Barnegat

Since I worked Sunday I went down to Barnegat Inlet/Light on Monday morning to make a late season look for sea ducks etc.  I got there when the tide was still very high and waves crashing over the breakwater from a pretty significant swell, so I made most of the hike to the ocean along the beach.  I discovered a new saltwater channel leading from the breakwater towards the phragmites and evergreen area in the dunes, as a result of winter storms.  An Eastern Phoebe was hunting amongst the pines near the lighthouse and a male Boat-tailed Grackle was singing at the bait shop.  As is typical for March a lot of gulls have paired up and many adults are in near-breeding plumage.

As expected Long-tailed Ducks were the most numerous and vocal, with courtship in full swing although only a few showed signs of being paired.  Harlequin Ducks were also chasing each other around and with the strong current pushing in off the ocean toward the bay, they were easily found at the end of the concrete walkway - normally they're further out.  The Red-breasted Mergansers were far less interested in pairing up, at least at this juncture.  Many Common Loons were present, most showing some signs of pre-alternate molt, and one bird that was most of the way to full breeding plumage.  Only 3 Red-throated Loons were seen.  Great Cormorants were perched on the structure at the end of the north jetty with one hunting along the inlet but they tend to avoid people wherever possible - one look at me and it headed back up the inlet.  Despite being in the 50's it was still very much a late winter rather than early spring set of water birds.

The Eider flock was still at the beach off the south side of the jetty, but apart from inevitable Long-tailed Ducks other sea ducks were elusive.  In the fog and hazy sunshine some silhouetted Scoters came by offshore in ones and twos and threes, but at that range and lighting they were strictly probable Blacks and Surf Scoters and non-definitive.  A handful of Northern Gannets were the other notable birds out on the ocean.

Since I wasn't walking along the jetty because of crashing waves, I saw only a few shorebirds: a Dunlin and Black-bellied Plover on the beach and a Purple Sandpiper perched up on the jetty staying clear of the waves.

The best action of the day was when a panicked flock of Dunlin shot past the jetty, pursued by a Peregrine which I watched pick off one Dunlin in mid-air just by flying it down rather than stooping.  Immediately a slightly larger (presumed female) Peregrine grabbed the Dunlin out of the other's talons - the first Peregrine letting go just before it got too close to the surf.  Then a Great Black-backed Gull pursued the second Peregrine to try and steal the Dunlin from it, ultimately unsuccessfully but a motivated GBB can give a loaded Peregrine a run for its money in flat flight.


Before leaving the barrier island a stop at a bay overlook about a half mile north of the bridge produced a few Horned Grebes and a Scaup sp. flock in the far more sheltered waters of the bay.

Barnegat and Brigantine

The deferred trip to Barnegat happened on Sunday, although in this case I expected the cloud was still going to be a problem, and apart from a short blue sky patch the light was mediocre to poor. There was also a rising strong southerly wind that buffeted me on the end of the jetty. Not ideal conditions but the jetty itself was almost ice-free.

There was a small freighter moving up and down the inlet, apparently part of some dredging operation. This spooked many birds out of the inlet and might explain why I saw no loons whatsoever on this trip. Other regulars: Long-tailed Duck, Red-breasted Merganser, were in relatively low numbers. The usual star of this location - the tame Harlequin Ducks - were present in small groups along the jetty, probably up to 20 or so. Shorebirds were few in number - a few Dunlin and Sanderling, but no Ruddy Turnstones or Purple Sandpipers. This might be a factor of the tide, which was very low indeed when I got there and was still low when I left 3 hours later. 30-odd Common Eiders, and 20-30 each of Surf Scoter and Black Scoter were at the mouth of the inlet. There were large (hundreds) flocks of Greater Scaup a flying south a little further out. The scoter flocks appeared to be mostly male, and as luck would have it one or two came in close to the jetty - at one point a mixed flock of 2 adult male Surf, 2 immature male Surf, 1 female Surf and 2 adult male Black Scoters. I don't normally get to see Scoters that close, and the only regret was that the light wasn't better for photography.

Add in Great Cormorant, Brant and a Red-breasted Nuthatch at the parking lot of the state park and that's pretty much all the birds of note. Harlequin and Surf Scoter were new for the year.

