Sandy Hook 1/1--Lapland Longspur

First bird of the year: Carolina Wren, while I was packing the car for our trip up to Sandy Hook to "Kick Off The Year List" with Scott, Linda, Carol and about 25 other birders. I checked off the trash birds for the year (Rock Pigeon, European Starling, House Sparrow) at the Wawa in South Toms River. Our first Canada Geese of the year were flying over Seven Presidents Park as we made the turn onto 36 to drive up the peninsula to the Hook.  After that, the 29 other birds for the day came from various spots on the Hook, most of it seawatching, which, I have said many times here, is not my favorite birding activity. Watching distant ducks, grebes, gulls, even Razorbills, bob up and down in the rolling ocean, dive and disappear, or vanish behind a wave, if it doesn't make me seasick, at least tries the little patience I start out with each morning. But that's winter birding because there ain't much going on terrestrially. 

Horned Larks

I like to get a minimum of one hard to find bird to start the year and today supplied two up at North Beach: a small flock of Horned Larks (not rare, but uncommon enough to comment upon) and, remarkably, a little flock of Lapland Longspurs in the same area. Surprisingly, no Snow Buntings, which the longspurs usually mix in with ("Look for the brown one" I've heard Scott yell out when a flock of buntings took to the air). Shari & I agreed we'd seen 3 of them at one time. Others counted 4.  Considering that very few of the birders in the group, including us, could remember ever seeing more than one at the same time, makes it a memorable sighting. 

The weather was great today--sunny and in the mid-50's. And the pleasant weather made Sandy Hook a pain to bird because everyone else who isn't a birder decided to take advantage of the weather to go to that National Recreation Area and recreate. Jammed parking lots, bikes on the road instead of the bike path, and dogs on the beach made it harder than it should have been to bird the area. Had it been the more expected 20 degrees and windy, we would have had the place to ourselves and frostbite would have been our biggest concern. 

My first day list totaled 38 species. Which is almost double last year's list, when it rained all day. 

Species  First Sighting

Brant  Sandy Hook

Canada Goose  Seven Presidents Park

Mallard  Sandy Hook

American Black Duck  Sandy Hook

Common Eider  Sandy Hook

Surf Scoter  Sandy Hook

White-winged Scoter  Sandy Hook

Long-tailed Duck  Sandy Hook

Bufflehead  Sandy Hook

Common Goldeneye  Sandy Hook

Red-breasted Merganser  Sandy Hook

Horned Grebe  Sandy Hook

Rock Pigeon  Wawa South Toms River

Black-bellied Plover  Sandy Hook

Sanderling  Sandy Hook

Razorbill  Sandy Hook

Bonaparte's Gull  Sandy Hook

Ring-billed Gull  Wawa South Toms River

Herring Gull  Sandy Hook

Great Black-backed Gull  Sandy Hook

Red-throated Loon  Sandy Hook

Common Loon  Sandy Hook

Northern Gannet  Sandy Hook

Turkey Vulture  Sandy Hook

Blue Jay  Wawa South Toms River

American Crow  35 Sunset Rd

Horned Lark  Sandy Hook

Golden-crowned Kinglet  Sandy Hook

White-breasted Nuthatch  35 Sunset Rd

Carolina Wren  35 Sunset Rd

European Starling  Wawa South Toms River

Northern Mockingbird  Wawa South Toms River

American Robin  Sandy Hook

House Sparrow  Wawa South Toms River

Lapland Longspur  Sandy Hook

Song Sparrow  35 Sunset Rd

Yellow-rumped Warbler  Sandy Hook

Northern Cardinal  35 Sunset Rd

Seven Presidents Park 4/20--Upland Sandpiper

The day started with teeming rain, so Mike's 3rd installment of The Birds of Jackson series was cancelled. I went back to bed and when I awoke, mid-morning, the skies had cleared but I didn't much feel like going out. I figured the birds would be quiet by that time of the day.

Around 2:30, as I was sitting on the couch in a near torpor, watching the Mets start to lose, Mike texted me and said he was considering trying for the Uppie at Seven Presidents Park. The thought had crossed my mind earlier, but I was feeling profoundly lazy. Somehow I roused myself and within a half hour we were on our way north.

