Brig | Brigantine Island 1/11--Red-headed Woodpecker & 14 Year Birds

Red-headed Woodpecker, Brig

I took my first visit to Brig (and Atlantic County) this morning with Mike on one of his monthly NJ Audubon trips, accompanied by our friend Peggy. Since it is still early in the year, potential was great for interesting birds and we did well. The bird I was most interesting in finding I had looked for just before the end of the last year with Shari with no success. Today, after some searching, the immature Red-headed Woodpecker made an appearance on the Bristow trail just behind the parking lot. This was a county bird for me (as well, of course, a year bird), so it was gratifying to find it and "get it out of the way."

The first year bird of the day was the first bird we saw in Atlantic County (if you ignore the huge flock of blackbirds we saw on someone's lawn and the "Heinz 57 Varieties" geese we saw in Smithville) was also a year bird, 5 Wild Turkey toms on Lily Lake Road.

American Bittern, Brig

On the road to the Gull Pond we were able to tease out an immature Black-crowned Night-Heron buried deep in a tree, but the highlight of the first go-round of the Wildlife Drive was up around Marker 4. Mike saw something skulking across the road. Both his and Peggy's first (obviously absurd) impression was that of an alligator. It was an American Bittern with its neck stretched long and low, parallel to the ground, scurrying into the grass on the channel side of the drive. We hurried up to the spot where it had gone off the road since the cars behind us hadn't seen the bird. I figured, with its ability to camouflage itself that we'd never see the bird again, but the reeds weren't quite high enough for it to completely hide. Even still, it was exactly the same color as the reeds except for its yellow eye. The whole group was able to see it and get some photographs. It was a lifer for at least one of our group. I was happy since I managed to miss this bird all of last year.

American Oystercatcher, Brigantine Island

Most of the birds we saw going around the drive were waterfowl--a pretty good mix with huge numbers of Snow Geese, Brant, and American Black Ducks. After lunch Mike surprised me by suggesting we all go down to Brigantine Island, northeast of Atlantic City, about a 20 minute drive away. In winter, the south cove is often a good spot for shorebirds and while our first stop only produced a single American Oystercatcher (sorry you weren't with us, Shari), our second stop, in an empty lot between two homes, looked out on mudflats with about 100 oystercatchers & Dunlins, a couple of Black-bellied Plovers, 5 or so (Western) Willets, and best of all (for me, at least) 10 (approx) Marbled Godwits. I say "for me" because Mike also found a Whimbrel, a rarity this time of year, and while he and Peggy and a couple of others in our group got on it, I couldn't find it in his or my scope. Since I haven't descended in the madness of "month birding," ("yet," as Mike likes to say), I wasn't upset at the miss, since I'm pretty confident I'll see a Whimbrel before the year is out.

We went back to Brig for another trip around the impoundments. At the Gull Pond the night-heron had sneaked out a little farther for a better look and a Great Egret and had joined it and the Great Blue Heron that had been there in the morning. Other new birds for the day included 3 flyover Greater Yellowlegs at the Gull Pond, a Peregrine Falcon and a Sharp-shinned Hawk on the upland portion of the trail that Peggy & I got a glimpse of, but no one else was in a position to see.

For the day I finished with 56 species, including 15 year birds, bringing the early season total up 115.

