Great Bay Blvd 2/23--Palm Warbler

By the time I got down to the beach at Great Bay Blvd, the birding had been so dull that I'd forgotten I was looking for new birds. This may be a corollary to Rule #2--you won't find the bird until you've truly give up. Or forgotten all about it. I was on my way back to the little path through the grove when I saw on the beach a little bird in the wrack line. It was brown. It was pumping its tail. When it flew, I could see small white corners on the tail feathers. It was a Palm Warbler, one of the birds I was hoping to see (the other was Great Egret) today. I watched it fly back to the mud flats and followed it there, catching a glimpse of it again but a picture was impossible. In among the flattened reeds were 4 or 5 Yellow-rumped Warblers with which it was "associating."

There really wasn't much of interest along the road--lots of ducks, as you would expect, but land birds were scarce. Again, February is the slowest month. But here is

A Heartwarming Tale

 I was coming back to my car at the monitoring station to get my scope, because I had seen 3 Greater Yellowlegs out in the marsh when a woman stopped her car and waved frantically at me. I didn't recognize her at first, but remembered her when she said that I had shown her the eagles. 6 or 7 months ago, when I was in one of my rare good moods, she had stopped to talk to me about photographing birds. She was looking for hawks, so I told her where to go to find the two eagles that nest at the end of the road. Later, when I saw that she was having a had time finding them, I set up my scope and showed her the birds. 

"I've been looking for you," she said. "I was really depressed that day, I was going through some bad times and you showed me where the eagles were and it changed my life!" She had, in the last few months, become fascinated with eagles and had educated herself on how to tell the males from the females, how long the female's talons were, incubation periods, nesting habits, mating rituals. More than I know off the top of my head about eagles--she had inhaled a reference book on eagles and all because one day I'd taken the time to show her a couple birds in a telescope. She showed me videos she'd made of eagles with their chicks, she told me where to find other nests, she showed me lots of pictures of eagles and, by the way, they were excellent photos and videos. But she wouldn't stop thanking me; it was embarrassing. I had no idea, at the time, that she was in a deep funk. I wasn't trying to rescue anyone. I was just showing a stranger a couple of cool birds that lead lives parallel to ours. When I came home and told Shari about my encounter, she said, "See, see what can happen when you're nice!" 

"Yeah," I replied, grumpily. Meanwhile, I never did get to check out the yellowlegs in the scope; I heard them fly away when I was talking to her. They flew away right after she & I spotted a Peregrine Falcon taking off from the top of a utility pole. 

Stafford Avenue with repairs

Afterwards I drove up to Manahawkin WMA and walked my usual route from the Hilliard Avenue entrance out to Stafford Avenue which leads to the Bridge to Nowhere. I've been taking this route of late because Stafford Avenue was impassable with huge craters all along its one and half miles, perfect traps to rip out the bottom of your car. Because it literally goes to nowhere, and runs between a WMA and Forsythe property, I figured  no one had any incentive to ever fix it, so I was flabbergasted to see that long stretches had been smoothed over and filled in with gravel. 

Peggy tells me that the Bridge to Nowhere is a well-known spot for shall we say assignations. Guys apparently cruise the road looking for prostitutes. I'm down there often and I've never seen a prostitute, but she tells me that a woman birder alone in her car will get propositioned by guys mistaking her for a sex worker. 

Look at the photo. Do you see any prostitutes? Maybe it's a Never on Sunday thing. Or maybe, as Peggy proposed, they're all hiding in the marsh. Or maybe they just couldn't get their vehicles down the road and now that it is no longer an obstacle course, business will pick up. 

                   

Lakes Bay 2/22--Eared Grebe

Until yesterday, I'd never heard of Lakes Bay, which is just east of Atlantic City, but since it was only 10 miles or so from Brig, where I was with Mike on his field trip, and since there was an Eared Grebe reported there, after we had made two trips around the wildlife drive, we, along with Peggy & Chris, decided to drive down there and take a look.

