Barnegat Lighthouse SP 1/12--Least Sandpiper

Least Sandpipers

I went looking for LBI specialties this morning and had a fairly successful trip. A quick walk around Cedar Bonnet Island had nothing of interest and I was disappointed that the Black-crowned Night-Heron roost on Bayview Avenue seems to have been abandoned by the birds, probably because someone cut a path into the pines and made it too accessible for the birds to countenance. When I went in late December they weren't there either, so two times in a row, and I get the message. 

Barnegat Lighthouse SP (I just noticed that it is "Lighthouse" not "Light" as the official designation; "Barnegat Light" is the town) was the real goal anyway. The tide was high and coming in, crashing against the jetty, which I had no intention of walking on anyway, but the incoming tide also runs into the plover pond that was created in the dunes a few years ago. Since I wasn't wearing my wading boots, I couldn't get across the stream, so I was forced to walk along the back edge of the pond. Which led to my first happy find of the morning, 5 Least Sandpipers feeding at the east end of the pond. My first thought was Semipalmated Sandpiper, but I knew they would be ridiculously rare. I then considered Western Sandpiper, which does occur in the winter, but they didn't look right for that either once I sent some pix to Steve and consulted with him via text. I knew they weren't Dunlin (I studied some Dunlin later on the jetty, and the bills were much longer than my peeps. I ran one of my photos through my Seek app and it came up Least Sandpiper. Then I remembered that in December a small number of Least Sandpipers had been reported for a few days but none had shown up this year so far. They had all the characteristics of Leasts, save for the yellow legs, but in the gray light and standing in mud, that really wasn't a disqualification. So, I went with Least and no one's told me different. 

Harlequin Ducks

Once out at the beach, I gingerly climbed up on the jetty with my scope. I was willing to maneuver on 3 relatively flat and dry rocks. Everything else looked precarious. Down at the far end of the jetty I found one Brant sitting on the rocks, surrounded by a small flock of Purple Sandpiper (one of the specialties, though I'd already ticked this species off at Manasquan Inlet) and closer to me a larger flock of Ruddy Turnstones, next to said Dunlin. The waves were hitting the jetty and splashing up pretty high and even the interior rocks I was standing on were getting the spume, so when I finally spotted one Harlequin Duck, I was more than happy to climb down intact. While I was going back & forth with Steve about the peeps I scanned the ocean for ducks and after a while found a small flock of Common Eiders. Eiders have been scarce this winter; I know Steve has commented on the paucity of the flocks--I counted 8 eiders, where in usual times a flock of 50 or 100 wouldn't be uncommon. I looked as long as I could stand looking at the ducks bobbing in the rough surf for one smiling eider which would indicate the hen King Eider that has been seen off and on there, but distance and light and constant motion were all arrayed against me. I also spotted a few Harlequins sitting on the far end of the jetty, as well as some Black Scoters, one Surf Scoter, and lots of Long-tailed Ducks. 

My last stop, as it usually is in the winter, was Sunset Park in Harvey Cedars. For some peculiar reason, this is the best place to find a specific duck and when I plunked my scope down to look at the bay, I immediately found that duck, a Common Goldeneye. Then I quickly found 5 more. Much better looks that I got on the first at Sandy Hook, and besides, they're now on the Ocean County list. And having seen the goldeneyes, I figured I'd exhausted the entertainment value of LBI for the day.

34 species on the Island:

Species  First Sighting
Brant  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Canada Goose  Cedar Bonnet Island
Mallard  Cedar Bonnet Island
American Black Duck  Cedar Bonnet Island
Greater Scaup  Bayview Ave Marina
Common Eider  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Surf Scoter  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Scoter  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Long-tailed Duck  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Bufflehead  Cedar Bonnet Island
Common Goldeneye  Sunset Park-
Hooded Merganser  Cedar Bonnet Island
Red-breasted Merganser  Cedar Bonnet Island
Ruddy Duck  Sunset Park-
Rock Pigeon  Bayview Ave Marina
Ruddy Turnstone  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Sanderling  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Dunlin  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Purple Sandpiper  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Least Sandpiper  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Herring Gull  Cedar Bonnet Island
Great Black-backed Gull  Cedar Bonnet Island
Common Loon  Bayview Ave Marina
Great Cormorant  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Blue Heron  Cedar Bonnet Island
Belted Kingfisher  Bayview Ave Marina
American Crow  Bayview Ave Marina
Carolina Wren  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Robin  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
White-throated Sparrow  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Savannah Sparrow  Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow  Cedar Bonnet Island

Assunpink 1/8--Trumpeter Swan

Trumpeter Swans (left), Tundra Swan (right)

If there is such an oxymoron as a "Common Rarity" then the Trumpeter Swans, that have been wintering at Assunpink for about the last 10 years, qualify. Where they come from is a mystery, and why only Assunpink, in the entire state, the only place to find them is also unknown. The only question is just where they'll--west end of the lake, east end of the lake, or Stone Tavern Lake (which is part of Assunpink.) 

