January 11 - Guillemot at Barnegat

Today involved a longer trip down to the Barnegat Lighthouse to chase a rare NJ species of Black Guillemot.
The last time the bird was at Barnegat was about 10 years ago and I never had the time to go for it, so it was fantastic to finally add this species to my NJ Life List.
The looks were distant across the inlet but we waited long enough for the tide to go slack & for the sun to come out and give us very nice looks.
Across the inlet I could see friend Larry S in his blue hat getting very close photos of the birds from the Island Beach State Park side of the inlet.  Hmm, I bet he even got a ride down the beach in his friend 4WD vehicle !

We had wonderfully close view of the Harlequin Ducks along the seawall here, as well as the 'Queen' Eider (female King Eider), Common Eider is various plumages, along with Northern Gannets, and all three Scoter species, Long-Tailed Ducks, Razorbills, Boat-Tailed Grackles, Great Cormorants, Red-Breasted Mergansers, Purple Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstone, Dunlin, and both Loons.

Here's two of Larry's fine images.  the rest can be seen on his Flick site

On the way home we stopped in Franklin Township for the dozen or so Sandhill Cranes that are still enjoying the corn stubble fields despite the construction of the warehouse !

January 1 - New Year begins

We started out at Jones Beach this morning in hopes of the Snowy Owl, unfortunately we did not see it because it was further to the west at Nickerson Beach.
We did get to see the Painted Bunting again, after seeing it last weekend as well.  Razorbills were seen too.  I was able to get a very distant view of the Black-Headed Gull seen from the Coast Guard Station.
Overall lots of good species were seen even though  we missed out on the Snowy Owl.

December 21 - New York Golden Eagle

Today started with an attempt for Golden Eagle.  This species has been over-wintering annually along the Hudson River and surrounding area for many years now.  One of the most reliable spots for viewing the Golden Eagle is the Storm King State Park parking area on Route 9W North in the town of Cornwall-on-the-Hudson (41.423057, -74.000846).

Fortunately for us we waited just over 30 minutes for the Eagle to make its appearance, which happened shortly after 08:15 am.
I first spotted the bird over a distant saddle and the bird continued coming closer, finally perching on the rock face to the north of the parking area.  This spot offered spectacular views of the Golden Hackles.
We then watched the bord for several minutes as it flew around gaining altitide before flying overhead westerly to the Storm Kink area.

 

December 15 - Bergen County Round-Up

Today's birding was brief but successful. We got the three county targets we were after.  First up was the Greater White-Fronted Goose at Overpeck.

next we stopped in Ridgewood at the Duck Pond for the adult Red-Headed Woodpecker.


Finally we stopped at the Celery Farm to get a look at the Rufous Hummingbird coming to a private feeder.

December 8 - State Rarities Chase Day

Today we went all the way south to chase the rarities in Cape May.  Our first target was the Mountain Bluebird, however we did not see it. Later we found the reason..evidently the Bluebird was predated last evening and all that was left was a file of feathers !

We also made a stop in the Villas to have a look at Harvey's special guest...a Black-Chinned Hummingbird !

Fortune gave us another chance as a male Painted Bunting was reported at a nearby home.  While the bird was not there when we arrived, after a short wait I spotted the bird coming into the feeder:

On our way back north we cut across the state westward and made a stop at Burlington County's Croft Farm.  Here we joined outher birders and quickly relocated the cooperative Le Conte's Sparrow which had been found here last weekend.
This is just the second time I've seen this species, with my last view back in 2009 !

October 6 - Results of California trip

I finally got around to knocking an item off my bucket list !

My CA trip was setup for 2 pelagics, one out of Half Moon Bay, and the other out of Monterey Bay.

Sunday September 29th was the first trip out of Half Moon Bay with Shearwater Journeys. I got to see my most wanted lifer -- South Polar Skua -- so that made the wait all the more worthwhile.  We had several Skuas that day, maybe 6-8, and a couple gave great close looks while the others were distant flybys.
Here's an image of a Skua that came directly over the boat.

 click to enlarge:
credit: Warren Whaley

I also got the expected species of Buller's & Short-Tailed Shearwaters (both lifers), and an unexpected mega (obviously lifer) in the Wedge-Tailed Shearwater !!   The Wedge-Tailed makes up for the miss I had on the Flesh-Footed.
Here is a Buller's Shearwater from the trip.

 click to enlarge
credit: Warren Whaley

I was very happy to see some Tufted Puffins (lifer), even ones with a bit of the alternate plumage tufts !  This means I do not have to return for a Farallons Trip...

  click to enlarge
credit: Warren Whaley

Finally I had two lifers in the Ashy Storm-Petrel and the Black Storm-Petrel.
Here is a Black Storm-Petrel

  click to enlarge
credit: Warren Whaley

I did get an upgrade on the Sabine's, but the alternate plumaged ones were too far away to see that yellow-tip. Oh well, that one will have to wait, I guess.

   click to enlarge

credit: Warren Whaley

I had only seen one LT Jaeger (in NJ) before so seeing a few out there in CA were big upgrades too. 

