Like many birders I used to have a New Years Day tradition of going out early on Jan. 1, trying to start the year off with a nice list of birds. Back when I was living in New York, that meant traveling the relatively short distance to Jones Beach, Point Lookout (where we would typically arrive around noon to witness the town’s annual polar bear plunge..brrrrr!), and finishing at Jamaica Bay. That tradition changed after I moved to New Jersey, and instead of finding a new New Years route, I essentially gave up on starting a big year list. I still like birding on New Year’s morning, but with more modest goals.
This year the weather was less than ideal, with 25 mph NW winds gusting into the mid-30s throughout the day. So instead of battling the winds all day, Jeanine and I decided to try a shorter Manasquan Inlet sit, where the wind should be mostly at our backs. We made the requisite stop at Lake of the Lilies, where it was nice to see a few Redheads and a surprise Wood Duck pair.
The drake Wood Duck from Lake of the Lilies.
A hen Wood Duck. This would normally be considered quite a handsome bird If it wasn’t for the partner males being so gaudy.
Before heading out to the inlet, we decided to check the gull roost at the Baltimore Ave. sandbar. Fortunately it was low tide and filled with gulls, packed almost too tightly to scan well. Something flushed the flock, and after they landed again, I spotted a big white gull sitting alone. Glaucous Gull! I include the exclamation point because Glaucous Gull was a nemesis bird for me. I saw a distant one two or three years ago floating amidst the icepacks on the Delaware River for a lifer, but never got photos or great close looks. I have been trying to find one since then to add to my photo collection, but with no luck. So it was already a great start to the year.
A nice example of an immature Glaucous Gull.
We then went to the jetty hoping for some alcids just as two birders who had nothing notable to report were leaving. It’s never a very good sign to see disappointed birders leaving the location that you are heading to, but heck, it’s a new year so we were optimistic. Shortly after sitting down we started chatting, and a Razorbill popped up in the middle of the relatively narrow inlet! Razorbills are great to see, but are kind of scary because they have a nasty habit of diving and just disappearing, even though there is no place to hide. They have to surface again SOMEWHERE nearby, don’t they? Yet somehow they manage to disappear. This one was different. It dove for a minute or less, surfaced, and repeated doing that for maybe ten minutes or so. And then it was gone. Shortly before its last dive two more birders arrived, so they were able to see it, but it never appeared again despite four sets of eyes peeled out for this bird. That’s the way Razorbills go.
Our cooperative New Year’s Razorbill.
Later on as we were sitting there, Jeanine spotted another Glaucous Gull (perhaps the same one as we saw an hour previously) flying out southward at the end of the jetty, completing a wonderful day under challenging windy conditions. It was a great start for the year.