Long Branch, Sandy Hook, Meadowlands, Alpha

A promising start to the day was seeing both the Red Crossbills and the White-winged Crossbills in Long Branch and taking more photos of them. After that the success rate went rapidly down hill.

Long Branch is not that far from Sandy Hook, so I went there to look at water birds. Both the ocean and the bay were relatively quiet, although there were certainly sea ducks moving around well out in the heat haze. Closer to shore it was deathly quiet, save one Black Scoter, a distant small flock of White-winged Scoter, and very little else. A few Horned Larks on the beach. On the bay side there were Red-breasted Merganser, Brant, Bufflehead and American Black Duck. What was notable, given the heavy snow cover, were flocks of American Robins feeding - I assume out of desperation - on the mudflats exposed by the tide.

Off I went, headed west towards the Meadowlands, site of Rough-legged Hawks after the hard weather pushed them south. I think you know where this is going - I saw Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawks, and one probable young Red-shouldered Hawk, but no Rough-legged, despite walking along the road for a while to scope thoroughly. I did see a few American Tree Sparrow, which were at least new for the year.

So finally I decided to make a sprint west along I-78 toward Alpha and the grasslands there, getting there not all that long before sundown. The snow cover there was extensive and the birds were being forced to the side of the road, including Horned Lark and Savannah Sparrows. However no Snow Buntings, Lapland Longspurs or the elusive Rough-legged Hawks were found.

Some days it works like this.

North Shore Crossbills

Even though I eschewed a pelagic trip in 10-20 degree weather I did manage to motivate myself to get out in relatively sunny but frigid conditions to go find the crossbills reported in Seven President's Park in Long Branch. Easy enough task, since birders had already found them. There were three White-winged Crossbills and two Red Crossbills but they were grouped by species at opposite ends of the park. Both spent some time on the ground either eating snow or foraging amongst the fallen pine cones (just the White-winged) in addition to spending time in the pines that in the park. I haven't seen either in NJ that frequently, so this was a nice way to get myself frozen of a morning (it was breezy in the 20's).

While thawing from that experience I went down to the Manasquan River inlet on the Point Pleasant side - I'd been told that Shark River inlet was very quiet, and a very brief stop at the Roosevelt Ave sea overlook in Deal yielded only a few loons, Great Cormorant and Bufflehead. Point Pleasant was similarly quiet - Common and a few probable Red-throated Loons, a Horned Grebe, a mixed flock of Dunlin and Purple Sandpipers and a single male White-winged Scoter. Since Scoters are gregarious in NJ in winter I wondered if this was a sick/injured bird. Either way there was so little visible on the water within identifiable range that I got out of there before I started to even get really cold.

Pink-footed and Barnacle Geese in Montauk (NY)

After the Masked and Muscovy Ducks in Texas in November 2007, it seemed only natural to do another crazed road trip to go find the the Pink-footed and Barnacle Geese at the Deep Hollow Ranch in Theodore Roosevelt State Park in Montauk (NY). I saw the Barnacle Goose in the first 30 seconds, but the Pink-footed Goose took more effort - the reward for hiking the trail up the east side of the pasture was that I ran into 25 Red Crossbills in a mobile and vocal flock, and TWO Western Kingbirds perched together on a wire at the northern end of the pasture. The day was remarkably balmy. Both geese were ultimately quite cooperative. There are more pictures at PFGU_2007.html. These were the first Western Kingbirds I've seen in NY state, although they are an annual vagrant - I just haven't ever bothered to "chase" them. I still remain cynical about Barnacle Geese on Long Island, although it's telling that there's another Barnacle Goose at Cape May right now. In a bit of inconsistency, Pink-footed Goose is in my USA list from the PA bird in 2005, but Barnacle Goose is still not included and I really don't want to make it USA #600.