Island Beach SP 4/9--Glossy Ibis, White-eyed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo

I made my first trip of the year to Island Beach SP today. Through the spring, I'm going to try to get there at least once a week. Try. I stuck strictly to the bayside today, starting on Reed's Road, which is a muddy mess. I didn't really expect to find much there since it is too early for a migration push but there is an unwritten law that you must walk it. I was right in my expectations, but there was an impressive fight of Northern Flickers, especially going over the bowl, so that species seems to be on the move.  

Brown Thrasher, Spizzle Creek

Instead of methodically working my way south, I drove down directly to Spizzle Creek which has the most varied habitat of all the trails--marsh, the bay, a tree-lined entrance path. It was on that path that I heard a Brown Thrasher (county bird) and while I was looking for it, I felt a shadow pass above me. Looking up, I saw a flock of 18 Glossy Ibis flying northeast. Year bird, and the species I figured I'd find at Spizzle, it being the best spot for waders. Too bad I couldn't get a picture of them. I eventually found the thrasher atop a tree--a good rule of thumb when looking for thrashers or mockingbirds it always to look at the highest point around. In Brooklyn, the tops of TV antennas (remember those?) were always a good spot to find the singing bird. 

Spizzle Creek has what I think is the largest concentration of Ospreys in the state and it seem every nest platform was already occupied. Herons and egrets were out in the flooded marsh, which was coming up to and in places overrunning the fairly new boardwalk to the blind, which was completely surrounded by water. 

Then I started to work my way back north. A walk along Johnnie Allen's Cove trail added Dunlins and Black-bellied Plovers to the day list. They kayak access trail was dead. The next trail, about 3 miles north, was the Tidal Pool trail. As soon as I stepped onto it I could see there was a lot of activity, most of which turned out to be Yellow-rumped Warblers. However, I did hear and record my first White-eyed Vireo of the year, and then a little later on saw a Red-eyed Vireo. Both of these birds were flagged "rare" but another a week or so will eliminate that appellation.  

While I there I met Steve coming up the path. Hadn't seen him in a while. Cedar Waxwings flew above us. I asked him if there was anything at the marina which is just north and west of the park's entrance, and he said "only" Forster's Terns. But I needed Forster's Terns for the state and county (saw them in Delaware in last month). So, my last stop was the marina where there were 14 of the terns roosted at the far end of a pier. I examined each to see if one was a Roseate Tern  (it was around this time last year that one was at the spot) but they were all the same species. 

Forster's Terns, IBSP Marina

Five trails and one marina yielded 55 species 3 year birds, 1 state bird, 2 county birds. I'm sure a look at the ocean side would have added more ducks and perhaps gannets, but there didn't seem a compelling reason to over to that side today. 

Brant
Mute Swan
Mallard
American Black Duck
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Greater Scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Horned Grebe
Mourning Dove
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Dunlin
Laughing Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Forster's Tern
Common Loon
Double-crested Cormorant
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Glossy Ibis
Osprey
Belted Kingfisher
Northern Flicker
Peregrine Falcon
Eastern Phoebe
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Carolina Wren
Brown Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal

Mathis Veteran's Memorial Park 4/4--Laughing Gull

There use to be an informal contest among Jersey birders to see who could find the first Laughing Gull of the year. I think Pete Bacinski started it; at least he was the one who seemed to keep track of it. If that contest was still going on today, I would finish a miserable last. Laughing Gull shouldn't be an elusive bird, yet, despite a number of trips to the shore, not to mention Wawa parking lots, I actually had to seek them out today as if they were a rarity. 

After a walk at Double Trouble SP this morning, I drove to the nearest spot where I thought they would be likely and that wouldn't be under water after 3 days of rain--Mathis Veteran's Memorial Park in what I think is Beachwood. This little park fronts onto the Toms River where it gets very wide before entering Barnegat Bay. Sure enough, lining the concrete edge of the parking lot were 35 or 40 Laughing Gulls. Put 'em on the list. 

Embarrassing. 

Not to anthropomorphise, but I think this bird is sneering at me.