Today I started on the west end of Assunpink Lake, which I imagine as shaped like an asymmetrical dumb bell, the wider part on the west, then a long handle that connect to a smaller cove in the east. I'd heard that the swans had been seen behind the island on the main part of the lake, so I walked over there, but they weren't around. Not much was around, in fact. 30 Ruddy Ducks when there are usually hundreds, a few Buffleheads, 3 hen Hooded Mergansers...not much at all. 

I started walking the dirt road towards the east end, stopping at all the cuts to view the lake. It wasn't until I got to the last one, on the east side that I finally found them, at the extreme east end, sleeping, naturally, with a smaller swan. I texted Bob Auster, who got there a little after me, that I'd found them, but a scope would be helpful. Fortunately, he was on his way, and was carrying his scope. The only way I could identify them as Trumpeters from that distance and in that posture was by looking at their butts, which weren't pointy, as Mute Swans would be. I met Bob on the road, and we walked down the trail where he set up his scope. A few times one or the other of the swans would lift its head so that we could see the black (not orange) bill and confirm the distant id. The 3rd bird Bob determined was a Tundra Swan, also rare, if you're in Monmouth County. I probably would have skipped that bird if it wasn't for Bob; it was smaller than the other two, and a Tundra Swan had been reported in company with the Trumpeters, and it wasn't the first time I'd had both species on that lake, so I took the check mark. Meanwhile, I was thinking, "Another year of lousy looks." 

Red-shouldered Hawk

With that tiny achievement on our record, Bob & I birded our way back to the main part of the lake and then around to the north side. We spotted a few interesting birds like Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Hermit Thrush and spotted the Red-shouldered Hawk that was incessantly calling as we walked the road. It was loud. We could hear it still when we were about 1/2 mile away on the berm of the lake. 

While I was happy to get the Trumpeter Swans "out of the way," the most satisfying sighting of the day was the "stumble-upon" flock of Snow Geese that I found on the way up there, on Rt 539 in New Egypt. They were in a corn stubble field. Of the literally hundreds of times that I have passed that field going to Assunpink or Colliers Mills, this was only the second time I have seen Snow Geese there. 

When I passed by later in the day, they were still there, in almost a perfect square in the middle of the field. 

Island Beach SP 1/6--Dovekie

It's been alcidpalooza lately along the coast and today I finally got a chance to try for the more elusive of the two species in the big push--Dovekie. It was an extremely frustrating search, not helped by the texts I was getting from my buddy Steve who was driving the beach and telling me locations of Dovekies he had seen, proving the Third Law of Birding--Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else. (I think he had 18 for the day).

Photo © Steve Weiss

I saw a long line of Razorbills when I first started scanning at Bathing Beach 1, and much more satisfying looks at a trio of birds at A23, the start of the long march down to the jetty. But I couldn't find any Dovekies. Eventually, Steve caught up with me and showed me a deceased Dovekie he picked up out of the surf. They are so tiny, probably no bigger than a Mourning Dove. It made me feel slightly better that I wasn't able to find such a diminutive bird in such a big ocean. Steve had been finding quite a few about a mile north of where I met him, so I drove up there and started walking the beach from A15 up to a little north of A13. I found more Razorbills, but still no Dovekies. 

An interesting trick that both Scott & Steve told me was to look for a flock of Bonaparte's Gull hovering over the water--chances are they've spotted a Razorbill and are waiting for it to surface with food in order to steal a meal. A few times I saw this behavior and at least twice I was able to spot a Razorbill surrounded by Bonies. I don't know if this works for Dovekies too, but I was hoping. 

Finally, a little north of A13, having put in over 4 miles of beach walking, I gave up and turned around. I not only gave up, I gave up in disgust, so naturally, a few minutes later, when I put down my scope, I finally found a little alcid with a short beak, unlike the honker on a Razorbill. Thus, the Second Law of Birding had been proved: You won't see the bird until you truly give up. 

This marks only the second time I've seen Dovekie, and both times have been at Island Beach. The first time, a couple of years ago when there was another alcid incursion like this one, I was literally jumping up and down, so happy to get a life bird I never thought I'd see from land. Today, I was just happy to end the embarrassing ordeal with one little bird. 

