, Mike had three near a dealership lot in Lakewood and one was reported on the Lakehurst base, where they nest. I've heard the idea that eBird reviewers keep raven as "rare" to prevent misidentifications with either of the two crows, but I'm starting to think that in actuality, a lot of ravens are going unreported since, unless they vocalize, they can easily be mistaken as just another crow, especially if they're flying at distance.

12 species

Canada Goose  150

Tundra Swan  7    adults and immature

Mallard  4    

American Black Duck  8    Very skittish, flew from one bog to another as I walked around

Hooded Merganser  4    Two hens, two drakes

Mourning Dove  10

Turkey Vulture  3

Red-tailed Hawk  2    Saw both in sky at the same time.

Merlin  1

American Crow  1    Heard

Common Raven  1    

Carolina Wren  1    Heard entrance path

Finally, another example of Zirlin's Third Law of Birding: Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else:
While I was coming upon the Tundra Swans in the cranberry bogs, I got a text from Mike that he had an Iceland Gull at Lake of the Lilies. Iceland Gull is a nemesis bird for me, especially in Ocean County. Never seen one here, sad to say. Lake of the Lilies is 20 miles away from where my car was parked and I was one & half miles away from my car. Had he contacted me while I up north I might have considered making the trip to Point Pleasant Beach, but what were the chances that a gull would stay around for the 45 minutes it would take me to get up there? As it turns out, none, because within 10 minutes Mike let me know that a dog walker had flushed the gull that had been sitting 15 feet away. It was gone. "Which is why," I texted back, "I don't chase gulls very often."

Rechnitz Pine Barrens Preserve 7/13

Eastern Towhee

In John McPhee's wonderful classic, The Pine Barrens, he says that one of the great misconceptions about the area is that no birds live here because there's nothing for them to eat. He then goes on to list a half page of birds that breed in the Pine Barrens (some, alas, like Henslow's Sparrow and Alder Flycatcher, no longer) and ends the section with the sentence, "The most common bird in the Pine Barrens is the towhee."

I first read this book in college and have reread it a number of times; the last time I read the book we had moved here and I had birded extensively and I knew that the towhee was no longer the most common bird, if it ever really was. The Carolina Chickadee is, in my opinion and experience, the bird you'll run into most frequently in the Pine Barrens. For one thing, in winter towhees are scarce, while chickadees are abundant, especially at feeders. We don't really start seeing towhees until the spring when there is always at least one nesting pair in the woods just behind the house.

I was thinking of all this today while walking through the newly-opened Rechnitz Pine Barrens Preserve off North Branch Road in Pemberton. 811 acres of preserved land, bought from a family which acquired the property in 1956 in anticipation of a Pine Barrens development boom that never came. Today, at least, in the Rechnitz Preserve, the most common bird was the Eastern Towhee. I listed 20 and that was just a fair guess. They were "chwinking" almost every step of the 1.3 mile trail that I walked. I saw one chickadee.

It's mid-summer, so I really wasn't expecting many species (I wound up with 12); I was more interested in exploring the habitat to see where, when conditions are right, I might look for birds. While Mount Misery Brook runs along the southern end of the property, there's no way to access it that I could see, but, perhaps in the autumn or early spring, when everything isn't leafed out and overgrown, there may be a way.

Supposedly this is good habitat for Red-headed Woodpecker but I have to say that I didn't notice a lot of dead trees that they like to hammer away at. I was hoping for Summer Tanager too. They're probably around but a lot harder to find when not singing.

And a Pine Barrens factoid: The place name Mount Misery derives from it original name which was Mount Misericordia--Latin for "mercy." "Misericordia" is way too long a name to say comfortably, so in a folk transformation, "mercy" become "misery."

Map of Rechnitz Preserve

Mourning Dove 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 Heard
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Carolina Chickadee 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 2 Heard
Eastern Bluebird 4
Common Yellowthroat 2
Pine Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 1
Eastern Towhee 20
House Finch 6
American Goldfinch 2 Heard

Michael Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve

The Deerhead

A few years ago, when I didn't know the roads around here as well as I do now, I tried to find this spot, which I was told was a great place for hard to find warblers. I wound up, following Google directions,  almost getting plowed into by a dump truck coming out of a sand quarry dug out deep into the woods and the next right turn I was supposed to take was little more than a footpath going I don't know where.