March Recap--Brink of Disaster Edition

Eastern Bluebird, backyard

 Considering how close I came to catastrophe this month, I'm rather pleased with its results. One minute I was looking at Killdeer in a drawn down bog, the next minute my car was practically in the bog, reaffirming my core belief that you are always that one minute from disaster. Around that unfortunate incident I got in some good birding in Delaware and New Jersey, finding some of my favorites (American Avocet, Sandhill Crane, Brown-headed Nuthatch, all in Delaware) and adding 21 birds to the year list. All the additions have been previously documented save for the Red-breasted Nuthatch on the list. That was a happy find at Reeves Bogs, where I was forced, due to flooding, to walk a long distance on Cooper Road in the woods, where I not only heard the RB Nut but saw it climbing down a pine along with a couple of its white-breasted cousins. In Burlco, at that time, it was flagged as rare. 

Our feeders have been entertaining this month, hosting so many Pine Siskins that sometimes they can't all fit on the feeder and end up grazing in the grass, and quite a few Eastern Bluebirds. Shari, seeing the bluebirds bought mealworms for them, which they seem to snub. The starlings like them, though. 

For the month, 125 species. 

Species             First Sighting
Snow Goose   Whitehall Neck Rd.
Brant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Canada Goose   Colliers Mills WMA
Mute Swan   Sunset Park
Tundra Swan   Whitesbog
Wood Duck   Whitesbog
Blue-winged Teal   Manahawkin WMA
Northern Shoveler   Bombay Hook
Gadwall   Bombay Hook
American Wigeon   Waretown
Mallard   Colliers Mills WMA
American Black Duck   Bayview Ave Park
Northern Pintail   Whitesbog
Green-winged Teal   Bombay Hook
Ring-necked Duck   Colliers Mills WMA
Greater Scaup   Sunset Park
Lesser Scaup   Sunset Park
King Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
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   Sunset Park
Hooded Merganser   Colliers Mills WMA
Common Merganser   Bombay Hook
Red-breasted Merganser   Sunset Park
Ruddy Duck   Sunset Park
Wild Turkey   Bombay Hook
Pied-billed Grebe   Bombay Hook
Horned Grebe   Waretown
Rock Pigeon   Bayview Ave Marina
Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd
American Coot   Lake of the Lilies
Sandhill Crane   Bombay Hook
American Avocet   Bombay Hook
American Oystercatcher   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black-bellied Plover   DuPont Nature Center
Killdeer   Colliers Mills WMA
Piping Plover   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Long-billed Dowitcher   Brig
American Woodcock   Crestwood Community Gardens
Wilson's Snipe   Brig
Greater Yellowlegs   Bombay Hook
Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Dunlin   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Purple Sandpiper   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Bonaparte's Gull   DuPont Nature Center
Ring-billed Gull   DuPont Nature Center
Herring Gull   Sunset Park
Great Black-backed Gull   Sunset Park
Forster's Tern   Prime Hook
Red-throated Loon   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Loon   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Northern Gannet   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black-crowned Night Heron   Point Pleasant Canal
Little Blue Heron   Manahawkin WMA
Tricolored Heron   Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Snowy Egret   Brig
Great Egret   Bombay Hook
Great Blue Heron   Colliers Mills WMA
Black Vulture   Dover
Turkey Vulture   Colliers Mills WMA
Osprey   Bayview Ave Park
Northern Harrier   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Cooper's Hawk   Whitesbog
Bald Eagle   Bombay Hook
Red-shouldered Hawk   Whitesbog
Red-tailed Hawk   Colliers Mills WMA
Short-eared Owl   Bombay Hook
Belted Kingfisher   Whitesbog
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Whitesbog
Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Downy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Hairy Woodpecker   Whitesbog
Northern Flicker   Whitesbog
American Kestrel   Milford
Peregrine Falcon   Cedar Bonnet Island
Eastern Phoebe   Whitesbog
Blue Jay   Colliers Mills WMA
American Crow   Colliers Mills WMA
Fish Crow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Raven   Colliers Mills WMA
Carolina Chickadee   Colliers Mills WMA
Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd
Horned Lark   Whitehall Neck Rd.
Tree Swallow   Bombay Hook
Purple Martin   Brig
Golden-crowned Kinglet   Whitesbog
White-breasted Nuthatch   Colliers Mills WMA
Brown-headed Nuthatch   Prime Hook
Red-breasted Nuthatch   Reeves Bogs
Brown Creeper   Colliers Mills WMA
Carolina Wren   35 Sunset Rd
European Starling   Colliers Mills WMA
Gray Catbird   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Brown Thrasher   Brig
Northern Mockingbird   Colliers Mills WMA
Eastern Bluebird   Colliers Mills WMA
Hermit Thrush   Colliers Mills WMA
American Robin   35 Sunset Rd
Cedar Waxwing   35 Sunset Rd
House Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
House Finch   35 Sunset Rd
Pine Siskin   35 Sunset Rd
American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd
Chipping Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd
Field Sparrow   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Fox Sparrow   Prime Hook
Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd
White-throated Sparrow   Crestwood Community Gardens
Savannah Sparrow   Cranberry Bogs
Song Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA
Swamp Sparrow   Whitesbog
Eastern Towhee   Bombay Hook
Red-winged Blackbird   Colliers Mills WMA
Brown-headed Cowbird   Colliers Mills WMA
Common Grackle   Colliers Mills WMA
Boat-tailed Grackle   Bayview Ave Park
Pine Warbler   Whitesbog
Yellow-rumped Warbler   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Cardinal   Colliers Mills WMA