We tried one vantage point, and saw some grebes, but they were way too far away to identify, so we drove down to where the bird was originally reported, Lakes Bay Preserve, which is a rather scruffy area set aside among condominiums and a bland office building. Eared Grebe, in basic plumage, looks pretty much like a Horned Grebe in basic plumage and after Mike finally found the Eared Grebe we then played "Three Grebe Monte" for about a half hour, as the grebes dove and resurfaced, never in the same order. Peggy took some shots of one of the grebes that I have to say looked pretty good to me but upon further examination she was shooting the wrong bird (that doesn't sound right). My memory of the bird didn't match the photos precisely, but I chalked that up to light and distance. Anyway, we know we saw the bird. We just couldn't get it stay still long enough to capture it digitally. It was pretty frustrating as the birds bobbed along, mixing in with Buffleheads, diving, and going into a strip of glare on the bay.

Yellow-breast Chat
© Peggy Cadigan

At Brig we had the usual birds for the month. If April is the cruelest month, then February is the slowest. The highlight of the day was refinding the Yellow-breasted Chat that has been inhabiting the beginning of the Leeds Eco-trail most of this year.  I saw it last week with Bob, but it was a year bird for both Mike and Peggy. Peggy has kindly allowed me to use her beautiful photo to illustrate this entry.

After we left Lakes Bay we made a stop off at Mott's Creek. Within a minute I'd found a huge hawk once again sitting atop the distant Osprey platform. This time the shimmer wasn't too bad, but I'd still not call it. But again, the bird cooperated by flying, and flying toward us even, so that we were able to get all the field marks for Golden Eagle. Easy. A nice way to end the day.

Barnegat Light SP 2/19--King Eider

"Distant but decent scope views of drake..." is how my eBird description begins for this morning's year bird. I resisted the temptation to add FINALLY. Last month, during the Black Guillemot hysteria, there were numerous reports of a hen King Eider in the inlet. Despite looking carefully multiple days at the flock of eiders that at times were fairly close, I could never find it.  I actually saw the guillemot twice accidentally while trying to the find the oxymoronic hen King. Hen Kings and hen Common Eiders look very much alike and I never saw a convincing bird with the tell-tale "smile."  In disgust I said to the birding gods, "When a drake shows up, let me know."

Channel Marker 6 with Great Cormorants
& Great Black-backed Gull

A drake showed up this weekend and eBird let me know. And let me know over and over as seemingly every birder in Ocean County made the trek out to the end of the jetty to view the bird. This morning I finally had the chance to get to Barnegat Light to try. I wasn't looking forward to climbing up onto the jetty. As I understood it, I would have to walk to the end of the treacherous jetty to the tower to get the view of the distant duck. The seas were choppy and while it was low tide, the wind was still blowing spray up onto the rocks. I climbed up at the ocean's edge, hopped a couple of rocks toward the end until I found one flat enough and big enough to set up my scope and began to scan the scoter flock out by channel marker 6. I was hoping I wouldn't have to move much farther. Maybe I'm getting old (actually, there's no "maybe" about it), but the jetty seemed more uneven with wider gaps than the last time I was on it. Amazingly, within a few minutes, I saw the bird "with black flanks and back, white head with orange shield," as my list description continued. (The head is really very light blue but at the distance I was seeing it "light colored head" would be a better phrase.) There is no mistaking a King Eider as a Common Eider. I saw it for one second? Could I see it for two? Yes. It was bobbing in the water but I found it again in back of a line of scoters. Could I see it for three seconds. Yes again. Up and down in the chop but in the gray light its head and orange shield stood out like a beacon, especially again the flock of very Black Scoters.

I saw it a few more times, but never for an extended look. There was a photographer farther along the jetty. I thought I'd tell him about it, move over two more boulders, than figured it was worth risking my skull or scope so he could get a distant picture, if he even could find it in his lens.

