Sandy Hook 3/24--Tufted Duck (drake), Osprey, Piping Plover

Comparison of Ring-necked Duck (left) and Tufted Duck

As I hoped, I've been picking up the year bird pace this month. Sandy Hook today was full of interesting birds on Scott's & Linda's trip where, on our first stop at the ocean by B lot we had my FOY Osprey (hovering above the bay, no photo) and Piping Plover (good look, but too distant for photo). The most noteworthy bird, however, was not a year bird. Scott got a phone call from a birder who had a Tufted Duck up at the North Pond. Tufted Duck is not a year bird for me. I've seen one 3 times this year, probably the same hen that moved around from the Shark River Inlet to Wreck Pond to Lake of the Lilies. What made this bird intriguing was that it was a drake and let's face it unless the bird is a phalarope, males are almost always more interesting to see than females and that isn't being sexist. (You never hear anyone say "OMG, look how gorgeous that female Painted Bunting is.") Most birds are named after the male so if you really want to see the tuft on a Tufted Duck (instead of the vestigial one on a hen), find a drake.

The whole group made its way up the north end of the Hook and we found the bird almost instantly. Getting a decent vantage point to see the duck through the phragmites was more of a challenge and the high ground was also a slippery slope but everyone got to see the bird and it even made itself available for photographs, conveniently swimming with a Ring-necked Duck for easy comparison.

Other birds I was happy to see:

American Oystercatchers (a Zirlin Family favorite) at Spermaceti Cove

Black-bellied Plovers 

After the trip ended, four of us went looking for one more bird, which we found and which I am not allowed to reveal else I suffer the stern look of Bob Auster.  While it wasn't a year bird for me, I was surprised and pleased to find that it was a Monmouth County life bird.

In the non-avian category: Early in the trip Scott and Linda marched the group along a beach on the bay side to see the seals that haul themselves out on sandy island at low tide. If they don't have feathers, I'm usually not very interested in other animal life, but this was an impressive congregation of both Harbor and Gray Seals and way more than I've ever seen outside of Alaska. Someone stopped counting at 136.

Gray Seals (small) and Harbor Seals

For the 8 1/2 hours of birding I did on the Hook I came back with 47 species including That Which Shall Not be eBirded For A Week.
Brant 45
Canada Goose 15
American Black Duck 30
Ring-necked Duck 15
Tufted Duck 1 Tuft clearly seen, brilliant white flanks.
Surf Scoter 8
White-winged Scoter 1
Black Scoter 30
Bufflehead 4
Red-breasted Merganser 1o
Red-throated Loon 1
Common Loon 1
Horned Grebe 3
Northern Gannet 50
Great Cormorant 1
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 1 Spermaceti Cove
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 2
Osprey 3
Bald Eagle 1
American Oystercatcher 8
Black-bellied Plover 4 Beach at the end of the Fisherman's Trail
Piping Plover 1
Sanderling 6
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 350
Great Black-backed Gull 250
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 2
Eastern Phoebe 1
American Crow 4
Fish Crow 9
Tree Swallow 1
Carolina Wren 2
American Robin 200
Northern Mockingbird 4
European Starling 100
Cedar Waxwing 55
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5
Song Sparrow 5
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 4
House Finch 2 Heard North Beach

Whitesbog 3/23--Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebe

Had someone told me when we lived in Brooklyn that one day in my dotage I'd be cutting off huge, damaged branches from a pine tree and dragging them across the yard to pile them up at the curb I'd have thought they were a proponent of the "Many Universes" theory and they were talking about me in an alternate universe. But that's exactly how I spent this morning, cleaning up the damage done by the heavy, wet snow dumped on us Wednesday by the nor'easter #4.

By the time I had finished that task the dishwasher repairman arrived (I never thought I'd have a dishwasher in Brooklyn either) and when he left me with the old guts of the machine to dispose of I drove over to the dump (never thought I'd be going to a dump, either) and since I was in the neighborhood I decided to walk around Whitesbog. Walk being the operative word since driving on the muddy, slushy, puddles-like-ponds roads would have been challenging.

Considering I started just after noon, there were more birds there than I expected. Tundra Swan numbers were down to 10 from about 80, but there was still a large flock of Ring-necked Ducks there. The 2 "interesting" species I found there were Pine Warbler and Fox Sparrow.  There were a few Tree Swallows over the lower bog. I was hoping there would be some over the county line in Ocean but that didn't work out.