Last week I went again and, just by looking at a map (imagine that!) I found the place with no trouble at all--basically I made a left off Route 70 and went 4 1/4 miles on Sooy Place Road. I think part of my problem was that I was reluctant to drive on a road I couldn't pronounce, but now that I know that "Sooy" sounds like a hillbilly calling in his hogs, I'm quite comfortable on the road.

And now that I know where it is and how to get there, I looked it up again on a few map sites--all their directions border on the idiotic--they may be a hundred feet shorter in distance but they are way more complicated than they need to be.

The preserve is truly deep into the Pine Barrens--hundreds of acres of pitch pine and jack oak crisscrossed by fairly wide paths. Going there in early July is probably not the best strategy, but in my 3 times there in the last 6 days--I've been getting really bored walking the same places lately--I've found a nice number of warblers and the place is unfamiliar enough to me that I get that frisson of almost being lost in the woods.

My first trip there on Thursday I saw both Blue-winged Warbler (a new bird for Burlington County) and the always sought-after Hooded Warbler. That trip was cut short by unexpected rain. Sunday, I saw my first Prairie Warbler there. I apparently haven't yet walked on the trail that goes through their habitat, because that's the only one I've seen. I got a little farther that day, but that trip was also cut short, this time because a local power outage made it impossible to close our garage door and Shari had to leave the house.

Today, I was able to explore for over 3 hours. I had seen a list by another birder who used "by the deerhead" as a location. I didn't know if that was a geological formation or an actual dead deer. I asked a Burlington County birder friend of mine about it but it was a mystery to him. Today, I found the deerhead--pictured above it is made out of some kind of soft, solid plastic, and I had passed it on my two previous trips, as had my friend all the times he's been there.  No wonder I have problems finding little birds deep in the foliage.

Spung

The Huber Preserve does feature a geological formation unique to the Pine Barrens, a couple of "spungs" (which  I can find in no dictionary)--they are somewhat akin to vernal ponds being pools of water not fed by a spring or underground source, but rather bowls of densely packed clay that depend on rainfall to keep them full. Unlike vernal ponds they are not seasonal. There are two listed on the trail map and today I made the trek up to one--don't try this unless you are really tick protected and aware because I picked off more than 10 of the little demons from my socks and pants--only to find that it was simply an overgrown dry spot in the forest. Not a drop of water.

It has been my observation walking in the woods & fields of the Pine Barrens--Whitesbog, Colliers Mills, the Cranberry Bogs, the WMA behind the house--that you are never really that far from a road. You can always hear a car or truck no matter deep in the woods or far out in a bog you are. The Huber Preserve is the first place I've been that I couldn't hear any traffic. Planes yes; they're inescapable especially with McGuire so close. But not an automotive engine in the 3 plus hours I was there.

As I said, summertime is not the ideal time to go here but I will definitely have to make it a go to spot during next year's migration. I also hear from my friend that Red Crossbills are in the area--I may have seen one today, a juvenile, because there was a striped finch that I couldn't place, but I didn't get a look at the beak and I didn't see it that well or that long--those damn leaves!

For my 3 trips I've totaled 29 species. Not very impressive but it takes a while to get to know where the birds are.

Turkey Vulture Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Black-billed Cuckoo Ruby-throated Hummingbird Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Eastern Wood-Pewee Great Crested Flycatcher White-eyed Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Wood Thrush Gray Catbird Brown Thrasher Ovenbird Blue-winged Warbler Black-and-white Warbler Common Yellowthroat Hooded Warbler Pine Warbler Prairie Warbler Eastern Towhee Northern Cardinal Ovenbird

Pinelands Survey at Whitesbog 1/29--Killdeer

Cooper's Hawk, Whitesbog Village

The 2nd annual NJ Pinelands Winter Bird Census found me very pre-dawn this morning in an old bog at Whitesbog with Greg, where we were listening for screech-owls. Judging from the eBird lists I'm seeing, everyone else doing the survey in different parts of Burlington County found owls--screech, great horned, and barred, but we struck out, trying for them in a few different spots. I was a little disappointed because last year, at least, I heard GHO hooting from the parking lot. If I'm going to rise at 5 A.M., I'd like to be rewarded with a "hoo-hoo" or a whinny.