A couple of guys I know were climbing up onto the jetty when I was making my way back from a walk up the beach. They didn't have scopes and try as I might, I couldn't relocate the bird in mine. Another birder I know was coming onto the beach as I was leaving; she did have a scope and she did, I see, find the bird.

I wasn't able to photograph any of the 14 Harlequin Ducks I saw today--the three that were close when I first got there I ignored because I had a goal and by the time I was to take picture they were gone. There were a couple of small groups floating around the old 8th St jetty, but none of them were close enough to get usable picture; plus they dive a lot.

I made more stops on the way off the island. I tried to find the Black-crowned Night-Herons in the roost near High Bar, but was unsuccessful this time. I looked for goldeneyes at Harvey Cedars but didn't find any there; however, as is almost always the case, they were at the end of 24th Street. Finally, a walk around Cedar Bonnet Island was uneventful, though it was good to see a Peregrine Falcon back on the hacking tower.

Brig | Motts Creek 2/16--Golden Eagle, Yellow-breasted Chat

I did a loop around Brig with Bob Auster today, who I hadn't, shamefully, seen or birded with since the first day of the year. While the duckage around the refuge was entertaining there was nothing truly outstanding--a trio of Common Mergansers coming closest to rare. We broke the eBird filter with 17 Great Blue Herons, but that's just bookkeeping. Only a Tree Swallow at the Gull Pond was supposedly rare, but they're really not, being hardy birds that can subsist of bayberries when the bugs are not out.

The two most interesting birds came after our circuit of the impoundments. Before Bob arrived this morning, I walked on the Leeds Eco-trail looking for the long-staying, constantly reported, Yellow-breast Chat. Naturally, despite 3 trips up and down the area where it was supposed to be, I didn't find it. After lunch, Bob (who once counted chat as a nemesis bird) & I walked down to the trail, hoping that the warming temperatures would bring it out. We met a photographer on the trail who said she hadn't seen it today. Then, another birder came up the trail and said he'd just seen it about 100 feet farther along. We went back with him but the bird had disappeared into the tangles. Bob & I hung around that area for a few minutes when the photographer came around the bend and waved us back. The chat was back in its usual place. It took a couple of minutes for it to show itself again but we both finally saw it, high in a bare tree, silhouetted against the cloudy sky. The profile was obvious. We saw it for maybe 3 seconds. I didn't a get a picture. If I was a real photographer, I would have insisted that we stay there until I could photograph it, but as the bird has been well-documented, I didn't feel obligated to spend any more time with it. Tick.

Then, instead of a 2nd loop where we'd probably see the same old same old, Bob suggested we got over to Motts Creek to look for the Golden Eagle that has been seen off and on this winter. I thought it a low percentage play, but, on the other hand, it was a no percentage play if I didn't go. I followed Bob over there to the new parking lot and the new boardwalk viewing area which made the birding a lot more pleasant than it had been in the past. First bird we saw was a Northern Harrier. We set up our scopes and after a while Bob said he had a bird out on an Osprey platform (too early for Osprey). It was a big bird, but very distant and the heat shimmer made it look like it was in the midst being beamed down by the Enterprise. Bob said we needed the bird fly in order to identify it.

Now, I'm not a very good hawk watcher. But Bob is; he's spent many hours at hawk watches identifying high flying specks. Instead of frustrating us and just sitting on top of the platform, the bird did fly. And we both got our scopes on it and Bob started ticking off the field marks--slight dihedral in flight, small head, tail length longer than the head, dark overall...Golden Eagle. The i.d. was cinched, for us, when two Bald Eagles came along and started to harass the Golden. We could see the difference in the two species, with the Beagles flying flat and having larger heads. Sometimes you get lucky. My luck was to be with Bob, because on my own that would have just been a raptor "spuh." The two Bald Eagles drifted left, the Golden drifted right, the call the fight a tie, and call it a day for us.

