Yesterday I decided to leave the comforts of my local environs to look for a few birds that are rare to New Jersey. The most opportune place to go to do this is Cape May. Even though New Jersey is a small state, the drive from home in Ocean County to Cape May is still about 90 miles. So, taking the drive needed to be calculated, meaning I would go when the chances were better for finding a new state bird. The other day a magnificent frigatebird had been soaring over Cape May and a gray kingbird recently appeared. When I saw that the kingbird was seen again in the morning, I decided to take the trip south. No frigatebird was yet reported, but you never know what might show up in Cape May at this time of year. Maybe a swallow-tailed kite, a white-winged dove or an anhinga might make an appearance while I'm there.
When I got to Cape May, the reports were that the kingbird was still around. I drove to the last reported sight and, even rarer than the bird itself, was that I actually saw the bird upon my arrival. This is more often not the case when looking for a particular bird. It was sitting patiently atop a utility wire along the road near the ferry terminal. Gray kingbirds are tropical birds living mostly in and around the Caribbean. Occasionally one does find its way up the Atlantic seaboard. I have seen gray kingbirds before in Jamaica, St. Thomas and Florida. So, after nearly a 90-minute drive, I had satisfactorily seen and photographed my main targeted bird in about 15 minutes. Now I had plenty of time to look around Cape May for some other rarities while waiting for reports of something from others.
Gray Kingbird, Cape May, NJ (June 1, 2022) © S. Weiss
That free birding time did not last long. A report came in about a half hour later that a garganey had been spotted in Monmouth County. It was only about a half hour from home in the opposite direction, but nearly two hours from where I currently was at the southern tip of the state. Garganeys are migratory ducks regular to Europe, Africa and Asia. They occasionally appear in western Alaska and are rare visitors to the continental west coast of the United States. I have never seen one. This would be only the third record of one to visit New Jersey. This may have been the only chance for me to see one.
I started making my way towards home without urgency figuring that the bird would either be gone by the time I made it there, or if it was still reported as I neared home, then I would continue on to its location. I am happy to say that the duck stayed at its location of discovery, as sighting reports of it continued throughout my drive. Since the duck was actually on the property of the National Guard training center, a restricted site, public viewing was from a municipal park parking lot. The bird was in a small marshy spot enclosed by a post-and-rail fence and separated from the viewing area by a road and a chain link fence. There was a narrow opening in the marsh making it possible to see the duck through the fences. It was feeding most of the time with its head in the water, unaware that dozens of people were watching. It was a breeding plumaged male, and when it lifted its head up, his bold white head stripe was striking. I managed to get a few photos through the chain link fence. Unlike the kingbird earlier that could, and did, fly about and give different viewing looks, the garganey was not likely to be moving from its watery feeding station to give much better views. Another 15 minutes of birding sufficed. Maybe not as rare as a garganey in New Jersey, but the fact that I pulled up and got my eyes on a rare bird with little to no effort (other than driving) for the second time in one day was quite impressive. 😁
Male garganey in Monmouth County, NJ (June 1, 2022) © S. Weiss
For the day, I travelled about 230 miles in just the southern half of small NJ, spent a few dollars on tolls and somewhat more on gas, but was able to see two really great birds that I might have had to travel by plane to see otherwise.
Comments
Post a Comment