Birds and Other Nature Sightings

     A few days before Christmas, someone eBirded an interesting swan at Stafford Forge WMA in Southwestern Ocean County.  This observer, and many others since, strongly believe it fits the profile of a juvenile trumpeter swan .  The day after Christmas, I went out to see the bird and am also leaning heavily toward trumpeter swan.  Since trumpeter swan is a review species in New Jersey, the NJ Bird Records Committee will have to vote to accept it as a trumpeter swan, not a trumpeter swan, or inconclusive.  The record committee’s decision will not be known until March or April of 2026. Currently, based on my extensive research, Ocean County has recorded 421 bird species of wild origin.  Trumpeter swan sightings in NJ have been mostly limited to Assunpink WMA in Monmouth County.  If it holds up as a trumpeter swan, then that will improve the county list to at least 422.  There have been at least three other bird species eBirded this y...

      Several weeks ago, I went on a 12-hour pelagic trip out of Cape May, NJ.  I had been looking forward to getting out on the water specifically to look for marine life instead of fishing and incidentally noting the wildlife.  It was mid-November and while I was hoping for many different marine species, realistically I knew that there likely would not be as much as I hoped.  November is a ‘tweener month.  It was getting late for many of the summer species to still be around and yet a little too early for many of the winter species to have arrived. I knew the storm-petrels and most of the large shearwaters had already departed.  It was a little early for our winter alcids to be around, but razorbills could start filtering in at any time.  Many of our terns had vacated, but Bonaparte’s gulls were already around and maybe so would some black-legged kittiwakes .  Being that was only a 12-hour trip, I knew we would not get out far enough...