Unfortunately, no photos for the day. So how about this one of a smiling Cayuga Duck, one of about 4 that has been hanging around Meadowedge Park in Barnegat for the last couple of weeks. I stopped off there on the way home. Nothing to report there.

Day List

Snow Goose

Brant

Canada Goose

Mute Swan

Northern Shoveler

American Wigeon

Mallard

American Black Duck

Northern Pintail

Green-winged Teal

Ring-necked Duck

Greater Scaup

Bufflehead

Hooded Merganser

Common Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Mourning Dove

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Great Blue Heron

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Golden Eagle   Motts Creek

Northern Harrier   Motts Creek

Bald Eagle

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Blue Jay

American Crow

Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

Tree Swallow

White-breasted Nuthatch

Carolina Wren

Eastern Bluebird

American Robin

House Finch

American Goldfinch

Field Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Eastern Towhee

Yellow-breasted Chat

Red-winged Blackbird

Boat-tailed Grackle   Motts Creek

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Northern Cardinal

Raritan Bay Waterfront Park 2/15--Lesser Black-backed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull (center) among Brant,
Ring-billed and Herring Gulls

The coldest day of the year (so far)

found me at Ken Buchanan Waterfront Park in Sayreville, overlooking what is euphemistically called the Sayreville Marsh but is actually a gigantic landfill across the Raritan River. I had come up for Jason's and Patrick's trip which concentrates of gulls and raptors. 

When I got out of the car it didn't feel too bad, despite the 15 degree temperature; there was no wind. 5 minutes later, I couldn't feel my feet. That happens to me in the cold when I just stand in one place, scoping flocks of birds; it just usually doesn't happen so fast.

Unfortunately, the gullage on the river was dullage. Just the usual 3 expected species, none of the Jason specialties I was hoping for. Jason can and will stand for hours on end studying gulls and from this intensive looking, he often finds a rarity. Since gulls have 3 or 4 molts and are extremely variable and also hybridize, this is an enviable skill to achieve. We were a little luckier with the raptors--eagle, falcon, harrier, and Red-tailed Hawk but again, no really cool ones like a Rough-legged Hawk which I still 'need' for the year.

After about an hour I felt like I was standing on stumps; plus the cold had killed the battery in my phone so I went to the car to recharge and warm up. The second stop was supposed to be the Edison Boat Launch on the other side of the river, but Jason had gone there earlier, found little of interest, and it didn't look to him and Patrick that any birds were moving that way. Instead the group drove over to South Amboy's Raritan Bay Waterfront Park where at least we could take a brisk walk. 

The birding there was fine. No wind and enough birds on the water to keep you interested. After walking up to the Morgan Mud Flats we turned around and walked to the other side of the park where there is a little cove that birds often gather on. This was the most productive area of the day, with a small flock of Sanderlings, a scattering of Killdeer, and best of all, a semi-rare gull, found, naturally, by Jason--a Lesser Black-backed Gull loafing among the Ring-billed and Herring Gulls. Because it was tucked in among the other gulls it was difficult for me to locate at first, especially since the fence along the boardwalk is just high enough to block my scope. But we ambled down toward the flock and the bird didn't move. Finally I got decent looks at it if not stellar pictures. When I got home and checked, it turned out to be a county bird for me, but I'm not in Middlesex County enough to take my lists there too seriously. 

While the weather had warmed noticeably, it was still literally freezing and we were standing around again. I felt my feet going numb and since it didn't look like any Glaucous or Iceland Gulls were going to appear out of nowhere, I shook hands all around and headed back home, happy with a year bird for the day. 

