Common Murre 4-5-23
The year of alcids continued this week when a Common Murre was found at Manasquan Inlet along the border of Ocean and Monmouth counties. Common murre is a difficult bird for Ocean County, as well as much of New Jersey. It is considered rare, and most sightings are pelagic. As such, common murre is a NJ Bird Records Committee r eviewable species for land-based sightings. The last common murre for Ocean County was at Manasquan Inlet in February 2011. If accepted by the NJBRC, this would be the second latest date for a common murre in New Jersey ( http://njbrc.com/documents/ARL.pdf ). This alcid was discovered late Monday afternoon. I was already in for the day and chose not to go for it. It was still around on Tuesday, but I had family obligations and could not get over to the inlet. However, since a few people reported seeing the murre after sunset, I felt that was a good sign it would stay around for at least another ...