This seemingly lost Upland Sandpiper has been sticking in the same grassy field at Seven Presidents since Wednesday. Usually, I get my Uppies at Lakehurst, in June, but there are no guarantees, so a potential bird in the scope was worth the try, especially given the binary conditions of the hunt--it would obviously be there or not. We were fairly confident of it being there since another birder posted a picture of it just before we left, but a lot can happen in 45 minutes.

When we got there, it looked, at first, like a lot happened, because as we scanned along the fence line where the bird had been seen and photographed, we saw only grackles, robins, and starlings. We heard a Killdeer. No Uppie.

We changed our angle of view, walking farther into the gravel parking lot and scanned again. Amazingly, I found the bird sitting in the grass, just a brown lump in the green lawn. It wasn't a very satisfying look, but then, obligingly, the bird stood up, looked around, opened its wings for a moment, and then just stood there, looking dazed. Mike theorized that the bird wasn't well. Don't know, but it was still there this afternoon when Shari went to look for it after work. Uppies breed in New Jersey in very select locations--in fact, at this point Lakehurst might be the only spot. This one doesn't look like it will be one of the breeders.

Cream Ridge 2/11--Ross's Goose

Find the white needle in the white haystack

Sure, Mike & I could have braved the snow, ice, & wintry mix--and the slick roads that go along with it--in Cape May county to chase the continuing Gyrfalcon on Nummy Island, but while we might be crazy, as our wives so often tell us, crazy fools we are not! Instead, we headed north of the weatherman's magic border I-195, as if the weather knows there's an asphalt line there above which no snow shall fall. Yet somehow, it works.

We started up in Seven Presidents Park in Long Branch and worked out way down along the North Shore ponds and ocean lookouts, gathering up the expected birds for a decent but humdrum list until we got down to Fletcher Lake in Bradley Beach. Fletcher Lake is home to a feral population of Muscovy Ducks. They're sorta countable since they're "established" (i.e. they breed, I've seen ducklings) but when they appeared on the rare bird list, Bob Auster immediately texted me that he saw we had "shamelessly" listed them, then admitted that a couple of years ago he did the same thing. I wouldn't have even made a list there if Mike hadn't spotted a couple of American Black Ducks, which we hadn't had today. When Mike & I do one of these multi-stop days, I start a list at the first place we bird, then only make a list when we add a new bird for the day. Otherwise, we would have twice as many lists for the day and we already have too many as it is. American Black Duck is not a very exciting "add" but immediately upon pointing them out, Mike found a much better duck--Eurasian Wigeon.

We both had the same thought: Good, now we don't have to go to the Shark River in Belmar and scope from a gas station for the Eurasian Wigeon that has been present there for the last couple of months. We hadn't seen the Muscovy Ducks, so there was no dilemma until we were driving away and saw three of them standing on a street corner as if they were waiting for a bus. So I listed them. Mike made me do it.

We wended our way down to Point Pleasant, gathering up more ducks at various ponds like a Wood Duck at Little Silver Lake and Lesser Scaup at Lake of the Lilies. An eBird alert appeared on my phone that the Ross's Goose that was found yesterday in a big flock of Snow Geese was still in the fields along Route 546 in Cream Ridge. Neither of us relished the idea of sorting through thousands of Snow Geese for the one outlier. In fact, of all the Ross's Geese I have seen, none has ever been in a flock. They've always been alone. But, a year bird's a year bird, so off we went back north to the horse country of Monmouth County.

Mike said that what we needed when we got there was a group of birders with the ROGO in their scopes. We got close to that dream. When we drove up there was one birder there with a scope who said he thought he had the bird. It was on the outer edge of the flock, weaving in and out and sticking its head down to feed but eventually, using a blue morph as a landmark, all three of us were able to agree on which goose we were considering and when it finally raised its head to look around it had a sweet expression on its face, due to the lack of the "grin patch" which really should be called the "grimace patch" since it makes all  Snow Geese look like they're very unhappy. The bird was very active and following it was like following the card in a game of thousand goose monte.

