February 2, 2010

Today we decided to make a trip to the North Shore of New Jersey, starting at Sandy Hook and working our way south checking out the ocean overlooks and the ponds. The weather was actually pretty mild; temperatures were in the low 30's but, fortunately, there was no wind so birding was quite comfortable. Our first highlight was finding 4 Razorbills in the surf just off the first parking lot.

We didn't find many birds at Sandy Hook but we did get excellent looks as a young Iceland Gull that was lounging just offshore, opposite the NJ Audubon store. It had a softly rounded head, small delicate black bill and pale primaries that characterize this species.

There weren't lots of waterfowl around but we did manage to find Bufflehead, Red-breasted Mergansers, Horned Grebes, a small flock of Common Goldeneye with one female Barrow's and fly over Great Cormorants. Flocks of Robins and Cedar Waxwings were everywhere. As we were leaving we were treated to a nice flock of Snow Buntings foraging along the roadside. Several even stopped and perched on one of the snow fences.

We then traveled south stopping en route to check out some of the may ponds along the coast. We also stopped to check out several ocean overlooks in Long Branch and Deal. The ocean was pretty empty except for large numbers of Common Loons with only a couple of Red-throated Loons. There were small flocks of Black and Surf Scoters and a few very distant Gannets.

Most of the ponds were pretty ice-covered. We found the usual large concentrations of gulls: Ring-bills, Herrings and Great Black-backs. There were also Ring-necked Ducks , Hooded Mergansers, Mute Swans , plus lots of Coots, Mallards and Black Ducks. Several of the ponds, however, were completely bird-free.