Then on to Brigantine, where it was partly sunny and so windy the car was getting rather buffeted and dirt was getting blown into the car. The freshwater pool was rather icy but with some open water. The brackish pool was predictably much more open. It was a pretty good day for waterfowl numbers, if perhaps not diversity: American Black Duck, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Snow Goose (large flock), Tundra Swan (20++), Mute Swan, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser. Northern Harrier and Peregrine were the only raptors, but the Peregrine was probably the reason why the large flock (a thousand or two) of Dunlin was rather nervous as it roamed around the brackish impoundment. The tide was so low that the water in the sluices was too low to attract diving ducks. I had a bit of a time crunch so didn't spend as much time at Brig as I normally do, but it was still moderately productive. Peregrine Falcon, Snow Goose and Tundra Swan were new birds for the year.

Another entry in the photographers-as-bozos list: an SUV with PA vanity plates "BIRD PIX" was repeatedly pulling up onto the grassy edge of the drive - which is already more than wide enough to let traffic pass. I guess erosion and habitat damage are less important than getting 2 feet closer to the bird.

Barnegat, Brigantine

Rolling the dice on a traditional NJ coastal route I started at Barnegat Inlet a little after sunup, although more accurately presented as sun-behind-overcast-rise. For a late Xmas present I request a weatherman voodoo doll.

The tide was so high that the breakwater (south side of the inlet, as usual) was surrounded by water on all sides beyond the concrete paved section. This also meant that there was some inundation further along. That didn't make a great deal of difference since with the tide so high not very much was perched on it. I saw fly-by Ruddy Turnstone, Dunlin and Purple Sandpiper. On the walk back down the breakwater from half-way I added Black-bellied Plover. A (presumed) Savannah Sparrow was also hanging out, too far to ID with any certainty but also likely to be an Ipswich ssp.

Large numbers of ducks milled around the ocean side of the inlet - scoters and Eiders and the common Long-tailed Ducks. I got all 3 species of Scoter (Black, Surf, White-winged) and a small group of Eider flying down the inlet on the rising tide. Red-breasted Mergansers periodically flew by. There was a relatively small group of Harlequin Ducks next to the breakwater but the tide was really too high to induce them to perch up. Common and Red-throated Loon were in the inlet. So in fact despite the high tide and unfavorable conditions I managed to find a perfectly typical range of Barnegat species. I left when two duck hunting boats headed out into the inlet. This appears to be a new feature this year, and as far as I can tell not illegal, but rather screws birding here.

Down at the Brigantine division of Forsythe NWR I could also hear shots out in the saltmarsh, but not right next to the impoundments. There was a flock of Snow Geese near start of the drive - normally they are further south and east of this, but I didn't find a Ross's with them - the flock was rather dispersed. Much of the fresh water impoundment was frozen solid - 30+ Tundra Swans and other waterfowl were clustered around the open patch. The southerly salt-water impoundment was about 50% ice free. The tide here was also very high - perhaps as high as I have seen it and much of the saltmarsh was under water. The flocks of Dunlin were resting on ice mats still stuck to the marsh grasses out in the bay. Waterfowl numbers were decent, although mainly American Black Duck, Northern Pintail and Mallard. Hooded Mergansers and Bufflehead were present, as was a nice surprise in a single female Common Merganser near one of the sluices giving good photo ops. Common Mergansers are usually pushed down from the north after hard freezes and it has been a cold December. Passerines were limited to a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds and a few Eastern Meadowlarks

Raptors were not especially numerous but I did have Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Harrier, Peregrine and a Bald Eagle. The eagle was an adult, but the Peregrine showed a small patch of brown on its otherwise slate-gray back, suggesting a first year bird.

I went back to Barnegat on the way back home and found nothing new, although I did watch a cooperative Common Loon hunting crabs near the end of the concrete paved section of the breakwater.

Central Park, Sept 19th

A Saturday morning in the park on a cooler fall day provided some fall migration but nothing spectacular in terms of numbers or more unusual species. Best birds were a skulky Mourning Warbler in Tupelo Meadow and a Peregrine doing acrobatics over the west side at Strawberry Fields.

Peregrine Falcon
Solitary Sandpiper
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Northern Flicker
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Willow Flycatcher
Red-eyed Vireo
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Brown Thrasher
Cedar Waxwing
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Northern Waterthrush
Mourning Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting

Jamaica Bay, August 7th

A quiet day at the south end of the East Pond, where in retrospect the action was all happening at the north end. The shorebirds were very skittish, doubtless because of a Peregrine Falcon that was hunting the pond intermittently. The individuals were nearly all adults (I saw one juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs) although we are reaching the point there the juveniles should start arriving. The greening of the mud at the south end was just starting to happen with short grass present, destined to become thicker (and more heavily cropped by the Canada Geese) in the weeks to come.