DAY LIST

Brant   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Canada Goose   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Gadwall   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Mallard   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Long-tailed Duck   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Bufflehead   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Hooded Merganser   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Red-breasted Merganser   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Horned Grebe   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Killdeer   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Sanderling   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Ring-billed Gull   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Herring Gull   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Lesser Black-backed Gull   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Great Black-backed Gull   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Red-throated Loon   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Common Loon   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Great Cormorant   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Double-crested Cormorant   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Northern Harrier   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Bald Eagle   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Red-tailed Hawk   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Peregrine Falcon   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Blue Jay   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

European Starling   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

Northern Mockingbird   Ken Buchanan Riverfront Park

American Robin   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Savannah Sparrow   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Song Sparrow   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Riverfront Landing 2/14--Redhead

I have been disliking February more than I usually do--and I usually dislike it a lot. After seemingly two weeks rain, today was clear, but cold. It felt colder than it actually was because the temperatures of late have been mild. And because it has been mild everywhere, apparently, the winter birds have been sparse. Why migrate when you don't have to? I hadn't seen a new bird since the first, and I hadn't seen much of anything on the days I managed to get out.

Today I started out down at Barnegat--where, no real surprise, the ducks were few and most were distant. Cedar Run Dock Road maybe 25 Greater Scaup where sometimes, on a good winter day, you'll see them in the hundreds. Tip Seaman had a lot of geese. It wasn't until I was at the end of Great Bay Blvd that I finally saw something interesting--one of the nesting Bald Eagles bringing food to two juvenile birds. I had been looking at the nest through my scope, trying to decide if those were baby eagles I was viewing when the adult landed on the edge of the nest and began feeding the little shapes. The timing seems about right. I've seen those eagles around the nest in January and if it takes 35 days to incubate an egg, then the middle of February would be the time for young in the nest.

Since I had all of 12 species along Great Bay Blvd, I was ready to go home and get warm, but I saw that two interesting birds had been reported at Riverfront Landing in Toms River. The first, a Common Yellowthroat, wasn't enough to get me to drive up there, because, although it is rare now, in a couple of months I'll see and hear all the yellowthroats I can possibly want. But the second bird was a Redhead.

When we first moved to Ocean County, finding a Redhead was an event. I was overjoyed with the abundance of Canvasbacks at Riverfront and once in a while you'd find a Redhead with them. Then, the last few years there was an explosion of Redheads--sometimes you could find flocks of in the dozens, if not a hundred in the northern part of Barnegat Bay by Brick and there were usually a few at Lake of the Lilies. This year has been different. Early in the year there was one Redhead at Lake of the Lilies, but not when I went there. Otherwise, sightings have been scattershot. So that was worth a drive up the Parkway.

When I got there the temperature was dropping and wind was picking up and I really didn't feel like scanning through hundreds of ducks--which wasn't a problem because there weren't hundreds of ducks there. From my first vantage point there were only Buffleheads. (And, by the way, the yellowthroat was not in evidence in the bushes by the parking lot.) I went instead to another viewing point on water street where sometimes the birds emerge from behind the big houseboat moored in the marina. Sure enough, Lesser Scaup were trickling out into sight and then I saw one bird, with its head tucked in, that looked like a Redhead but it immediately drifted back behind the docks. A few more minutes of waiting and the bird came back out with the scaup. It definitely wasn't a Canvasback. Then it drifted back again. The third time it came out I thought about trying a digiscope but it is really hard to do that with frozen hands and by the time I was ready the bird had either dived or gone back to its hiding place. Satisfied with the scope looks I'd had, I packed it up and went home. Where Shari and I had 14 turkeys on the lawn and a swooping flyby of a Cooper's Hawk.

North Coast Ponds & Inlets 2/1--Laughing Gull, Merlin

Laughing Gull, Manasquan Inlet

I drove up to Point Pleasant Beach for Carole's NJ Audubon trip to the ponds and inlets on what you might call the "Southern North Coast," which ends at PPB and starts at the Shark River, though we do the trip in the reverse. Because I was early, I made my first stop Lake of the Lilies. In the large scaup flock (stipulated: there are both greater and lesser in the flock) I was hoping for a Redhead to slip in but, as was the case on Wednesday, no. However, a bird I wasn't expecting zipped right by me--a Merlin on a mission flying low and fast over the pond and behind a house.