Pine Warbler in Ocean County

However, as soon as I crossed over the double-laned road into Ocean County I encountered my first Eastern Phoebe of the year, flitting around the trees that border the first reservoir. I took a lot of pictures the least blurry of which is above. There were also a few Pine Warblers feeding on the muddy edge of that reservoir. The other cool bird I saw was way back at the Upper Reservoir where I saw a Red-shouldered Hawk with all the field marks including excellent glimpses of the "windows" beneath the wings. The only other Red-shouldered Hawk I've seen this year was also at Whitesbog, though on the Burlco side, so that made it a county bird.

While talking to my friend on one of the back roads (he'd just finished walking his dog) we heard a Wood Duck squeal and fly over. Looking behind us I saw a big wetlands area that I'd never noticed before even though I've passed that spot dozens of times. That's what I love about Whitesbog: the more I walk it, the more that is revealed.

For my 4 miles from village to Upper Reservoir and back I had 20 species, which, as I said, is not a bad count for mid-day birding.

Canada Goose   55

Tundra Swan   10

Wood Duck   1

Mallard   12

Ring-necked Duck   70

Hooded Merganser   2

Turkey Vulture   4

Red-shouldered Hawk   1

Eastern Phoebe   1

American Crow   2

Tree Swallow   3

Carolina Chickadee   1

Carolina Wren   1

Golden-crowned Kinglet   1

European Starling   1

Pine Warbler   5

Yellow-rumped Warbler   2

Fox Sparrow   3

Dark-eyed Junco   8

Song Sparrow   6

Pine branches after the storm

Backyard 3/21--Pine Warbler

Pine Warbler with 3 goldfinches

After traipsing through various wooded areas the last week or so (Cattus Island, Shelter Cove, Winding River, Jake's Branch, the cranberry bogs in S. Toms River), I finally, finally, saw my FOY Pine Warbler today, on our feeders while I was stuck in the house due to our 4th Nor'easter of the month. But it was not such a bad day to be housebound as the birds were looking for food.

Shari got me out of bed this morning to see the 32 Wild Turkeys on our lawn. This flock has been around all winter, marauding through the neighborhood (if you listen to the other residents). When I opened the window to throw seed onto the snow they didn't scatter but came running from all points. And yet, some hysterics think of the birds as terrorists.


We had the regular feeder birds along with a couple of new backyard birds for the year--a couple of female Brown-headed Cowbirds and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet on the suet cake. Four noisy crows were in the woods abutting our property. Proving that they're omnivores, I saw one eating a big piece of matzo I had flung back there that after a year in the cupboard was more shingle than food, not that I ever could distinguish the difference.

For the day I had 20 species in the yard. There are days I go into the woods and don't find half that many birds.
Wild Turkey 32 Regular guests
Ring-billed Gull 1 f/o
Mourning Dove 4
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Suet
Blue Jay 1 Heard
American Crow 4 Noisy
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 Suet
American Robin 1
European Starling 4
Pine Warbler 1 FOY. On suet as well as seed feeder
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 Suet
Dark-eyed Junco 14
White-throated Sparrow 3
Northern Cardinal 3 Mostly ground feeding
Brown-headed Cowbird 2 Mixed seed feeder
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 9 Thistle and mixed seed

American Crow

Salem County 3/18--Blue-winged Teal, Horned Lark

Mixed blackbird flock somewhere just to the left of
 the middle of nowhere

Mike and I drove down to Salem County to join Scott's trip, which is the equivalent in distance to driving down to Cape May, but instead of arriving at the southernmost tip of New Jersey, you end up slightly to the left of the middle of nowhere. Or, as I like to think of it: Delaware East.

I hardly ever bird down there, due to a combination of distance and unfamiliarity. Checking my records, I hadn't been down there in 3 years.  It can be a great spot and today ranked as pretty good.  The highlight for me was seeing Sandhill Cranes in NJ for the first time outside of Ocean County. There were 3 of the big birds in the Mannington Marsh and we saw and heard what we assume were the same birds (2 of them) from multiple locations.

After meeting at the Wawa in Woodland (what could be bad?) our first stop, where we picked up Eastern Meadowlarks, was on Compromise Road, probably the 2nd best name for a road in NJ, exceeded only by "Unexpected Road" up in Cumberland County. Then it was on to various viewing points in Mannington Marsh where we had the cranes and 14 species of waterfowl, including Tundra Swans and a single drake Red-breasted Merganser which eBird flagged as "rare" I guess for the "late" date.

