A Great Start to 2015

     On January 1st, 2015, my mom, little brother, aunt, and I all went to two of my favorite birding places in New Jersey:  Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, and Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.  We started out at Barnegat Lighthouse State Park.  When we got on the jetty, I was a little nervous that birding was going to be slow that day because all I saw were gulls.  However, things started picking up a little bit about 30 yards down the jetty when my mom spotted a Herring Gull with a Starfish in its mouth.  Another 20 yards down the jetty we finally started to see ducks.  The first duck we saw was a Harlequin Duck which soon led us to more Harlequin Ducks.  We then stated to see Black Scoters, a couple Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Loons, and a few Long-tailed Ducks.  Even though we had already seen many great birds, the highlight of the trip didn't come until we got to the end of the jetty.  There we saw a massive flock of about 250 Common Eiders of all different plumages spread out across the end of the jetty.  Now I had gone from only seeing one far flyby female Common Eider to 250 male and female Common Eiders.  While I was watching the Eiders, a very close Northern Gannet flew over us and even took a dive in the inlet next to us.  After getting great looks of both the Gannet and the Eiders, we walked back along the jetty and added one Surf Scoter to our list.

Herring Gull with Starfish

Herring Gull with Starfish

Male Harlequin Duck

Common Eiders Flying

Common Eiders Flying

Common Eiders Flying

Northern Gannet

Northern Gannet

Northern Gannet

Black Scoter

Common Eiders

Common Eiders

Common Eiders

Common Eiders

 

 

 

     After having a great time at Barnegat, we went over to Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.  There we got Northern Harrier, American Black Ducks, Green-winged Teals, Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails, Hooded Mergansers, Bufflehead, a Common Goldeneye, Ruddy Ducks, an immature Black-crowned Night Heron, and a huge flock of thousands of Snow Geese.  We even got to see them all lift up at the same time because of the disturbance of an immature Bald Eagle.  It was a great way to end the day, and a great way to start the year.

Northern Harrier

Northern Harrier

Female Common Goldeneye

Snow Geese

Snow Geese Taking Off