Despite being owl-less, Greg and I did pretty well in our wanderings around the bogs, reservoirs, and woods, particularly when you consider that on Friday I had walked about 7 miles there and come up with precious little for all those miles. For me the two highlights came fairly early. While we driving out to the double-laned road on the Burlington/Ocean County border we flushed a flash of white off the dike between Union Pond and the Middle Bog. My first reaction was wrong--Snow Bunting which Greg and I had once flushed from just about the same spot. The bird landed down the road a bit and froze--we had a Killdeer in the headlights.

I was surprised to find the water so stiff. It wasn't frozen on Friday, Saturday wasn't that cold, and this morning the temperature was just a tad below freezing. This bode ill for waterfowl again, as it had last year when the temperatures had been much colder. However, out in the bogs we counted 79 Tundra Swans, a goodly number, but not out of the ordinary for Whitesbog. At least for Whitesbog, Burlington County. Later, when we were at the Upper Reservoir, in Ocean County, a flock of swans flew in, presumably the same flock, and when I listed 69 eBird flagged it as a large number for the county. This is one of the flaws of eBird that it isn't granular enough to account  borders. Obviously, the swans don't care what county they're in and fly back and forth. I've had Rusty Blackbird (likely in Burlington County) flagged as rare 100 feet on the other side of the border in Ocean. For the purposes of the Pinelands Census we listed 88 Tundra Swans--the big flock we first saw and then another 9 we found mid-afternoon on Otter Pond.

The second highlight of the day came in the village, after we had walked Whitesbog Road almost up to Fort Dix--a Cooper's Hawk was sitting in a big tree just next to the General Store and seemed to think that there was something very interesting either around or in the tree, because it did a behavior neither of us had ever seen, flying--actually fluttering--in a spirals around the trunk of the tree, then landing on picnic bench, checking out the ground, before flying back into the branches of the tree where it hopped from limb to limb.

As the day warmed more water opened up and we did decently with waterfowl--we had Mallard, black duck, hoodies, Buffleheads, and Ring-necked Ducks, plus a dozen Canada Geese. There was one duck far out on the Upper Reservoir that looked very interesting but we didn't have a scope with us and by the time we went back to the car to fetch it and drove back it was gone. We had our guesses, based on our wishes, but we really have no idea what it was. Passerines were a little difficult to find--it took us forever to find a sparrow with the word "sparrow" in its common name.

By around 2 P.M. things had quieted down (not that they were ever that active) and since we had covered our territory pretty thoroughly, checking out some hot spots a couple of times, we called it a day with 27 species, 5 more than I had last year. Aside from vultures and the Coop, no raptors, which was surprising. No Rusty Blackbirds. But a good day in the field. I'm very curious to see the total numbers for the census.

12 Canada Goose 
88 Tundra Swan 
5 American Black Duck 
1 Mallard 
4 Ring-necked Duck 
2 Bufflehead 
19 Hooded Merganser 
2 Wild Turkey 
2 Black Vulture 
17 Turkey Vulture
1 Cooper's Hawk 
1 Killdeer
10 Herring Gull 
4 Downy Woodpecker 
2 Blue Jay 
15 American Crow 
2 Fish Crow
17 Carolina Chickadee 
7 Tufted Titmouse 
4 Red-breasted Nuthatch 
11 Golden-crowned Kinglet 
42 American Robin 
1 European Starling
23 Dark-eyed Junco 
2 Song Sparrow 
3 Northern Cardinal 
100 Red-winged Blackbird 

Last Walk of the Year--Snow Goose

I went out this afternoon when it finally warmed up a bit, walking around the neighborhood, mostly for the exercise, but I always bring my binoculars along. There were the expected birds along the way, nothing I hadn't already seen this morning by our feeders, but at the pond on Schoolhouse, in among the usual Canada Geese and Mallards, I found one odd goose.