The 2 year birds I got were at our last stop at the marsh--a nice-looking drake Blue-winged Teal  in with a larg flock of Green-winged Teal and two calling quickly flying by Horned Larks. Eagles abounded at every stop, vultures were as common as pigeons and pigeons...well, who really cares about pigeons?

We ended the day sorting through huge blackbird flocks around pastures, hoping for a rarity (it is a good spot for both Yellow-headed Blackbird, which I have seen there and Brewer's Blackbird, which I have not), but to no avail.

For our various stops I managed 52 species for the day. To show how underbirded Salem County is, that one day total puts me in eBird's county top 10 for the year (for the moment). They were:

Species             First Sighting

Snow Goose   Compromise Rd.

Canada Goose   Compromise Rd.

Mute Swan   Salem River WMA

Tundra Swan   Salem River WMA

Wood Duck   Salem River WMA

Blue-winged Teal   Mannington Marsh

Northern Shoveler   Salem River WMA

Gadwall   Salem River WMA

Mallard   Salem River WMA

American Black Duck   Salem River WMA

Northern Pintail   Supawna NWR

Green-winged Teal   Salem River WMA

Ring-necked Duck   Salem River WMA

Red-breasted Merganser   Mannington Marsh

Great Blue Heron   Compromise Rd.

Great Egret   Salem River WMA

Black Vulture   Compromise Rd.

Turkey Vulture   Compromise Rd.

Northern Harrier   Mannington Marsh

Cooper's Hawk   Salem River WMA

Bald Eagle   Sunset Dr

Red-tailed Hawk   Mannington Marsh

Sandhill Crane   Salem River WMA

Killdeer   Compromise Rd.

Wilson's Snipe   Mannington Marsh

Greater Yellowlegs   Mannington Marsh

Ring-billed Gull   Mannington Marsh

Rock Pigeon   Featherbed Lane WMA

Mourning Dove   Featherbed Lane WMA

American Kestrel   Sunset Dr

Merlin   Featherbed Lane WMA

Blue Jay   Salem River WMA

American Crow   Salem River WMA

Fish Crow   Mannington Marsh

Horned Lark   Mannington Marsh

Tree Swallow   Salem River WMA

Carolina Chickadee   Supawna NWR

Carolina Wren   Salem River WMA

Eastern Bluebird   Sunset Dr

American Robin   Featherbed Lane WMA

Northern Mockingbird   Wawa Woodstown

European Starling   Compromise Rd.

Fox Sparrow   Supawna NWR

White-throated Sparrow   Salem River WMA

Song Sparrow   Salem River WMA

Swamp Sparrow   Salem River WMA

Eastern Towhee   Supawna NWR

Northern Cardinal   Salem River WMA

Eastern Meadowlark   Compromise Rd.

Red-winged Blackbird   Featherbed Lane WMA

Brown-headed Cowbird   Featherbed Lane WMA

Common Grackle   Featherbed Lane WMA

Toms River 3/14--Great Egret, Wilson's Snipe

Great Egret, Cattus Island CP

Having failed 5 times to find woodcock at my reliable spot which it obviously no longer is, I found its supposedly more elusive cousin, Wilson's Snipe, almost instantly this morning at Shelter Cove. At least Shelter Cove remains reliable for that bird; I've seen them there the past few years. One zipped out of the grass, right where it was supposed to be when I was walking through the ice and mud near the little grove, and later, as I walked around the other side with Steve (who'd found the bird yesterday), we flushed it again. Or another one, who knows?

Steve told me of another spot in Toms River where he and others have been getting woodcocks no problem, but, if it seems silly to me to drive a couple of miles down the road at sunset just to hear a bird go "peent" and maybe catch a glimpse of one in the gloaming, how much sillier is it to drive 20 miles to do the same thing--and miss Jeopardy to boot! So, invoking Zirlin's Second Law of Birding, I am truly giving up on woodcock for the year.

Having gotten that year bird out of the way and after taking a tour of the goose (and deer) shitty soccer fields without finding much else exciting, I made my next stop at Cattus Island CP, where again, without any searching, I found my FOY Great Egret in the big marsh in front of the viewing platform. I wasn't really worried about eventually getting a Great Egret but it is pretty unusual for me to go into mid-March before I have a Great Egret on the list. This has been a hard winter and speculation was that the frozen marshes drove the egrets south, but then what of the Great Blue Herons of which there have been no dearth this winter? My only speculation is that the Great Blues can make do with mice and other little mammals (or even small birds) running around the icy marshes, while the Great Egret relies more on an aquatic diet.