About one tenth of the flock of geese we were looking through

A note on orthography: I used to worry about the way words looked typographically when I was a printer and the 3 terminal esses in Ross's are, to my eye, very ugly and completely unnecessary. While I don't subscribe to the proposal of one of the bird organizations to do away completely with the possessive apostrophe (I don't like the way Ross Goose, Wilson Warbler, etc sound), I do think that the typographical practice of letting the possessive hang off the second ess (Ross' Goose) would be sufficient, efficient, and more attractive to the eye.

We tried for a few more rarities at Conine's Millpond in Allentown (where we did have three Bald Eagles calling to each other from the trees) and at Assunpink (where we added Trumpeter Swan to our waterfowl list), that was about it for the day. Of course, had we not gone to Assunpink via Stone Tavern Road but had taken Herbert Road instead, we probably would have stopped for the big flock of geese on the sod farm that contained the Barnacle Goose that has been in the vicinity for the last few weeks. Mike could have used it for a year bird. Another example of Zirlin's Third Law of Birding: Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else. 

Shark River 1/8--Eurasian Wigeon

Eurasian Wigeon

Mike & I birded the North Shore today, working our way south from Seven Presidents Park. The weather started drizzly, was misty and foggy for a good portion of the day, which made the viewing conditions less than ideal in some spots. The ocean was rough even though there seemed to be no wind to speak of. The ponds and "lakes" were very smooth. Some places had a lot of birds, some places had zero and there didn't seem to be any easy explanation for either condition.

Our main target was at the Shark River, where a Eurasian Wigeon has been reported off and on for what seems like years now. Individually and together we've tried for that bird a number of times in the last year or so and never found it. I got so disgusted last year that I drove all the way to Cape May just to get an "easy" one.

Many of the reports said that it could be seen from the 7-11 parking lot, which we couldn't understand because the 7-11 we knew about was across the street from the marina and there was no way you could see into the water from there. We knew more or less the section the bird was supposed to be in, so, instead of driving and stopping here and there, we left the car in the marina parking lot and walked through MacLeare Park to the cove on its west side. With our bins we could see some wigeons, so we continue the walk on the other side of the guard rail along Rt 35 until we were on top of the birds and thank you very much there was the Eurasian Wigeon. An  excellent view, not one of those birds far away that you have dither and debate about: Red head, gray body. Looking around, trying to figure how anyone saw this bird from half a mile away at the 7-11, we saw a gas station, which was mentioned in some reports and the station's convenience store was also a 7-11. Mystery solved. I'm still happy we made the walk instead of parking and either scoping from the lot or having to dodge traffic to cross the highway.

My only other new bird for the day was a Lesser Black-backed Gull that we found in Lake Takanassee where the Cackling Goose of the 1st was not to be found but we both have that bird for the year, the state, and Monmouth County, so we weren't let down.

We were let down late in the day at the Manasquan Inlet where once again we dipped on Black-headed and Iceland Gull, both of which were there yesterday, neither of which were there today, despite our waiting out the tide and scanning a bazillion boring gulls.

Still, we had one cool bird for the day and if you could have one cool bird every day you'd have quite the birding year.

Kicking the Year Off with Razorbills and a Cackling Goose

Cackling Goose (center), Lake Takanassee

First bird of the new year: American Crow, heard while I was packing the car for us to go to Sandy Hook for Scott's Kick Off the New Year Trip. Second bird: Turkey Vulture. Not an auspicious beginning.

The bird I most wanted to see today was Razorbill, which I missed completely last year. On our way up, Bob Auster texted me that he was seeing plenty of them from the Fisherman's Beach. Plus, he saw a Dovekie. That, being a life bird, became the bird I most wanted to see, but I knew the chances of it were nil. I have to admit that hearing about that flyby put me a sour mood.

Kicking off the new year.

There were over 40 people at Lot B for the start of the trip and I felt like I knew most of them so a lot of handshakes and "Happy New Years" as descended onto the beach. The air temperature was warm, in the 50's. The wind, unfortunately, also felt like it was in the 50's. This made scanning the ocean a rather unpleasant endeavor. However, in addition to the expected, scoters, gulls, gannets and loons,  we did manage to see one distant flying football and scoped one football sitting on the water and that was my Razorbill experience for the day.