There was no construction going on at the Manasquan Inlet so we were able to access the jetty. The attraction there was the very cooperative Razorbill that was bobbing at the mouth of the inlet. The looks were fairly close, which was very satisfying since it was a lifer for one of the members of our group. After a trip back to Lake of the Lilies and a lesson on scaup identification (all of which I know but most of the time cannot apply), we returned to the inlet, birding the western part along the parking lot. There, right in front of where I parked my car, was an immature Laughing Gull, which I didn't notice until Carole pointed it out. This is probably the same gull I didn't find on Wednesday. A LAGU in mid-winter is very unusual in these parts but the weather has been warm which must be part of the explanation.

It is certainly the explanation for the dearth of ducks on the ponds and inlets. In the autumn ducks get physiologically ready to migrate but they don't actually move until they have to--a propensity I have to say I share with them. So, not only is warm down here, but it is warm up there and that's where, I'll wager, all the ducks are. Of course, warm for a duck and warm for me are two different climates--I could use another 30 degrees tacked on to today's high. Wreck Pond had very little on it, aside from a hefty flock of Gadwalls, Lake Como and Silver Lake had geese and gulls, the Shark River inlet had a few loons, and the Shark River Marina had the usual stupendous numbers of Mute Swans and Brants, along with the expected Buffleheads & Red-breasted Mergansers.

Eurasian Wigeon with American Black Duck (digiscope)

My final stop (I had to cut out a little early to go up to Iselin) was Maclearie Park where we hoped to find the ever-present Eurasian Wigeon. I plunked down my scope and before I could even begin a scan of the American Wigeon flock, Carole announced that she had the bird. It was sleeping on a little patch of beach in front of a concrete block encasing culverts. That was easy. This must be the same drake returning for the 3rd or 4th year or else there is something mysteriously attractive about this stretch of the water along Rt 35 between the park and the Shell station to Eurasian Wigeons.

My last bird of the day was a Northern Mockingbird up at the family homestead in Iselin.
44 species to start the month.

Species   First Sighting

Brant   Manasquan Inlet

Canada Goose   Lake of the Lilies

Mute Swan   Wreck Pond

Northern Shoveler   Wreck Pond

Gadwall   Wreck Pond

Eurasian Wigeon   MacLearie Park

American Wigeon   MacLearie Park

Mallard   Lake of the Lilies

American Black Duck   Manasquan Inlet

Greater Scaup   Lake of the Lilies

Lesser Scaup   Lake of the Lilies

Surf Scoter   Spring Lake

White-winged Scoter   Manasquan Inlet

Black Scoter   Manasquan Inlet

Long-tailed Duck   Manasquan Inlet

Bufflehead   Manasquan Inlet

Hooded Merganser   Lake of the Lilies

Red-breasted Merganser   Manasquan Inlet

Ruddy Duck   Lake of the Lilies

Mourning Dove   Lake of the Lilies

American Coot   Lake of the Lilies

Purple Sandpiper   Manasquan Inlet North Side

Razorbill   Manasquan Inlet

Laughing Gull   Manasquan Inlet

Ring-billed Gull   Lake of the Lilies

Herring Gull   Lake of the Lilies

Great Black-backed Gull   Lake of the Lilies

Red-throated Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Common Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Double-crested Cormorant   Lake of the Lilies

Great Blue Heron   Lake of the Lilies

Bald Eagle   MacLearie Park

Red-tailed Hawk   MacLearie Park

Merlin   Lake of the Lilies

Fish Crow   Manasquan Inlet North Side

Carolina Wren   Wreck Pond

Northern Mockingbird   18 Aberdeen Avenue

House Sparrow   Lake of the Lilies

Song Sparrow   Lake Como

Common Grackle   Wreck Pond

Boat-tailed Grackle   Manasquan Inlet

Northern Cardinal   Lake Como