Winter Birding down the Shore

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I saw way more birds on Christmas Day than you get if you sing the Twelve Days of Christmas song. Well over a thousand Snow Geese, though they were not a-laying.

I have been a bit of a homebody after our Thanksgiving road trip to Louisiana, but after the urging of James Freitas, who shared his favorite waterfowl at Rock & Hawk, I decided to make a short trip to the Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge on the New Jersey Shore. It’s one of the few birding hotspots in the state, according to Cornell University’s eBird tracker. Over three hundred species are seen there every year.

Last year, I was greeted by a juvenile Bald Eagle carrying a meal. This year, I was greeted by an adult as it swooped over the 8 mile driving trail around the bay and its lagoons. Not long after, I saw a Red-Shouldered Hawk scouring the marshes for a meal:

The driving path is almost like one of those car safari parks once popular in the United States. Even without a good pair of binoculars or a camera, there’s always a show close to shore. I’ve seen Buffleheads, Northern Shoveler ducks, Pintails, and Great Blue Herons every time I’ve visited, and this trip was no exception. I counted at least eight herons, five of them posed together in a V formation as they hunted, surrounded by a swarm of Dunlin:

The Dunlin were a new Lifer for me. They hunted the sands, pulling out worms. There was a carcass of a large bird behind them, that I could not identify. Thinking Canada Goose, of which there were some hanging around, among the Brants and Snow Geese.

Dunlin

Northern Shovelers and Pintails are big beautiful dabblers, dunking to eat underwater flora. The big searing eye of the Shoveler and its distinct beak, plus its handsome plumage, make it easy to spot and enjoy. The Pintail is a bit more debonair with its tweed coat and twirled handlebar mustache of a tail feather. The sixth photo is a lone American Widgeon, another lifer for me. I think I’ve seen them before, but this was the first time I could identify them from a photo.

There were also hundreds of Herring and Ring-billed Gulls, some riding the waves with the bouncing Buffleheads, who disappear and then pop-up like rubber duckies in a bathtub. They’re hard not to like, but difficult to photograph well because of their stark black and white feathers; either there’s too much sun and the white is blown out, or not enough, and the black feathers turn drab. I think these come out decently well; the Brant geese have a similar issue.

It was cloudy when I arrived, but by the time I had made it halfway around the trail, the sun broke through and the waves turned sparkly. I had stepped out of the car to observe some shy Black Ducks, when an enormous flock of Snow Geese landed on the sunnier side of the lagoon, honking as they came.

I found Greylag geese in London to be the most handsome goose species, but Snow Geese in numbers are something to behold.

American Black Ducks have been elusive for me, so I spent some time photographing the few I saw here.

There were a few Red-breasted Mergansers about, but the Hooded Mergansers found a more private lagoon to be by themselves. I also saw my first Killdeer since I started birding! Merlin used to misidentify so many calls as these, but this was the first I’ve seen close enough to identify. And on the way out, I heard a Red-bellied Woodpecker and stopped to watch it scold me as it climbed up a tree and played peekaboo from behind it. They’re everywhere here, especially in winter, and I never want to take them for granted.

Wishing you all a happy new year!