The only non-marine species we recorded there were a Peregrine Falcon, a Bald Eagle flying north over the ocean, and one Carolina Wren, heard, at the Fisherman's Beach.

I have to say the most entertaining sight at the Hook was this car, stuck in the sand at Lot C, where it never should have been and why the driver thought it would be a good idea to driver there will remain a mystery, though I was very tempted to go over there as he and his friends fruitlessly tried to dig out the car's wheels and ask him what he was thinking at the time. Because the park is only semi-open due to the endless government shutdown, perhaps he thought there were no rules to abide by or at least that they wouldn't be enforced. And aside from the laws of physics, he was probably right.

We then caravanned south, as we usually do, looking for some protection from the wind. However, at Monmouth Beach and Seven Presidents Park there was nothing new of note. It wasn't until we got down to Lake Takanassee that the birding picked up, with a number of ducks to add to the year list, like Gadwall, Hooded Merganser, and American Wigeon, as well as American Coot and Pie-billed Grebe. But the highlight, of course, the little Cackling Goose amidst the Canada Geese, very obvious with its stubby bill, blocky head, and much smaller size. Since I am loathe to call a Cackling Goose on my own, it was great to get this bird out of the way, onto the list. Now I just have to find one in Ocean County.

I wound up with 36 species on the day. There were probably a couple of chip notes I let go by instead of listing them.

Species   First Sighting

Brant   Sandy Hook

Cackling Goose   Lake Takanassee

Canada Goose   Seven Presidents Park

Mute Swan   Lake Takanassee

Northern Shoveler   Monmouth Beach

Gadwall   Lake Takanassee

American Wigeon   Lake Takanassee

Mallard   Lake Takanassee

Surf Scoter   Sandy Hook

White-winged Scoter   Sandy Hook

Black Scoter   Sandy Hook

Long-tailed Duck   Sandy Hook

Bufflehead   Sandy Hook

Hooded Merganser   Lake Takanassee

Red-breasted Merganser   Sandy Hook

Ruddy Duck   Lake Takanassee

Pied-billed Grebe   Lake Takanassee

Mourning Dove   Seven Presidents Park

American Coot   Lake Takanassee

Razorbill   Sandy Hook

Ring-billed Gull   Lake Takanassee

Herring Gull   Sandy Hook

Great Black-backed Gull   Sandy Hook

Red-throated Loon   Monmouth Beach

Common Loon   Sandy Hook

Northern Gannet   Sandy Hook

Great Blue Heron   Lake Takanassee

Turkey Vulture   35 Sunset Rd

Cooper's Hawk   Lake Takanassee

Bald Eagle   Sandy Hook

Peregrine Falcon   Sandy Hook

American Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd

Carolina Wren   Sandy Hook

European Starling   South Toms River

American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd

Sandy Hook & the North Shore 1/14--11 year birds

Cedar Waxwings, Boy Scout Camp parking lot, Sandy Hook

I looked up "idiot (n)" in the dictionary and next to the definition of "one who hates the cold but insists on going up to Sandy Hook with the temperature in the low teens and the wind in the low twenties" was my picture. But Scott and Linda were running one of my favorite trips so I put on five layers above the waist and two layers below and two sets of gloves and two pairs of socks and it wasn't so bad except I couldn't feel my feet after about a half hour and just getting my car keys out of my pocket required complicated logistics in order to expose my hand to the weather for the minimum amount of time possible.