Killdeer, Lake of the Lilies

Brig 3/31--Long-billed Dowitcher, Wilson's Snipe, Snowy Egret, Purple Martin, Brown Thrasher

Snowy Egret

Easter, a rare Sunday off for Shari, and we headed down to Brig to see what shorebirds had come in and what ducks remained. The Gull Pond was the hot spot today. Yesterday, a Ruff had been sighted there, so naturally, thousands of dollars of optics were set up there, with 7 or 8 birders on the observation tower. I'm not a fan of the observation towers--I don't like being in crowded places where I can't look into my scope (if I even have room to set up my scope) because every movement by someone shakes the eye piece so that the distant little bird in the shimmer is even more impossible to see. Thanks, I'll find other ways to frustrate myself. 

Long-billed Dowitchers

Anyway, no one saw the Ruff today. It is probably somewhere on the refuge and no doubt will turn up tomorrow, in a flock of yellowlegs. But there were other new shorebirds to see--we finally got nice looks at the very large flock of Long-billed Dowitchers that have wintered there. Supposedly rare, there always seem to be LB Dowitchers somewhere in NJ in winter. I counted 22, but they were pretty far away and bunched together--someone else counted 32. I only need one. 

I can't tell you how many times I've gone looking for Wilson's Snipe this year. Actually, I could, I just don't feel like looking it up. This is like using the word "countless" when you just mean "a lot." There are very few things in this universe that are countless--atoms, molecules, grains of sand, the numbers themselves--otherwise, in principle, as the philosophers say, you can count anything. But this has nothing to do with snipe. There were Wilson's Snipe in the Gull Pond, which were fairly easy to see if you were up on the tower--so Shari told me after she climbed up there. But down on the edge of the pond they were much more difficult to find--you had to peer through the phragmites to find the cryptic bird--eventually one appeared in our scope, extremely difficult to make out, with its bill tucked into it feathers, but the "racing stripes" on its back clearly visible. There were five there, so I'm told. I only need one. 

Unexpected bird I should have expected: When we arrived there were Tree Swallows flying around the Visitor's Center and in with their twittering I heard the different "song" of Purple Martins which have returned and were investigating the martin houses in front of the center. I saw three. Probably more. I only need one. 

Out on the Wildlife Drive between markers 4 & 5 we came across a car backing up. We knew the birders in the car so we didn't think they were complete morons as we would strangers--they had heard that back at marker 4 2 Pectoral Sandpipers and a Stilt Sandpiper were being seen. We had obviously overlooked them in the flock of Greater Yellowlegs that we saw there. We weren't about to back up for them. Someone we don't know might think we were complete morons. 