Holgate 1/4--Marbled Godwit

A philosophical conundrum: 

I walked 2.1 miles of Holgate, at the south end of LBI, specifically looking for Marbled Godwits, scoping the bayside through all the cuts in the dunes. Holgate is where I go for my annual godwits and Snowy Owl. With the warm weather, today seemed like the perfect time to take that look walk I wasn't expecting the owl today, since on Monday's Christmas Count, one was listed as dead. No explanation as to the cause of its demise, but as that Jersey philosopher Bruce Springsteen has pointed out, "Everything dies, baby, that's a fact." I'll eschew the mysticism of the next line. 

But the godwits had been seen in decent numbers. I saw a few American Oystercatchers, which I would expect there too, along with the other winter shorebirds--Sanderlings, Dunlins, Black-bellied Plover, but I couldn't come across the godwits...I thought. I did see, first on the Clamming Trail and then later in flight with a huge flock of Brants, 5 Snow Geese (3,2), which is very unusual for Holgate. When the Brant flock settled down in the bay, I took a digiscope of the two Snow Geese sitting in the middle of all that black & white. Just for documentation since Snow Geese is "infrequently reported" locally, according to eBird. 

When I got home and transferred the photo to my computer, what did I find but a big brown shorebird standing to the left of the Snow Geese--a Marbled Godwit. My lousy photo is very much like much better ones that were taken during the CBC, with the godwits mixed in with the Brant. 

Can I count it? I knew that was where the godwits would be. And I could argue that I saw it through my scope without it registering in my brain. But the real rationale is that I'm doing a survey, recording the birds at a specific site at a specific time and today, 1/4/2023, at 11:36 A.M. there was one Marbled Godwit at Holgate, a unit of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR. Once, I declined to count a White-faced Ibis that turned up in the photo of a flock of flyby ibises, but I told my friend, who took the photo, that he should count it. I'm taking my same advice. 

23 species
Snow Goose  5     3 on clamming trail 2 mixed in with huge flock of Brants
Brant  1500
Canada Goose  75
Mallard  1
American Black Duck  80
Surf Scoter  3
Long-tailed Duck  15
Bufflehead  7
Red-breasted Merganser  1
American Oystercatcher  4     Bayside
Black-bellied Plover  1
Marbled Godwit  1     
Sanderling  40
Dunlin  50
Bonaparte's Gull  15     Ocean & bay
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  10
Red-throated Loon  5
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  1     Clamming trail
American Crow  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  13

Lake Barnegat 1/3--Long-billed Dowitchers

About a month ago, one of my "stumble-upon" birds was a flock of Long-billed Dowitchers in the mudflats of partially drained Lake Barnegat in Lacey. They can now be described as the "long-staying" Long-billed Dowitchers, because they are still there. Out of all the rarities that are popping up on my alerts, they seemed like the easiest ones to get for the year and besides, I have a sort of proprietary interest in them. I even got a text New Year's Day from a birder who lives nearby there to tell me that "my" dowitchers were still present. 

So, after a couple of very long days of birding, I figured I'd take it easy and just hit a few spots in that area and see what I could add. I started out at Bamber Lake because that's a reliable spot for Tundra Swans--except for today when the lake was completely devoid of any waterfowl. An inauspicious start to the day.  Deer Head Lake, a bit west of Lake Barnegat, had lots of Canada Geese and I'm not that obsessive that I felt I had to make a list or count them. 

Finally, at Lake Barnegat a quick scan of the mud turned up the flock of dowitchers, mixed in with an eBird filter-busting number of Greater Yellowlegs and one Killdeer, the other new species for the year. I scoped from 3 different vantage points on the lake, but no matter where I stood, the dowitchers were still distant. One lousy digiscope was all I could manage. 

I made a couple of other stops: Bay Parkway in Waretown, where I added a few birds to the Ocean County list, and Eno's Pond where this winter's dearth of passerines continues. But one cool species for the day was enough for me and then it started to rain. 

Barnegat CBC 1/2--Virginia Rail, Sedge Wren, Owls

Mike & I, joined by Joanne, did our usual section of Manahawkin for the Barnegat CBC. We three met long before dawn on Beach Avenue in Manahawkin, and it was there that all the truly interesting birding for the day was accomplished. We had at least 5 Eastern Screech Owls whinnying along the road, 3 Great Horned Owls hooting noisily, two of which we actually saw sitting on the wires that run out to the old AT&T, and one Barred Owl, which we'd never heard before on the count. The owls along would have made the day a success (tempting to just go home and go to sleep), but along with them we heard two Virginia Rails calling from the marsh and, after an absence of several years, we again heard a Sedge Wren clicking away in the reeds in the very spot we'd come to expect it in the past. 