However, no sooner had I pulled into Parking Lot B at the Hook, long before the scheduled start time,  than I got a year bird, a Northern Mockingbird. That, at least, is what's good about this time of the year--you have to get even the most common birds a first time, so that keeps your mind off the fact that frost bite is imminent. We did some seawatching from the beach and I added White-winged Scoter to the year list, which I thought was great since last year it took until November before I had that duck on the list.  Conditions were painful there with the wind; fortunately, Scott knows a few sites on the Hook that are protected from the wind, so we headed north up the peninsula stopping to look at both the bay and ocean in several spots. Highlights for me were my first Cedar Waxwings (a household favorite) at the Boy Scout Camp parking lot, and Snow Buntings, American Tree Sparrows and an immature White-crowned Sparrow at North Beach.
24 species
Brant 30
Canada Goose 60
Greater Scaup 2
White-winged Scoter 20
Black Scoter 15
Long-tailed Duck 30
Bufflehead 3
Common Goldeneye 3
Red-breasted Merganser 1 Horseshoe Cove
Common Loon 1
Ring-billed Gull 20
Herring Gull 115
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Robin 10
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 5
Cedar Waxwing 10
Snow Bunting 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
American Tree Sparrow 4
White-crowned Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 2
Late morning we left the Hook for various spots along the North Shore. We didn't linger very long in any one spot; if there was nothing "interesting" at one site, we'd just go south to another. Monmouth Beach didn't have anything new, but Seven Presidents Park in Long Branch turned up a couple of year birds for me:
5 species
Canada Goose 25
Long-tailed Duck 3
Bonaparte's Gull 1
Gray Catbird 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5
Then it was on to Lake Takanassee to look for rare gulls, none of which were present. However, this is also a reliable spot for American Coot and as it happened, I "needed" American Coot. I was so intent on getting the coot that I missed 3 Snow Geese that were mixed in with the Canada Geese. Fortunately, I didn't "need" Snow Goose, not even for Monmouth County.

American Coot, Lake Takanassee

8 species
Canada Goose 100
Mute Swan 1
Mallard 2 Drake & Hen
American Black Duck 3
Hooded Merganser 1 Drake
American Coot 3
Ring-billed Gull 100
Herring Gull 25
Nothing much at Pullman Avenue, a few blocks south and most of the group called it a day there. However, a few stalwart souls continued down to Corlies Avenue in Allenhurst, just north of Asbury Park. It was there, in the breakers, that I got my last year bird for the day, a very fleeting look at a Horned Grebe bobbing in the waves. 
6 species
Greater Scaup 50
Long-tailed Duck 20
Horned Grebe 1
Sanderling 11
Ring-billed Gull 100
Herring Gull 50
Toward the end of the day the temperatures had risen to the high twenties. It was almost pleasant, out of the wind. "Now would be a great time to bird," I thought. "And if I could just feel my feet, I might consider it."

North Shore 2/6--Western Grebe, Merlin

Merlin, Monmouth Beach

There are a lot of good birding spots along the North Shore, which encompasses Monmouth County's oceanfront, inlets and artificial ponds. I can rarely motivate myself to visit more than two or three of them at a time and then I always feel like it's either the wrong spot or the wrong time, so I took the opportunity to go on the NJ Audubon field trip, led by Scott and Linda, where we methodically worked our way south from Sandy Hook to Allenhurst. I was also hoping for another shot at the rarity I missed last week, but when we didn't see it from the platform at Monmouth Beach, I figured I was SOL on that one. I was happy to settle for the FOY Merlin perched on a chimney across the street from the platform.

Monmouth Beach was our first stop after surveying the ocean from Sandy Hook. There was a nice flock of White-winged Scoters there, as well as the ubiquitous Black Scoters and Long-tailed Ducks. We completed the scoter sweek at Monmouth Beach with a good number of Surf Scoters (popularly known as skunkheads).

Next stop, farther south on Monmouth Beach yielded a couple of Great Cormorants far out on a buoy. The i.d. for these birds is always amusing--you can see that they're obviously cormorants but you can't get any field marks on them, so, how do you know that they're Great Cormorants?  Well, for one thing, Great Cormorants tend to perch much farther out than their smaller cousins. And, if I can see them from so far away, then they must be big enough to be Great Cormorants.

We took a look at Lake Takanassee and came up with our puddle ducks for the day. Stops at the dead end streets off Ocean Avenue that overlook the sea had the usual inventory of sea ducks, loons, and a few diving gannets. A couple of spots turned up Razorbills. In one place they were so distant that I wasn't going to count them because they looked like flying spots, but at Marine Place I was able to get them well enough and big enough in the scope to identify them. It is hard looking for birds on the ocean since there are few "seamarks" for the one who has first found the bird to use as guidance. Oddly, we used a Staten Island Ferry that was being tugged back and forth far way from its home ports as our guide.