However, at Marker 5 we notched our 4th year bird of the day--a Snowy Egret preening near the channel. After that it was pretty much waterfowl and Ospreys until we got to the upland portion of the trail where about 3/4 of a mile in Shari stopped the car because she thought she heard a vireo. Way too early for that kind of bird, but we listened and at first I thought it might be a chat until we realized that the songs were differing and were repeated twice. A check with Merlin confirmed that we had our first Brown Thrasher of the year, deep in the brush and not willing to show itself. 

5 year birds compensated for a short list of 42:

Canada Goose  150
Mute Swan  9
Northern Shoveler  125
American Black Duck  150
Green-winged Teal  60
Bufflehead  40
Hooded Merganser  3
Red-breasted Merganser  1
Ruddy Duck  25
Mourning Dove  3
Long-billed Dowitcher  22     
Wilson's Snipe  1     
Greater Yellowlegs  25     25+
Ring-billed Gull  2
Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  5
Double-crested Cormorant  20
Snowy Egret  1
Great Egret  9
Great Blue Heron  6
Turkey Vulture  3
Osprey  12
Northern Harrier  1
Bald Eagle  1     3rd year?
Blue Jay  1
Fish Crow  15
Carolina Chickadee  2
Tufted Titmouse  1
Tree Swallow  6
Purple Martin  3
Carolina Wren  2
Brown Thrasher  1     
American Robin  2
House Finch  2
Dark-eyed Junco  2
White-throated Sparrow  8
Song Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  20
Common Grackle  1
Pine Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  3
Northern Cardinal  2

Joe Torg Nature Preserve 3/27--Tricolored Heron

 I knocked around some on LBI today, figuring I'd get out ahead of tomorrow's rain. I decided to stop at the Joe Torg Nature Preserve, which, despite its label in eBird, is in Loveladies (wonderful name) not Harvey Cedars (another wonderful name). I only go there about once a year--it's really a very small parcel of marsh behind the LBI Foundation. There is a rudimentary boardwalk that goes through part of the marsh, but with all the rain we've had of late, part of that boardwalk was submerged under a few inches of water (no problem if you're wearing rubber boots) and there was a gap of no boardwalk about 2/3 of the way out to the new (to me) Osprey blind (big problem), so I wasn't able to bird it as much as I would have liked. 

Just before I left, though, I heard a squawk. It didn't sound like a Great Blue Heron (which I'd seen), so, since looking through the phragmites was impossible, I walked back out onto the boardwalk. There, across the marsh, I saw three Tricolored Herons, which like the Little Blue Heron I saw last week at Manahawkin, are flagged as "rare," but only because of the date. There always seems to be at least one that winters on LBI--it seems like everyone else I know has already seen one. But good to see them, another harbinger of warmer weather. 

On a grimmer note: A couple of weeks ago, when I was at Barnegat Lighthouse SP with Bob Auster, we found a dead Great Black-backed Gull on the edge of the dunes pond. We didn't think much of it at the time; since it showed no signs of being attacked by a raptor, we thought it may have died a natural death, or "ate a bad clam," so to speak. But today, walking around that pond, I found four freshly deceased Great Black-backs. What is going on? I texted Bob and he suggested avian flu. There were no other dead gulls or other birds around, which I thought curious. I posted on Jerseybirds, and indeed, according to a professor of biology, Great Black-backs have been heavily affected by avian flu and many have been found dead with other birds in the vicinity being apparently unaffected.  With those corpses, a Herring Gull with a broken wing and badly limping American Oystercatcher, it was not an especially pleasant walk along the beach today. The Harlequin Ducks and Purple Sandpipers are still hanging in there in big numbers though.

