Finally, More Like Spring 4/4/25

     After gusty winds yesterday and plenty of rain overnight, today turned out to be much nicer than I expected.  It remained mostly cloudy, but warm.  The wind was negligible and it was comfortable to be out in a tee shirt.  After a morning doctor’s appointment, I set out for Island beach State Park to see if the weather had brought any new year birds into the area.  As I approached the front gate of the park, I had to stop and safely back up when something caught my eye in the field outside the main entrance.  The birds that grabbed my attention were three Eastern meadowlarks.  They were my first of the year, and signaled a good start to the day.
First-of-the-year Eastern meadowlark, 4/4/2025.  © S. Weiss

I spent a little over three hours at the park, walking five miles mostly on the bayside trails.  I tallied 63 species for the day, five of which were new for the year.  I picked up my first blue-gray gnatcatchers of the year, six in all, on the first trail.  Also on that trail I heard my first Eastern towhee of the year.  There were plenty of song sparrows, dark-eyed juncos and Northern flickers around.  The trail also produced a couple of brown creepers and several hermit thrushes, golden-crowned kinglets, and a yellow-bellied sapsucker.  For the second time in three days I had a winter wren singing from the underbrush.

Further south in the park, a friend alerted me to a pair of blue-winged teal.  They are not common in Ocean County so I was glad that they were still around by the time I got to where he had first spotted them.  At the next trail to the south I spotted a distant American kestrel.  That was my fifth new year bird for the day.  
Blue-wing teal pair, 4/4/2025.  © S. Weiss

It was apparent that birds are finally on the move.  New birds are moving into the area and winter birds  are moving out.  Osprey numbers are increasing, with at least 11 perched on nesting platforms today.  The calls of greater yellowlegs echoed out from the marshes.  Laughing gulls and Forster’s terns are back.  On the flip side, winter waterfowl numbers are quickly decreasing.  Horned grebes and common loons are either in full breeding plumage or close to it.
Brown thrasher singing for a mate, 4/4/2025.  © S. Weiss

I saw my first bright yellow American goldfinch of the year the other day.  That alone tells me spring has arrived.

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