We ended up on the Allenhurst boardwalk around 2 PM.  There we finally got some shorebirds--a little flock of Sanderlings skittering along the beach and jetty. We were all scanning the usual birds and chatting as it felt like the trip was winding up when Carol Hughes said, "Scott, come here now."

She had found the Western Grebe which has been reported along the shore for the last week or so. It took some doing, but eventually everyone on the trip got to see the grebe, an annual winter rarity along the shore, as it cooperatively drifted north and closer in. Persistence paid off. I doubt I would have forced myself to visit so many spots looking for this bird, so being on the trip was my good idea of the week.

For the day I garnered 38 species and 2 year birds (counts are cumulative):

Locations:  Allenhurst--Corlies Ave : Deal--Marine Place : Lake Takanassee : Monmouth Beach : Monmouth Beach South : Sandy Hook : Seven Presidents Park

Canada Goose  200

Gadwall  2

American Wigeon  7

Mallard  10

Surf Scoter  86

White-winged Scoter  20

Black Scoter  500

Long-tailed Duck  120

Bufflehead  4

Hooded Merganser  4

Red-breasted Merganser  11

Ruddy Duck  1

Red-throated Loon  27

Common Loon  100

Western Grebe  1

Northern Gannet  11

Double-crested Cormorant  1

Great Cormorant  2

Black Vulture  1

Turkey Vulture  1

Cooper's Hawk  1

American Coot  10

Sanderling  8

Razorbill  2

Ring-billed Gull  135

Herring Gull  460

Great Black-backed Gull  3

Rock Pigeon  5

Mourning Dove  2

Merlin  1

American Crow  3

Carolina Wren  1

Northern Mockingbird  1

European Starling  5

Yellow-rumped Warbler  8

Song Sparrow  1

American Goldfinch  1

March Birds

By far the most exciting bird of the month was the one day wonder Common Redpoll that visited our feeder on the 2nd. Even though we saw literally hundreds of them in Minnesota, it is something else to have one of them pose for you right outside your window.

I tacked on 18 birds to my year list, my favorite coming just this last weekend with the addition of American Avocet while we were in Delaware.

It was a very good month in terms of species seen--128--the most for a month so far this year. It's early. Migration starts soon (or perhaps has already started and I've just been missing it.)

I haven't been doing that well in-county, but the good thing about winter birds is that you get two shots at seeing them, so a few that I missed I can try for come November/December. But I don't want to even think about cold months right now.

Counties birded:
Delaware: Kent, Sussex
New Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Gloucester, Monmouth, Ocean, Salem

Species               First Sighting

Snow Goose     Assunpink WMA

Brant     Sands Point Preserve

Canada Goose     Sands Point Preserve

Mute Swan     Sands Point Preserve

Trumpeter Swan     Assunpink WMA

Tundra Swan     Whitesbog

Wood Duck     Whitesbog--Ocean Co.

Gadwall     Poplar St Boat Launch

Eurasian Wigeon     Sylvan Lake

American Wigeon     Sands Point Preserve

American Black Duck     Poplar St Boat Launch

Mallard     Sands Point--Dock Ave

Blue-winged Teal     Brig

Northern Shoveler     Mannington Marsh

Northern Pintail     Poplar St Boat Launch

Green-winged Teal     Assunpink WMA

Canvasback     West Creek Dock Rd.

Redhead     Bayview Marina

Ring-necked Duck     West Creek Dock Rd.

Greater Scaup     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Lesser Scaup     Sands Point--Dock Ave

Common Eider     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Harlequin Duck     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Surf Scoter     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

White-winged Scoter     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Black Scoter     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Long-tailed Duck     Sands Point Preserve

Bufflehead     Sands Point Preserve

Common Goldeneye     Bayview Marina

Hooded Merganser     Eno’s Pond

Common Merganser     Eno’s Pond

Red-breasted Merganser     Sands Point Preserve

Ruddy Duck     Sands Point--Dock Ave

Wild Turkey     Assunpink WMA

Red-throated Loon     Brig

Common Loon     Sands Point Preserve

Pied-billed Grebe     Lake Como

Horned Grebe     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Red-necked Grebe     Bayview Marina

Double-crested Cormorant     Eno’s Pond

Great Cormorant     Sands Point Preserve

Great Blue Heron     Sands Point Preserve

Great Egret     West Creek Dock Rd.