A mere 38 for the morning's walks

Species    First Sighting

Brant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Canada Goose    Cedar Bonnet Island
Mallard    Cedar Bonnet Island
American Black Duck    Cedar Bonnet Island
Common Eider    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Scoter    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Long-tailed Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Bufflehead    Cedar Bonnet Island
Red-breasted Merganser    Cedar Bonnet Island
Mourning Dove    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
American Oystercatcher    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Piping Plover    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Greater Yellowlegs    Cedar Bonnet Island
Dunlin    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Purple Sandpiper    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Herring Gull    Cedar Bonnet Island
Great Black-backed Gull    Cedar Bonnet Island
Common Loon    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Cormorant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Tricolored Heron    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Great Blue Heron    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Osprey    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Northern Harrier    Cedar Bonnet Island
Northern Flicker    Cedar Bonnet Island
American Crow    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Fish Crow    Joe Torg Nature Preserve
Carolina Wren    Cedar Bonnet Island
European Starling    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Robin    Cedar Bonnet Island
House Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
White-throated Sparrow    Cedar Bonnet Island
Savannah Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow    Cedar Bonnet Island
Red-winged Blackbird    Cedar Bonnet Island
Boat-tailed Grackle    Cedar Bonnet Island
Northern Cardinal    Cedar Bonnet Island

Manahawkin WMA 3/20--Blue-winged Teal, Little Blue Heron

I took a walk through the Manahawkin WMA--once pheasant season starts the gunfire can get a little distracting. I'd seen on eBird, before it went off-line for 1 1/2 days, that Anonymous Birder (what are you hiding?) had seen a Little Blue Heron there. Flagged as rare. Well, rare for the date, but pretty soon they'll be all over the marshes. Still, something to look for. 

I bird Manahawkin eccentrically, which is why I prefer to do it alone. I park on Stafford, in front of the path, then scope the impoundment on the north from the little hill you have to walk up and over to get in. From there, I could see a good variety of ducks--mostly Green-winged Teal, but mixed in with them, happy surprise, were a few Blue-winged Teal, a duck that had somehow fallen off my radar. After that scan, I hoist the scope on my shoulder and walk the "L" the trail makes between the impoundments facing Stafford and then the one in the back. After getting to the end of the back impoundment, I turn around, still stopping to scope every now and again, cursing all along the tendency of the ducks to always hug up against the far shore, then ditch the scope in the car and walk back with only binoculars, following the trails back to the parking lot off Hilliard, which, after you make a right at the back impoundment, is mostly upland forest. If you've been following the arithmetic here, that give me four looks at the impoundments. I needed only the third one before I found the Little Blue. 

Just before I reached the back impoundment, the Little Blue flew by me and landed in the marsh on tussock. I doubled back and took some backlit photos. It then picked up and flew to the edge of the marsh, then jumped up when it saw me and flew into the back impoundment, where I was able to get better pictures--i.e. they weren't silhouettes. It flew off again, back into the marsh, only to fly back and land in the branches of leafless, probably dead, tree. After that back into the impoundment and I never saw it again as it was probably hidden in the phragmites with all kinds of cool waders that weren't about to show themselves. Two year birds and no shotguns booming--a successful morning. 

30 species for the day:

Canada Goose  2
Mute Swan  5
Blue-winged Teal  4     
Gadwall  15
Mallard  5
American Black Duck  25
Northern Pintail  3     
Green-winged Teal  48
Bufflehead  4
Hooded Merganser  4
Mourning Dove  1
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  5
Little Blue Heron  1     
Great Blue Heron  3
Turkey Vulture  1
Northern Harrier  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  2
Blue Jay  1
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tufted Titmouse  3
Tree Swallow  4
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Carolina Wren  2
American Robin  1
Song Sparrow  5
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Pine Warbler  1

LBI 3/16--King Eider, Piping Plover, Osprey

I met my buddy Bob Auster at Barnegat Lighthouse SP this morning for some late-winter birding. We were especially interested in finding one of the long-staying King Eiders. Whenever either of us has been there this year, the seas have been too rough to find any rarities riding the troughs of the waves. Fortunately, today the water seemed calmer when started walking along (not on) the jetty, but the swells got impressive when got to the mouth of the inlet. Off the end of the north jetty (Island Beach SP) there was a flock of Common Eiders, and in amongst them we could, fleetingly, find a smaller, browner duck with a rounder head, and shorter bill without as much slope to it as a Common Eider. Since we were both finding the bird independently of each other, we were confident in our identification as a (oxymoron alert) hen King. 