Species            First Sighting

Snow Goose   Brig

Brant   Brig

Canada Goose   Brig

Mute Swan   Brig

Northern Shoveler   Brig

Gadwall   Brig

American Wigeon   Brig

Mallard   Brig

American Black Duck   Brig

Northern Pintail   Brig

Green-winged Teal   Brig

Bufflehead   Brig

Hooded Merganser   Brig

Red-breasted Merganser   Brigantine Island

Wild Turkey   Brig

Mourning Dove   Brig

American Oystercatcher   Brigantine Island

Black-bellied Plover   Brigantine Island

Marbled Godwit   Brigantine Island

Dunlin   Brigantine Island

Greater Yellowlegs   Brig

Willet   Brigantine Island

Ring-billed Gull   Brig

Herring Gull   Brig

Great Black-backed Gull   Brig

Double-crested Cormorant   Brigantine Island

American Bittern   Brig

Great Blue Heron   Brig

Great Egret   Brig

Black-crowned Night-Heron   Brig

Turkey Vulture   Brig

Northern Harrier   Brig

Sharp-shinned Hawk   Brig

Bald Eagle   Brig

Red-headed Woodpecker   Brig

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Brig

Downy Woodpecker   Brig

Northern Flicker   Brig

Peregrine Falcon   Brig

Blue Jay   Brig

American Crow   Brig

Carolina Chickadee   Brig

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Brig

Carolina Wren   Brig

American Robin   Brig

House Finch   Brig

American Goldfinch   Brig

Chipping Sparrow   Brig

Dark-eyed Junco   Brig

White-throated Sparrow   Brig

Savannah Sparrow   Brig

Song Sparrow   Brig

Eastern Towhee   Brig

Red-winged Blackbird   Brig

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Brig

Northern Cardinal   Brig

Lake of the Lilies | Mathis Park 1/10--Wood Duck, Canvasback

Canvasbacks, Mathis Park

Today I methodically went looking for ducks--and geese. Did well with the ducks, getting my two favorites. Geese were another story.

I started the morning at Lake of Lilies, always a good winter spot for ducks. I was specifically trying to get my year Wood Duck. Wood Duck isn't that hard to find, but there weren't any at Colliers Mills the other day. Fortunately, after a cold snap, the weather was warm this morning and the lake was all open water. Mostly there were scaup on the water, both varieties, though more heavily of the Lesser variety, and quite a few Hooded Mergansers (which may be #3 on the duck hit parade). Toward the eastern end of the lake a big flock of Mallards was dabbling--both wild and a motley assemblage of domestic types. Mixed in with them, as it was late in December, was a fine looking drake Woodie.

Wood Duck  1    

Mallard  60

Mallard (Domestic type)  20

Greater Scaup  15

Lesser Scaup  125

Bufflehead  1

Hooded Merganser  21

Ruddy Duck  10

Pied-billed Grebe  1

American Coot  15

Ring-billed Gull  1

Herring Gull  50

Great Black-backed Gull  10

Double-crested Cormorant  3

Blue Jay  1    Heard

I stopped off at the Manasquan Inlet hoping for some activity but it was pretty quiet there--no Razorbills flying by or loafing off the jetty, no Purple Sandpipers on the rocks below. Both loons, some Long-tailed Ducks, gulls. The amusement of the day was watching three drift out of the inlet into the open water. They got pretty far out off the jetty. In my imagination one of the swans was saying to the other two, "Wait a minute! We're surrounded by loons and sea ducks. There's no food out here, the water's forty feet deep!" Because suddenly the trio picked up and flew back up the inlet toward the shallow end.

Then I drove up into Monmouth County trying for a couple of rare geese. Yesterday there was a Greater White-fronted Goose on Lake Como so I made that my first stop. There were 120 Ruddy Ducks on the water, but not a goose to be seen. Then. I was there around 10 o'clock. When I got back home this afternoon, I saw that around noon a big flock of geese was on the lake and among them was the Greater White-fronted. Obviously, they flew in after I left to go up to Lake Takanassee where I was hoping to find the Cackling Goose that has been reported on & off for a month. Again, no luck. There were only 60 or 70 Canada Geese to look through  and I looked at every one, so it is unlikely that I missed it. Bad timing and bad luck.

I figured I'd just go home but I saw that a friend of mine had my other favorite duck in South Toms River which is only a slight detour, so I went to Mathis Veterans Memorial Park and saw a dozen Canvasbacks floating in front of the houseboat. This was the third time this year I've looked for Canvasbacks in this very reliable location; the first two times I looked for them from Riverfront Landing, which is on the other side of Mathis, but because of the angles of the piers in the marina, it is sometimes impossible to see the ducks, even though you actually much closer to them than at Mathis. In any case, I got these, the largest of the North American diving ducks (really? Bigger than Common Merganser?) on my list. Even from a distance, they're an impressive duck. Canvasback also happened to be my 100th species for the year.

Nothing else of note on what is either the Toms River or an estuary. Surprisingly, no Ruddy Ducks that I could find which was odd, because both times at Riverfront, they were the predominant duck.

Mute Swan  2

Canvasback  12

Ring-necked Duck  1    with scaup

Lesser Scaup  9

Bufflehead  25

Ring-billed Gull  20

Herring Gull  30

Double-crested Cormorant  1

IBSP 1/8--Better Pictures of the Guillemot

Black Guillemot, Barnegat Inlet

My intent this morning was to walk to Barnegat Inlet on the Island Beach side and get back before the winds kicked in late morning in order to look through the eider flock off the jetty for the King Eider hen that has been reported with them the last few days. After walking on Holgate's sands yesterday, this walk of a mile and half (and back) might have been pushing it. Truth be told, an oxymoronic King Eider hen isn't that satisfying a bird to look at if you can tease one out in the flock of brown ducks. Now a drake King Eider...that's a great looking bird and no mistaking it.