Snowy Egret     Forsythe--Barnegat

Black Vulture     Waretown

Turkey Vulture     Forked River

Osprey     Seaside Heights

Golden Eagle     Brig

Northern Harrier     Sands Point Preserve

Sharp-shinned Hawk     35 Sunset Rd

Cooper's Hawk     Poplar St Boat Launch

Bald Eagle     Poplar St Boat Launch

Red-shouldered Hawk     Pedricktown Marsh

Red-tailed Hawk     Eno’s Pond

Rough-legged Hawk     Eno’s Pond

American Coot     Assunpink WMA

American Avocet     Bombay Hook NWR

American Oystercatcher     Gull Island Park

Black-bellied Plover     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Killdeer     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Greater Yellowlegs     Eno’s Pond

Lesser Yellowlegs   Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Ruddy Turnstone     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Sanderling     Fowler Beach Rd.

Dunlin     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

American Woodcock     Crestwood Community Gardens

Bonaparte's Gull     Seven Presidents Park

Laughing Gull     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Ring-billed Gull     Vessel Dr.

Herring Gull     Sands Point Preserve

Lesser Black-backed Gull     Assunpink WMA

Great Black-backed Gull     Sands Point Preserve

Forster's Tern     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Rock Pigeon     Bayview Marina

Mourning Dove     35 Sunset Rd

Short-eared Owl     Mercer Sod Farm IBA

Belted Kingfisher     Eno’s Pond

Red-bellied Woodpecker     Poplar St Boat Launch

Downy Woodpecker     35 Sunset Rd

Hairy Woodpecker     Whitesbog

Northern Flicker     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

American Kestrel     Mercer Sod Farm IBA

Merlin     Lake Takanassee

Peregrine Falcon     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Eastern Phoebe     Whiting WMA

Blue Jay     Poplar St Boat Launch

American Crow     Sands Point Preserve

Fish Crow     Schoolhouse Rd.

Horned Lark     Sandy Hook

Tree Swallow     Whitesbog

Barn Swallow     Colliers Mills WMA

Carolina Chickadee     35 Sunset Rd

Tufted Titmouse     35 Sunset Rd

Red-breasted Nuthatch     35 Sunset Rd

White-breasted Nuthatch     35 Sunset Rd

Brown Creeper     35 Sunset Rd

Carolina Wren     Bridge to Nowhere

Golden-crowned Kinglet     Whiting WMA

Eastern Bluebird     Colliers Mills WMA

Hermit Thrush     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

American Robin     Sands Point Preserve

Northern Mockingbird     River Walk

European Starling     35 Sunset Rd

Snow Bunting     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Pine Warbler     35 Sunset Rd

Yellow-rumped Warbler     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

American Tree Sparrow     Brig

Chipping Sparrow     Assunpink WMA

Field Sparrow     Assunpink WMA

Savannah Sparrow     West Creek Dock Rd.

Fox Sparrow     Double Trouble State Park

Song Sparrow     Bridge to Nowhere

Swamp Sparrow     Forsythe--Barnegat

White-throated Sparrow     Sands Point--Dock Ave

White-crowned Sparrow     Assunpink WMA

Dark-eyed Junco     35 Sunset Rd

Northern Cardinal     Bridge to Nowhere

Red-winged Blackbird     Sands Point Preserve

Eastern Meadowlark     Bridge to Nowhere

Rusty Blackbird     Prime Hook NWR

Common Grackle     River Walk

Boat-tailed Grackle     Bridge to Nowhere

Brown-headed Cowbird     Horicon Lake

House Finch     River Walk

Common Redpoll     35 Sunset Rd

Pine Siskin     35 Sunset Rd

American Goldfinch     35 Sunset Rd

House Sparrow     Barnegat Lighthouse SP