My first reaction was that it was some sort of hybrid goose or an immature goose. I wasn't carrying a field guide. I knew it wasn't a barnyard goose--I have enough experience with those--but this is a case of context. Had I seen this bird at Brig I would probably have called it immediately. However, in our little pond it seemed weirder than it really is. I should have remembered that this spring we had Tundra Swans and a Redhead in that pond, so it can attract more than the very common species. But then, I didn't believe I was looking at  Tundra Swans at first either.

When I showed this picture to Shari after I got home, she, not being biased by the location, immediately said "Snow Goose." I looked it up in Sibley's and yes, it had all the field marks of an immature Snow Goose (dingy color, black bill) that were throwing me off. I put up a few pictures on line and asked for help on Jerseybirds and almost immediately confirmations of Snow Goose came pinging in.

Now, the big deal here, for me, is that I hadn't had Snow Goose all year in Ocean County, and had pretty much given up looking for new birds after hearing the Sedge Wren on the Barnegat Christmas Bird Count this Sunday. This was my 233rd bird in Ocean County for me this year, an all time high for me, but good only for a very distant second place overall.

I think, if nothing else, my list shows the amazing diversity of birds in Ocean County, blessed as it is with both a long shoreline, plenty of marshes, and vast upland habitat.

Species              First Sighting

Snow Goose     Crestwood Village                      

Brant     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                  

Canada Goose     Crestwood Village                  

Mute Swan     Cattus Island County Park                      

Tundra Swan    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)             

Wood Duck     New Egypt              

Gadwall     Forsythe--Barnegat                 

American Wigeon     Marshall's Pond                 

American Black Duck     Riverfront Landing                  

Mallard     Crestwood Village                    

Northern Shoveler     Forsythe--Barnegat                      

Northern Pintail     Bayview Ave Park                 

Green-winged Teal     Forsythe--Barnegat                     

Canvasback     Riverfront Landing                      

Redhead     Riverfront Landing                

Ring-necked Duck     Double Trouble State Park                     

Greater Scaup     Little Silver Lake                       

Lesser Scaup     Riverfront Landing                    

King Eider     Barnegat Lighthouse SP               

Common Eider     Great Sedge Island                 

Harlequin Duck     Barnegat Lighthouse SP                 

Surf Scoter     Barnegat Lighthouse SP             

White-winged Scoter     Barnegat Lighthouse SP                    

Black Scoter     Barnegat Lighthouse SP                       

Long-tailed Duck     Manasquan Inlet                 

Bufflehead     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                   

Common Goldeneye     Great Bay Bvld. WMA              

Hooded Merganser     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                 

Common Merganser     Prospertown Lake                     

Red-breasted Merganser     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                   

Ruddy Duck     Riverfront Landing                      

Northern Bobwhite     Colliers Mills WMA                      

Ring-necked Pheasant     Warren Grove                       

Wild Turkey     Rt. 70                      

Red-throated Loon     Barnegat Lighthouse SP            

Common Loon     Manasquan Inlet                     

Pied-billed Grebe     Double Trouble State Park                       

Horned Grebe     Little Silver Lake                       

Red-necked Grebe     Manasquan Inlet              

Northern Gannet     Manasquan Inlet                 

Double-crested Cormorant     Barnegat Lighthouse SP                      

Great Cormorant     Barnegat Lighthouse SP                

Brown Pelican     Great Sedge Island                 

American Bittern     Great Sedge Island              

Great Blue Heron     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                    

Great Egret     Cattus Island County Park                       

Snowy Egret     Island Beach SP             

Little Blue Heron     Cattus Island County Park             

Tricolored Heron     Cattus Island County Park             

Green Heron    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)              