Surfbird was also a big upgrade as I had only seen one before, way back in 2004, and it was far away.  Seeing dozens from shore was great !!  And I had seen Black-Footed Albatross on a San Diego pelagic in 2010, so seeing another half-dozen on this trip was great but did not give me a new tick !

  click to enlarge
 credit: Warren Whaley

So, 7 lifers on the first pelagic was worth the costs & the wait.

The following weekend on Saturday, October 5th  I went out of Monterey Bay but did not get any lifers.  While I saw many of the same species as Half Moon Bay, I only had better looks at some species, and worse looks at others.  Yet it was still worth the second pelagic trip.

click to enlarge
credit: Ryan F Mandelbaum

click to enlarge 
credit: Ryan F Mandelbaum

I did some brief land birding and got 3 more lifers.
I easily got the Chestnut-Backked Chickadees, and a few Pacific Wrens too.  Both of these were expected.  

I then put in some early morning efforts to get the Marbled Murrelets so I was very, very happy about that.

credit: Slatremuseum.blogspot.com

My goal for this trip was 10 lifers, simply because we're at the point now where there really is no places that we can go and reach double-digit lifers.  Everything now will be onesies or  twosies, and a very good trip would yield around four life birds.

So it was great to reach that goal, and to finally enjoy the results of all my years of wintertime reading, and research, and dreaming, about these Northern California pelagics.  I guess my next goal is to return one future day and do a pelagic out of Bodega Bay or other points farther north to get a few more species I really want (Fork-Tailed Storm-Petrel, Horned Puffin etc) but that will have to wait awhile. And I may be better of going really north to places like Oregon or Seattle to guarantee these species.

Overall my trip list was just under 115 species, which is good but typically I would get about 140-150 if I had spent more time land birding.

Recap:

Lifers

South Polar Skua

Buller's SW

Short-Tailed SW

Wedge-Tailed SW

Tufted Puffin

Ashy Storm-Petrel

Black Storm-Petrel

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

Pacific Wren

Marbled Murrelet

Upgrades and good birds

Surfbird

Sabine's Gull

LT Jaeger plus the other two Jaegers

Black Turnstones & Oystercatchers

both Clarks and Western

Rhino & Cassin's Auklets

Fulmars (I've never seen one in NJ yet !)

Golden-Crowned Sparrows

Band-Tailed Pigeons

Nuttalls WP

Wandering Tattlers

Townsend's Warbler

For the numbers, this trip puts me at 667 for Lower 48/Continental US.

If I include Hawaii , I'm now at 693.

I guess I gotta start thinking about how to get 7 more lifers as my next birding milestone !!

May 4 - Wilson's Plover in New Jersey !

Yesterday afternoon a NJ-rarity was reported but I could not leave work to try for it.  This morning while driving toward Garret it was very foggy so I made a literal last-second decision to veer onto Route 287 south toward Sea Bright where the Wilson's Plover has been seen.
I arrived just before 6:30 to find that Marc C. and Bob D. had already arrived and not found the bird. The pair walked north just outside the Piping Plover enclosure, as other birders of Bob A. and Peter K. also arrived to look for the Wilson's.
After 30 minutes or so Marc & Bob D. left, and shortly thereafter so did Bob A.   The weather started clearing so I began walking north in hopes of spotting the Wilson's. After about 200 yards I scoped farther north on maximum zoom and saw what appeared to be a dark-backed plover laying in the sand.  I walked another 100 yards north and scoped again, this time I could be certain the bird was indeed the Wilson's Plover. I turned around to alert the other birders yet they had all left already !
I continued walking another 150-200 yards north, stopping intermittently to scope the bird again and confirm it was the Wilson's.
The Wilson's Plover is NJ Bird # 393 for me.

click to enlarge

Other species seen here today were  Piping Plovers, Sanderling, Oystercatchers, Willet, Spotted Sandpiper, Gannet, Common and Least Terns, and a Merlin that took a Barn Swallow while in flight !