Piping Plover

Just before we had climbed onto the jetty, we had seen our first Piping Plover of the year nestled down in the sand, practically invisible among the broken shells. We'd probably have overlooked it had not another birder brought it to our attention. These threatened shorebirds are just adorable, though apparently not adorable enough that they don't need constant protection provided by beach monitors and cordoned off areas that piss off people who think it is their constitutional right to either have their dogs run wild on the sand or to drive their vehicles along the beach. I remember that once a big-time ad executive who had a house on Long Island threw a hissy fit because he couldn't shoot off fireworks on the beach in front of his house since the plovers had scratched out their nests there.  Too effin bad, sez I. 

We found most of the expected birds there, though not in great numbers--only a few Purple Sandpipers when a couple of weeks ago we had close to 150; probably about half the number of Long-tailed Ducks than our previous visit. There were a good number of Harlequin Ducks still around, though it was hard to get good looks at them as most of them were bobbing in the breakers at the end of the old 8th Street jetty. They and the Purple Sandpipers will be gone soon. And now that I've ticked my Piping Plover, unless something exceptional shows up, there is no compelling reason to go there for the rest of the year (though I'm certain I will). 

After lunch and a walk along the concrete walkway where we got some good looks at molting Common Loons, we headed south, making stops at the usual spots. We were hoping for the Tricolored Heron that had been seen earlier in the week at the Bayview Marina, but dipped on that one--Tricolors are more important to Bob, who lives in Somerset County, than to me--they're an easy bird for me compared to the driving he has to do to get one.

Bye-bye Osprey

Another mile south and we came to the Bayview Avenue Park, where in the past we've seen Tricolors. Dipped again on that, but we did see our FOY Osprey sitting on a platform. Of the raptors that I don't care about, Osprey heads the list--they and eagles are too charismatic for me to care about but I traditionally take one picture of the first one I see, which should stand in for the billion pictures of Ospreys that will be taken this year--which will look like the billion pictures taken last year, which will look like the billions upon billions of pictures taken in all the previous years since photography was invented--but the bird flew off just as I raised my camera.  Bob cracked up. Ain't that the way? 

Our last stop was Harvey Cedars--Sunset Park, the winter goldeneye spot, but they seem to have left already. The oddest bird we saw today was Surf Scoter drake in the cove. Very odd to find a "skunk-head" in the bay instead of the surf. It was definitely a patch bird for me. 

For the day I tallied 52 species--the Peregrine Falcon was sitting on the hacking tower on Cedar Bonnet Island--I caught a look at it as I drove over the causeway. It isn't distracted driving; it's distracted birding. 

Species    Location
Brant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Canada Goose    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Mute Swan    Sunset Park
Mallard    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Black Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Greater Scaup    Sunset Park
Lesser Scaup    Bayview Ave Park
King Eider    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Eider    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Surf Scoter    Sunset Park
Black Scoter    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Long-tailed Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Bufflehead    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Red-breasted Merganser    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Mourning Dove    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Oystercatcher    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Killdeer    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Piping Plover    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Ruddy Turnstone    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Purple Sandpiper    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Herring Gull    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Black-backed Gull    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Red-throated Loon    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Loon    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Northern Gannet    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Cormorant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Great Blue Heron    Bayview Ave Marina
Osprey    Bayview Ave Park
Northern Flicker    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Peregrine Falcon    Cedar Bonnet Island
Blue Jay    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Crow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Fish Crow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Common Raven    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Carolina Chickadee    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Carolina Wren    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
European Starling    Sunset Park
Northern Mockingbird    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Hermit Thrush    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Robin    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
House Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
House Finch    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
White-throated Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Song Sparrow    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Red-winged Blackbird    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Brown-headed Cowbird    Sunset Park