Then the sun came up and birding seemed more like census-taking than discovery. Some slightly unusual birds we found were 

A Great Egret in the marsh of the Bridge to Nowhere

Two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers in a weedy corner of Stafford

A few Gadwalls on the pond in Ocean Acres

A couple of Ruddy Ducks in Barnegat Bay.

Ring-billed Gulls, Manahawkin Lake

The bay had a great raft of Greater Scaup too, along with Buffleheads and 10 Great Blue Herons roosting on a little island, Unfortunately, that vantage point is now closed off to us. I always thought it was a little sketchy, our being there, but today there were PRIVATE PROPERTY signs posted in abundance, and it was made quite clear to us by a homeowner that he wasn't interested in the CBC or how long we'd been viewing the bay from his property, or the property of the wedding mill next door. It wasn't like he was carrying a shotgun or anything, but we K-turned around and left. Too bad, that's always been a good spot. 

We also found that the little retention pond on Cedar Bridge Road that we used to drive around is now closed to vehicular traffic. That wasn't a tragedy as we could walk it in about 15 minutes. And we noticed that a little section behind it has been taken over by Forsythe, which seems to determined to gather any little undeveloped section it can find from Galloway to Brick and put in the portfolio of preserved land, which is great by us, except a lot of it also closed to the people who'd like to bird it. 

Another anomaly today was hunters. Usually, we do the count on a Sunday, so hunters aren't a consideration, but since yesterday was New Year's Day, the count was bumped to a Monday. Still a holiday, but legal for hunting, and with a lot of people off, a lot of guns were being toted through the fields of Manahawkin. No conflicts between birders and hunters, but the occasional gunshot tends to keep the birds in hiding and there were next to no ducks in the impoundments, for obvious reasons. 

I missed a couple of unimportant species that Mike had--House Sparrow, House Finch, maybe something else. They're on the count's records, just not on my list, which totaled 61for the day. 

Species               First Sighting Canada Goose  Beach Av Mute Swan  Bridge to Nowhere Gadwall  Ocean Acres Pond Mallard  Manahawkin Lake American Black Duck  Bridge to Nowhere Ring-necked Duck  Manahawkin Lake Greater Scaup  East Bay Av Bufflehead  Bridge to Nowhere Hooded Merganser  Bridge to Nowhere Ruddy Duck  East Bay Av Rock Pigeon  Bridge to Nowhere Mourning Dove  93 Cedar Bridge Rd Virginia Rail  Beach Av Greater Yellowlegs  Bridge to Nowhere Ring-billed Gull  Manahawkin Lake Herring Gull  Bridge to Nowhere Great Black-backed Gull  Bridge to Nowhere Double-crested Cormorant  East Bay Av Great Blue Heron  Beach Av Great Egret  Bridge to Nowhere Turkey Vulture  Levi’s Rd Northern Harrier  Bridge to Nowhere Cooper's Hawk  Ridge Av Bald Eagle  Beach Av Red-shouldered Hawk  Bridge to Nowhere Red-tailed Hawk  Bridge to Nowhere Eastern Screech-Owl  Beach Av Great Horned Owl  Beach Av Barred Owl  Beach Av Belted Kingfisher  Bridge to Nowhere Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  Levi’s Rd Red-bellied Woodpecker  Bridge to Nowhere Downy Woodpecker  Bridge to Nowhere Hairy Woodpecker  Bridge to Nowhere Northern Flicker  Manahawkin WMA Blue Jay  Bridge to Nowhere Carolina Chickadee  Bridge to Nowhere Tufted Titmouse  Bridge to Nowhere Golden-crowned Kinglet  Pond off Cedar Bridge Rd Red-breasted Nuthatch  Bridge to Nowhere White-breasted Nuthatch  Bridge to Nowhere Winter Wren  Bridge to Nowhere Sedge Wren  Beach Av Carolina Wren  Levi’s Rd European Starling  Ridge Av Hermit Thrush  Bridge to Nowhere American Robin  Beach Av House Finch  Bridge to Nowhere American Goldfinch  Levi’s Rd American Tree Sparrow  Bridge to Nowhere Fox Sparrow  Manahawkin WMA Dark-eyed Junco  Levi’s Rd White-throated Sparrow  Levi’s Rd Song Sparrow  Bridge to Nowhere Swamp Sparrow  Bridge to Nowhere Red-winged Blackbird  Bridge to Nowhere Brown-headed Cowbird  Ridge Av Common Grackle  Bridge to Nowhere Boat-tailed Grackle  Bridge to Nowhere Yellow-rumped Warbler  Beach Av Northern Cardinal  Pond off Cedar Bridge Rd

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