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Glossy Ibis
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
American Black Duck
Mallard
Ruddy Duck
Osprey
Peregrine Falcon
Semipalmated Plover
American Oystercatcher
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Gull-billed Tern
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Barn Swallow
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Waterthrush
American Goldfinch

Raptors, raptors everywhere

Saturday was a bad day for prey in Lawrenceville. Despite the overcast I did a last minute wander to Pole Farm. At 4:30pm a Peregrine with prey flew up to the top of a pole along Federal City Rd near the small shopping center. At Pole Farm the Short-eared Owls were already up in the air at 4:30 with dark overcast conditions with little wind. At least four Northern Harriers were around, one or two Red-tailed Hawks) and finally on exiting Pole Farm I saw a Merlin perched in a tree near the entrance.

(I also saw Red-shouldered Hawk there earlier in the week).

Beware the range map

Cornell's site All About Birds is something that I often send people links to when suggesting ID's - I sometimes get "what's this bird" inquiries because of the websites that I run. But two things lately have illustrated that their range maps may be way out of whack.

A discussion on the email list TEXBIRDS about American Black Duck shows that their range map for this birds has it occurring all the way down into the lower RGV. That's nonsense, and there's only a handful of recent records for this species in TX.

Chatting to a friend about her finding a Peregrine Falcon on campus in Illinois led to the discovery of a large variance between Sibley's range map (which seems plausible) and the AAB map which seems to ignore the reintroduction of the Peregrine in the east.

Jamaica Bay, August 16th

I made an early morning trek across the Verrazano Bridge to Jamaica Bay WR in search of shorebirds and some decent photographic opportunities. If anything the water in the East Pond was even higher than on my previous visit, but there was some exposed mud at the south end which is where I started. Shorebird numbers were fairly low, and diversity even lower, with the most novel shorebirds being a single Short-billed Dowitcher and two Spotted Sandpipers. Semipalmated Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plovers, Least Sandpipers and a few Lesser Yellowlegs dominated the activity. I have a lot of photos of those so I gave up early and went to the north end.

Here the water was even higher than on my previous trip - the Sharp-tailed Sandiper one - and the water was up to the edge of the phragmites in most cases. Really quite remarkable conditions for mid-August, when they normally have the pond drawn down. However I was able to pull out a distant Red-necked Phalarope (always a good bird here), a few White-rumped Sandpipers, and two fly-by juvenile Gull-billed Terns. The situation was so odd that I was standing in about 6 inches of water looking at shorebirds and taking photos of White-rumped Sandpipers while looking back toward the phragmites. Thankfully nobody attempted to go past the cove, sparing some exposed mud for roosting and feeding shorebirds. You'd probably sink up to your neck in that section anyway.

Suburban birding

I've been bogged down buying a house (or trying to find one to buy) for much of June and July and not doing much birding. However the apartment complex I'm living in does have an unusually interesting mix of birds at times. It's built adjacent to some sort of state park (apparently closed to the public), near some wet woods and there's a fallow field across the way. So despite being suburban it has a semi-rural aspect to it.

My list of "apartment complex birds" are basically those I've seen and heard from the complex itself.

The best birds in the apartment complex have been American Woodcock singing right next to the parking lot, a Peregrine Falcon harassing a Ring-billed Gull and Bald Eagle. There's also been novelties like Common Merganser (I once picked up a dead female from the apt complex road), Sharp-shinned Hawk and Tree Swallow. There are breeding birds on and around the complex - Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat and Northern Flicker in the wet areas, House Finch and American Goldfinch, the sadly ubiquitous Brown-headed Cowbird and the typical suburban Song Sparrow and Northern Mockingbird. However the more heavily wooded areas near the edge of the complex have also yielded Great Crested Flycatcher and Eastern Phoebe, and in the fields I have heard Field Sparrow and Indigo Bunting - these two species appeared to move in in mid-summer, and were not singing initially in spring.

But the best bird, one that was no more than 300 yards from my apartment, was a bird I didn't actually see myself - a Barnacle Goose was reported from the edge of Quakerbridge Rd on the grassy area beyond the field, in what is a now-abandoned corporate lot. I never did manage to see that goose, which was only found a couple of times, and ironically had to go further afield (Califon, Montauk) to find one.