Having completed a quick stop in Charlotte to pick up a clean bill of health from the dentist and, after picking up some common winter birds for the area including Red-headed Woodpecker, Pine Warbler and White-throated Sparrow, we made a beeline past the D.C. swamp to the New Jersey coast near Atlantic City.
It was a balmy 31 degrees when we arrived late morning at the Barnegat Lighthouse in search of maritime species that winter on the mid-Atlantic coast. The late afternoon was spent at the Edwin Forsythe Wildlife Refuge formerly known as Brigantine... a much better name in my opinion. We pretty much checked every box on the list with 21 new species observed for the year.
Among the ducks observed were the showy Long-tailed Duck...
The Harlequin Duck...
And, the Surf Scoter.
This American Pipit would have been new for the year had I not seen it in South Texas two weeks ago. Some birds have limited ranges, some don't.
I managed my best look to date of the very skittish Snow Bunting.
Northern Harriers making their lonely, late afternoon sorties over the grasses are a fairly common site in large marshes like Brigantine.
It was raining clams at Brigantine as numerous American Herring Gulls were pulling clams from the tidal muck and dropping them on the dirt road upon which we were travelling. Apparently, dropping the clams onto the road from 40 or 50 feet in the air helps open them up for the gulls. Telling the insurance agent, "Well, my car got hit by a clam..." would probably be the acme of foolishness.
With the YTD count standing at 215 and most of our New Jersey target list complete, we head south tomorrow to the Outer Banks with a couple of stops on the Delmarva peninsula to search for Red-necked Loons and Common Goldeneyes.
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