Again, as at Shelter Cove, nothing else was of note although a male Eastern Bluebird on the way out is always a good way to end a session of birding. Naturally, later in the day, Steve had a Pine Warbler in a section of the park I didn't investigate. Pine Warbler is another bird that usually hangs around in the winter but not this one. So spring might actually happen soon.

For my two stops I had 27 species. They were:

Canada Goose   82

Mute Swan   3

Mallard   15

Bufflehead   1

Great Blue Heron   5

Great Egret   1

Turkey Vulture   1

Killdeer   4

Wilson's Snipe   1

Ring-billed Gull   2

Herring Gull   3

Great Black-backed Gull   2

Mourning Dove   7

Red-bellied Woodpecker   1

Blue Jay   2

American Crow   6

Carolina Chickadee   7

Tufted Titmouse   2

White-breasted Nuthatch   1

Eastern Bluebird   1

American Robin   10

European Starling   25

Yellow-rumped Warbler   2

White-throated Sparrow   1

Song Sparrow   4

Red-winged Blackbird   13

House Sparrow   1

North Shore 3/11--Northern Gannett, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Glaucous Gull

A somewhat impressionistic digiscope 

of a 

Black-crowned Night-Heron

at the Shark River

Scott ran a sort of "flash" trip of the ponds and inlets of the "North Shore," starting at the Manasquan Inlet (Ocean County side) today. I got a head start at Lake of the Lilies, which still has a substantial number of Redheads, as well as both scaup and a good number of coots. I'm always hoping for Ocean County "white-winged" gulls around the inlet. The best I could do for the county was a Lesser Black-backed Gull on the sand bar at the back of the inlet. I did eventually get a white-winged gull today, but it was in the "wrong" county.

After the group made a stop at Lake of the Lilies, where I was able, with some help and better lighting to distinguish Greater from Lesser Scaup, we began to wend our way along Route 35. It is only 4.1 miles from Lake of the Lilies to Wreck Pond--it feels like 20 when you're driving it. I found out today from Scott how Wreck Pond got its name. Before the outfall water control structure was put into place, Wreck Pond could be accessed from the ocean via a short inlet. To the navigationally challenged, it was sometimes mistaken for Manasquan Inlet, about 3 miles to the south. But the inlet was not for big fishing boats and they met their end as wrecks in the pond.

There wasn't much of note in the pond, but the boardwalk to the east had a few interesting birds, as well as a couple of juvenile Bald Eagles cavorting above

Great Cormorant on the Wreck Pond
outfall structure

Another interesting bird was a Great Cormorant on the outfall tower. I'd like to know the reason Great Cormorants seem to like to roost on big towers. You never see them, like their double-crested cousins, sitting on rocks, jetties, or wharves.

I got my first year bird of the day at the Shark River where one of our group pointed out a Black-crowned Night-Heron that she said was standing in the same spot she had seen it last week It took me a little while to locate the bird since it was fairly distant. I don't usually go this far into the year without a night-heron, but it was also a year bird for a lot of others in the group. Probably the unpleasant winter had discouraged  them, like a lot of other birds, from staying around these parts.

My second year bird was all the way up in Allenhurst at Corlies Avenue--some Northern Gannets flying just above the horizon--and I didn't even realize they were year birds until I got home and looked at my cumulative list. I guess I just assumed I'd seen gannets this year when probably the last ones were in December. Now I wish I'd looked harder at Manasquan Inlet when someone called one out--it would have been a county bird there too.

The final year bird for the day was probably the hardest one for me to get and one I don't think I've ever seen without company--a Glaucous Gull flew by just as we were leaving Pullman Avenue in Long Branch. Scott, naturally, saw it, called it out, and we were all able to get on the big white bird as it flew north. Glaucous Gull is "rare" in Monmouth County, not rare in Ocean, where I haven't seen it this year. Go figure.