Black-crowned Night-Heron     Island Beach SP                      

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                       

Glossy Ibis     Cattus Island County Park                       

Black Vulture     New Egypt                      

Turkey Vulture     Crestwood Village                   

Osprey     Cattus Island County Park                  

Northern Harrier     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                      

Sharp-shinned Hawk     Colliers Mills WMA                  

Cooper's Hawk     Crestwood Community Gardens                 

Bald Eagle     Double Trouble State Park                       

Red-shouldered Hawk   Bridge to Nowhere                  

Broad-winged Hawk     Double Trouble State Park                  

Red-tailed Hawk     Whiting--Power line cut                  

Clapper Rail     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                 

American Coot     Lake of the Lilies                     

American Avocet     Forsythe--Barnegat             

American Oystercatcher     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                     

Black-bellied Plover     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                

American Golden-Plover    Holgate                     

Semipalmated Plover     Great Bay Bvld. WMA             

Piping Plover     Barnegat Lighthouse SP                     

Killdeer     Great Bay Bvld. WMA              

Spotted Sandpiper     Lake Enno             

Solitary Sandpiper     Butterfly Bogs                    

Greater Yellowlegs    Eno's Pond            

Willet     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                  

Lesser Yellowlegs     Forsythe--Barnegat                       

Upland Sandpiper     Lakehurst NAES               

Whimbrel     Great Sedge Island              

Marbled Godwit     Great Sedge Island                

Ruddy Turnstone     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                    

Red Knot     Great Sedge Island               

Stilt Sandpiper     Forsythe--Barnegat                 

Sanderling     Barnegat Lighthouse SP              

Dunlin     Great Bay Bvld. WMA               

Purple Sandpiper     Barnegat Lighthouse SP              

Least Sandpiper     Cattus Island County Park             

Pectoral Sandpiper    Eno's Pond            

Semipalmated Sandpiper     Island Beach SP              

Short-billed Dowitcher     Island Beach SP                    

Long-billed Dowitcher     Bayview Marina                      

Wilson's Snipe    Eno's Pond                   

American Woodcock     Crestwood Community Gardens                    

Bonaparte's Gull     Manasquan Inlet                  

Laughing Gull     Toms River bus station                       

Ring-billed Gull     Crestwood Village                 

Herring Gull     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                  

Lesser Black-backed Gull     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                  

Great Black-backed Gull     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                    

Least Tern     Double Trouble State Park            

Caspian Tern     Great Sedge Island                   

Black Tern     Great Sedge Island            

Common Tern     Barnegat Lighthouse SP                    

Forster's Tern     Cattus Island County Park                  

Royal Tern     Barnegat Lighthouse SP              

Black Skimmer     Great Bay Bvld. WMA             

Rock Pigeon     Warren Grove                  

Mourning Dove     35 Sunset Rd             

Yellow-billed Cuckoo     Colliers Mills WMA                  

Black-billed Cuckoo    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)             

Eastern Screech-Owl     35 Sunset Rd               

Great Horned Owl     35 Sunset Rd                     

Snowy Owl   Bridge to Nowhere               

Short-eared Owl   Bridge to Nowhere                 

Common Nighthawk     Lakehurst NAES                       

Chuck-will's-widow     Collinstown Rd                

Eastern Whip-poor-will     35 Sunset Rd            

Chimney Swift     Prospertown Lake                   

Ruby-throated Hummingbird     35 Sunset Rd              

Belted Kingfisher     Horicon Lake                       

Red-headed Woodpecker     Colliers Mills WMA                      

Red-bellied Woodpecker     35 Sunset Rd                     

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker     Crestwood Village            

Downy Woodpecker     35 Sunset Rd                 

Hairy Woodpecker     Whiting WMA                    

Northern Flicker     Crestwood Village                

American Kestrel     Colliers Mills WMA              

Merlin     Crestwood Village                      

Peregrine Falcon     Barnegat Lighthouse SP              

Eastern Wood-Pewee     Colliers Mills WMA                 

Acadian Flycatcher     Double Trouble State Park                    

Willow Flycatcher     Double Trouble State Park                       

Least Flycatcher     Colliers Mills WMA               

Eastern Phoebe     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                      

Great Crested Flycatcher     Double Trouble State Park                      

Eastern Kingbird    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)                   

Northern Shrike    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)                    

White-eyed Vireo    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)                  

Blue-headed Vireo     Cattus Island County Park                     

Warbling Vireo     Colliers Mills WMA                  

Red-eyed Vireo     Island Beach SP                    

Blue Jay     35 Sunset Rd              

American Crow     35 Sunset Rd              

Fish Crow     Horicon Lake            

Common Raven     Lakehurst NAES                  

Horned Lark     Lakehurst NAES              

Northern Rough-winged Swallow     Great Bay Bvld. WMA               

Purple Martin    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)             