Unfortunately my timing was just a bit off. The uneventful slog down to the inlet was fine, but once I turned right toward where I saw the eiders yesterday from opposite shore, there was a bit of a breeze. I set up my scope and looked closely at every one of the 60 or 70 eiders in the flock, or at least as closely as one can look at a bobbing and heaving flock. Eliminating adult drakes and immature drakes there were probably about 45 brown eiders to examine. None of them, that I could tell, were smaller, lighter brown and with the tell-tale smile. And the wind continued to pick up, making scoping challenging and creating more white caps to block my view. Finally, after going through the flock 3 times, I gave up, shouldered my scope and started to walk east. Looking to my right I saw what I first took to be a Long-tailed Duck. Another glance and I saw it was instead the Black Guillemot, continuing, as we birders like to say. This time it was a much better view, no scope needed and I was able to get decent photographs instead of the white dot of yesterday.

At least I had that compensation. The walk back was difficult. The wind was gusting 30 mph and without my realizing it, until I stopped to glass some ducks, a snow squall enveloped me--I looked at my left sleeve and it was encased in slush, as was the scope. I thought it was sand hitting me in the face when instead it was precip. The squall disappeared as fast as it came in and by the time I staggered back to the car, the sun was out, though the wind kept howling.

With that kind of wind, I'd had enough for one day. Today is one of my Feederwatch days, so I figured I spend the afternoon recording yard birds. Glad I did because on my neighbor's feeder I found my FOY Chipping Sparrow, a bird that is "infrequently reported" this time of year. So my only year bird of the day was seen outside the bedroom window.

LBI 1/7--Black Guillemot, Orange-crowned Warbler

Black Guillemot, take my word for it, Barnegat Light SP
(click to enlarge, not that it will help)

It isn't called Long Beach Island for no reason. Today, I had rare birds at both extremes of the island, 20 miles apart, which doesn't sound like a long distance until you're driving at only 40 or 45 mph, avoiding the lurking black and whites who have nothing better to do in the winter than hand out tickets. I was planning on going to the south end of the island, Holgate, to look for the Ash-throated Flycatcher that was found Sunday on the Barnegat CBC, but as I was approaching the bridge to the island I snuck a look at my texts at a red light and saw that a much more impressive bird had stayed overnight at Barnegat Light, so I headed north instead.

The rarity there was an alcid, a Black Guillemot, rarely seen in NJ and certainly not from shore very often. The last one seen at that location was 2005. I got to the walkway at the light, called my friend who said it was being seen in the inlet "200 paces" from the lighthouse. I liked the "paces" instruction, but didn't like not seeing the bird. Then another birder at the end of the walkway saw me, texted me that she had the bird and I raced up there. It was drifting along out of the inlet on the Island Beach side, hard up against the jetty. I saw it well enough in my scope, especially when it was spot-lighted for a moment by a shaft of sunlight. My photos show a mottled dot on the water. But there was no mistaking the bird for another alcid or duck. If my list ticks could be heard, this bird would have sounded like a pinball machine--year bird, county bird, state bird, country bird.  The only Black Guillemots I've seen before today were up in Canada. Up there, of course, they look completely different because it was summer and they were in breeding plumage. (You don't think I'd go birding in Canada in the winter do you?)

A pleasant surprise on my way out to the end of the walkway was coming upon 5 Harlequin Ducks very close in. Normally you have to go way out to the end of the jetty to see these ducks. They're common; they're reliable, but they're usually a long walk. Today, I got my year Harlequins naked eye and running. After I watched the guillemot drift farther out toward open water, I started back, but I couldn't resist taking pictures of the Harlequin. 
Now it was time to make the long journey south. But first I stopped off at Sunset Park in Harvey Cedars. I was curious to see if the single Horned Lark I had seen in late December was still hanging around the beat up grassy area close to the rocks. I walked and glassed, walked and glassed along the asphalt path, not finding the bird until I almost stepped on it. Not an easy bird to find so I felt like I accomplished something.