In all I had 57 birds for the day, respectable for a winter's day birding.
The stops we made and day list:

Allenhurst; Deal; Lake Takanassee; Lake of the Lilies; Long Branch; Manasquan Inlet; Shark River; Shark River Inlet; Spring Lake; Sylvan Lake 

Snow Goose  3

Brant  390

Canada Goose  136

Mute Swan  80

Northern Shoveler  1

Mallard  38

American Black Duck  12

Redhead  39

Ring-necked Duck  1

Greater Scaup  5

Lesser Scaup  60

Surf Scoter  1

Black Scoter  12

Long-tailed Duck  14

Bufflehead  15

Hooded Merganser  5

Common Merganser  1

Red-breasted Merganser  21

Ruddy Duck  145

Red-throated Loon  3

Common Loon  19

Horned Grebe  2

Red-necked Grebe  1

Northern Gannet  7

Great Cormorant  2

Double-crested Cormorant  1

Great Blue Heron  3

Black-crowned Night-Heron  1

Black Vulture  2

Turkey Vulture  1

Bald Eagle  2

Red-tailed Hawk  2

American Coot  73

American Oystercatcher  1

Killdeer  5

Sanderling  50

Dunlin  1

Purple Sandpiper  10

Ring-billed Gull  142

Herring Gull  705

Lesser Black-backed Gull  1

Glaucous Gull  1

Great Black-backed Gull  42

Mourning Dove  1

Merlin  1

American Crow  2

Fish Crow  10

Tufted Titmouse  1

American Robin  1

European Starling  2

Song Sparrow  3

Northern Cardinal  2

Red-winged Blackbird  10

Common Grackle  10

Boat-tailed Grackle  6

House Finch  5

House Sparrow  3

Whitesbog 3/5--Tree Swallow

Tundra Swans,  Union Pond

Last week, there was a big migration of Tundra Swans in northern New Jersey. Lakes up there were getting unprecedented numbers of these birds. Here in south Jersey, they're not a big deal, especially at Tundra Swan Central otherwise known as Whitesbog. I went out there last week to see if more birds than usual were there (a flock of about 70 has been steady all winter) and instead, I found nary a swan. Could they have all joined in the migration? It would have been a very early departure for them; they usually stick through March.

I couldn't believe they had all left, so today I drove out there again. The roads at Whitesbog are not for the faint of heart--torn up by excavators and dump trucks, eroded by rain and snow. Fortunately, I do most of my exploring there on foot. I did drive along Union Pond (after making a detour to avoid a puddle in the road that was ready to be named as a new pond) and found 54 Tundra Swans on the water. That number seemed about right and, as John Astin used to say on "Night Court," "I'm feeling much better now."

My original intention was to park the car on the breached dike between the middle and upper bogs and walk around the Ocean County section, but changed my plan when I saw through my binoculars, little birds flying fast in the back of Union Pond. I didn't know what they were, but they looked interesting. I'd like to say that they were a harbinger of spring as they turned out to be a small flock of Tree Swallows, but Tree Swallows are scattered around the state all winter--they, like Yellow-rumped Warblers can live on certain berries instead of insects in the cold months--I just hadn't seen any until today. Now a Barn Swallow, or a Purple Martin...that will be a welcome sign of warmer months. I would have liked to have the swallows about a 1/4 mile down the road over the line in Ocean County, but I'm pretty certain I'll get them as county birds this year. I'm having my doubts about some other birds though...I haven't been able to buy an American Woodcock so far, after going to the place I've always seen them 4 times already this year.

As I was watching the swallows and fruitlessly trying to get a photo of one zipping by, I ran into a friend of mine there who knows every path and road in Whitesbog. I asked him about the breached bog in the back on the Ocean County side near the Upper Reservoir. It wasn't a deliberate act as I had thought--the construction equipment I had seen was repairing the original breach, which was a catastrophic failure of an ancient, forgotten wooden sluice gate buried beneath the road that finally rotted away, which collapsed the road and pour something like 78 million gallons of water out of the Upper Reservoir, and then, domino-like, burst other gates, draining Otter Pond and turning some of the abandoned bogs back by Fort Dix into mere streams. Otter Pond is huge; it's hard to imagine it drained. I was tempted to walk back there, but my friend took one look at my shoes and said the water had spread so much back there that I would need much higher boots. Too bad, because he says it has turned into pretty good shorebird habitat. He had a Greater Yellowlegs back there and they are never at Whitesbog before summer.

I did walk around the Ocean County side, checking out the Upper Reservoir where I was delighted to find 82 Tundra Swans feeding on it. Interestingly, when I got back to my car in the early afternoon, the 50 swans that had been on Union Pond were gone. I don't think they were part of the flock on the Upper Reservoir because even I would notice 50 big birds flying east overhead.

Tundra Swans on the Upper Reservoir