Tree Swallow     Prospertown Lake                     

Bank Swallow     Forsythe--Barnegat                  

Barn Swallow    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)            

Carolina Chickadee     35 Sunset Rd                 

Tufted Titmouse     35 Sunset Rd            

Red-breasted Nuthatch     Wells Mills Park                    

White-breasted Nuthatch     35 Sunset Rd                    

Brown Creeper     Crestwood Village                  

House Wren    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)              

Winter Wren     Ocean County Parks Offices                

Sedge Wren     Manahawking WMA--Beach Ave                     

Marsh Wren     Island Beach SP              

Carolina Wren     35 Sunset Rd               

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     Colliers Mills WMA                

Golden-crowned Kinglet     Whiting--Power line cut                

Ruby-crowned Kinglet     Crestwood Village                 

Eastern Bluebird     Horicon Lake            

Veery     Double Trouble State Park                    

Gray-cheeked Thrush     Double Trouble State Park               

Swainson's Thrush     Wells Mills Park               

Hermit Thrush     Crestwood Village                    

Wood Thrush     FREC                  

American Robin     Lakewood                  

Gray Catbird     Island Beach SP             

Brown Thrasher     Colliers Mills WMA               

Northern Mockingbird     New Egypt                    

European Starling     Crestwood Village            

Cedar Waxwing     Cattus Island County Park              

Lapland Longspur     Island Beach SP               

Snow Bunting     Island Beach SP                      

Ovenbird     Double Trouble State Park              

Louisiana Waterthrush     Double Trouble State Park             

Northern Waterthrush    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)                      

Blue-winged Warbler     Colliers Mills WMA                  

Black-and-white Warbler     Colliers Mills WMA            

Orange-crowned Warbler     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                  

Nashville Warbler     Island Beach SP--Reed's Road              

Common Yellowthroat    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)                     

American Redstart     Double Trouble State Park                     

Northern Parula    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)                    

Magnolia Warbler     Double Trouble State Park                       

Bay-breasted Warbler     Island Beach SP                     

Blackburnian Warbler    Eno's Pond                   

Yellow Warbler    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)                      

Blackpoll Warbler     Island Beach SP                

Black-throated Blue Warbler     Island Beach SP                     

Palm Warbler     Double Trouble State Park                  

Pine Warbler     35 Sunset Rd                  

Yellow-rumped Warbler     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                     

Prairie Warbler    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)                      

Black-throated Green Warbler     Island Beach SP                   

Canada Warbler     Island Beach SP                  

Eastern Towhee     Colliers Mills WMA               

American Tree Sparrow     35 Sunset Rd                       

Chipping Sparrow     Crestwood Village             

Clay-colored Sparrow     Great Bay Bvld. WMA             

Field Sparrow    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)            

Savannah Sparrow     Barnegat Lighthouse SP                       

Grasshopper Sparrow     Colliers Mills WMA                 

Saltmarsh Sparrow     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                 

Seaside Sparrow     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                     

Fox Sparrow     35 Sunset Rd                   

Song Sparrow     35 Sunset Rd                

Lincoln's Sparrow     Colliers Mills WMA            

Swamp Sparrow     Horicon Lake             

White-throated Sparrow     35 Sunset Rd                       

White-crowned Sparrow     Double Trouble State Park                       

Dark-eyed Junco     35 Sunset Rd                       

Scarlet Tanager     FREC              

Northern Cardinal     35 Sunset Rd                     

Rose-breasted Grosbeak    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)                 

Blue Grosbeak     Prospertown Lake                   

Indigo Bunting     Colliers Mills WMA                  

Bobolink     Island Beach SP--Reed's Road                  

Red-winged Blackbird     Cattus Island County Park               

Eastern Meadowlark     Lakehurst NAES                       

Common Grackle     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                    

Boat-tailed Grackle     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                  

Brown-headed Cowbird     35 Sunset Rd                       

Orchard Oriole    Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)                       

Baltimore Oriole     Lake Enno                  

House Finch     35 Sunset Rd                  

Purple Finch     Great Bay Bvld. WMA                

American Goldfinch     35 Sunset Rd                 

House Sparrow     35 Sunset Rd