There were actually two rarities at the Holgate spot, just above the entrance to the Forsythe area, but I didn't have a lot of confidence in finding one of them. I met Steve and Al down there and they had just had the Ash-throated and were now looking for the Orange-crowned Warbler. I was scanning the pine tree where the flycatcher was last seen when, out of the corner of my eye I saw movement in some high brush to my right. There was the warbler. I called Steve over and it flew into the pine tree. Unfortunately, Al was a little too far away to get on the bird, a bummer because it would have been a lifer for him.

Meanwhile, the flycatcher was not being cooperative until finally Steve caught sight of it. I watched it jump around from one pine tree to another until it flew between two houses and out of sight. County bird for me.

Peregrine Falcon, Holgate

The temperature was in the mid-40's and there was no wind. No better time to take my semi-annual trek down the beach at Holgate. While I knew I'd see ducks, I was hoping for something like Snow Buntings or even Lapland Longspur. Ipswich Sparrow would have been nice. An odd shorebird perhaps. Nope. I walked two miles in the sand, looking at both the bay and the ocean and my "best" birds were a Peregrine Falcon perched on a dead tree and 13 , which eBird flagged as a high count. I had 3 flying over the dunes and 10 in the parking lot.

By the time I had walked on the new "Clamming Trail" and turned around the weather had changed with clouds rolling in, the temperature dropping and the wind kicking up. I walked on the hard sand down by the water but it was a long winter walk. There will have be some special bird before I go there again this winter. Next time I go will be in early September, just after the area reopens hoping to find some of the birds that breed there lingering.

So, to sum up: 3 rarities, 6 year birds, 9 county birds, 2 county lifers, 1 state lifer, 1 USA lifer and a lot of cardio.

Barnegat CBC 1/5

Mike & I did the Manahawkin section of the Barnegat Christmas Bird Count on Sunday, the last day of the long Christmas count season. We were birding well before dawn and kept at it for 12 hours. Our section includes the Manahawkin WMA, The Bridge to Nowhere & Beach Avenue sections of Forsythe, north to Taylor Lane in Barnegat, west to the Southern Regional School section and South to the bay and Manahawkin Lake. This year we also included the Oxycocus Bog, a little know section of Forsythe. Though it sounds like an opoid, Oxycocus is Latin for Cranberry, spelled wrong--there should be double 'c' at the end, but that's how it's spelled 'round here.

The predawn birding was a little disappointing. Wind was an obstacle both to hearing birds and for the birds themselves to be calling. We did manage to hear an Eastern Screech-Owl on Stafford Avenue on the edge of the WMA and we flushed an American Woodcock on Beach Avenue, but no other owl were in evidence, nor was the Sedge Wren we sometimes get.

I like doing the count for selfish reasons--because it is early in the new year, it gives a kick start to me county list. This count I added 27 county birds, none of them particularly difficult birds, though hearing a Red-shouldered Hawk in the WMA was a happy event. Would have been happier if we were able to track it down. Of the 27 county birds, 13 also qualified as year birds.

Because it is the Christmas Count, we had special permission to walk in parts of the Forsythe area normally closed, so we walked all the way out on Beach Avenue to where the AT&T building used to be, a good mile or more on busted up asphalt. We tallied plenty of ducks, geese, hundreds of robins, and the first of our eagles and Peregrine Falcons. In another section off Beach Avenue there was a rudimentary path which we explored. A couple of hundred feet in we found this:
It reminded me of a place I used to bird in Brooklyn, the Salt Marsh Nature Center, which was full of abandoned, burnt out junk heaps. Great place to bird though. At least in a marsh you can figure out how they got the cars in there--drive like hell on the mud until it won't go no more.

But here was a sports car in the middle of the woods. Lots of trees to maneuver around. Then it occurred to us that this wasn't always woods. There was a nearby derelict building. We figured it used to be fields and the trees had grown up around the car. It looks, to my eye, sort of a like a 50's sports car.

Our northernmost section, Taylor Lane, only produced a Hermit Thrush along with more robins. The Oxycocus Bog had lots of tweety birds and on a lawn across the street 3 species of icterids.

We checked out Ocean Acres Country Club and in the little pond off 72 found a few good ducks--our only wigeons and Ring-necked Ducks for the day. We kept returning to Stafford and Beach Avenues, adding one or two species to the list and adding to our over all counts. It is a Christmas Bird Count, after all.

By the end of the day we had 59 species in our section. I have to say I was getting pretty sick of Beach Avenue by then. Because of the wind, a lot of birds stay hunkered down, so we missed some easy ones like goldfinch and pigeon (!). Had it not been for the continuing wind and general exhaustion, it might have paid to linger on Stafford in the hopes of a Short-eared Owl or to hear a Great Horned Owl, but our last birds of the day was a large flock of blackbirds coming into the marsh to roost and with that, we ended our count.

Monmouth County 1/3--Trumpeter Swan, Eurasian Wigeon

Ash-throated Flycatcher, Sandy Hook
Photo: Mike Mandracchia

Snow Goose

And lots of year birds on Day 3 of 2020. Because the forecast was for intermittent lousy, Mike and I decided to try to check off as many of the rarities currently in Monmouth County as we could. We did pretty well, starting at Sandy Hook, where Mike still needed the Ash-throated Flycatcher that has been there since late last year. Not only was it a year bird for him, but a state bird as well. Unlike New Year's Day when 34 people tromping around its area made the bird elusive, today we found the bird almost immediately. I was about to turn onto the Coal Road behind the lighthouse when Mike spotted the bird on the other side of the road. Living up to its reputation, it was active, but we managed some very good looks at it and Mike managed the photo above.
Also in the area was our year Hermit Thrush, which we first heard then tracked down by following the kissing call it made.

Probably the second most interesting bird today at The Hook was a Snow Goose mixed in with a big flock of Canada Geese on the field near the old Sandy Hook Bird Observatory building. In south Jersey you'll see thousands of Snow Geese this time of year, Mike did at Brig on the first, but the farther north you go, the fewer you find which is why eBird lists the species as "Infrequently Reported" on the peninsula.

We made a stop at Lake Takanassee looking for either the Cackling Goose or Barnacle Goose which have been in the area but struck out there; the Cackler turned out to be a few blocks south but we were long gone by the time we saw the report.

We stopped at some the North Shore "lakes", where I am slightly ashamed to admit we added Muscovy Duck to our year list at Fletcher Lake in Ocean Grove. I normally wouldn't count these ducks which have made their home at this artificial pond but since I have seen them with ducklings in the warm weather I can rationalize it that they are breeding there. The population certainly isn't spreading, but it does seem stable.

Then it was on to the Shark River where, once again, a Eurasian Wigeon has taken up residence. The preferred vantage point is the parking lot of gas station, but I don't feel comfortable setting up optics on private, commercial property, so we looked for it from the edge of MacLearie Park and Mike found it, again pretty quickly, standing on the narrow beach, surrounded by Brant. Good; now unless one shows up in Ocean County, that's another bird I don't have to think about for 363 days.

We then headed west to Assunspink--Stone Tavern Lake to be exact--in order to tick off Trumpeter Swan, another annual visitor. Whether these are the same swans that appear every year, or the habitat is just attractive to the species is hard to say (probably the former), but they are reliable and, being big, real easy to find. Other year birds on the lake were Ring-necked Ducks and Common Mergansers, giving us the merganser trifecta for the day. It is fortunate that those swans are big, because in the gloaming, visibility was getting difficult.

For the day we had 59 species. I added 20 species to the year list, ranging from the mundane (European Starling, Mute Swan) to some favorite species (Cedar Waxwing at Sandy Hook, Belted Kingfisher at Lake Tak).

Bamber Lake 1/2--Common Goldeneye

Common Goldeneye, hen

Because the sound of a vacuum cleaner sends me into fits, I didn't want to be home during our fortnightly house-cleaning, so, reading that a Common Goldeneye had been spotted at nearby Bamber Lake, I drove down there. Goldeneyes are not rarities, but they are hardly common on the lakes and ponds around here. Usually, I have to stop off at one of two spots in Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island to find them and usually it is cold and windy and I'm tired from walking the beach at Barnegat Light, so getting one on the list early and so close to home made me happy. I also figured I'd get some other waterfowl on the county list, but aside from a couple of Tundra Swans (there is usually a flock here), two Buffleheads, and a pair of Pied-billed Grebes, the lake was a watery bird desert. Not even Canada Geese were on it. 

It's been a slow start for the county list--I'm up to 25. I took my walk in the Whiting WMA this morning because the car was in the shop. The only bird back there that isn't an expected denizen of our backyard was Golden-crowned Kinglet. Golden. I detect a theme for the day.