I left home before dawn in hopes of stopping in the Great Swamp area to listen for owls. Unfortunately I left later than planned and by the time I had driven that far south it was beginning to get light outside. After a few wanderings in area to the northeast I made my way to Route 24 and headed south again to The Claypit Creek area of Hartshorne Woods to meet Jim and search for the Western Kingbird. We ended up meeting in Perth Amboy instead and searched briefly for the Eurasian Wigeon reported there with no luck.
When we finally reached Hartshorne we were greeted by many FOYs--Carolina Chickadee, Cedar Waxwing, Belted Kingfisher, etc.--but no kingbird. After forty-five minutes we continued on to Sandy Hook. It was a productive morning in terms of year birds and the weather was unseasonably pleasant (~60 degrees!), but nothing was particularly rare or unusual; many Long-tailed Ducks, more than fifty Northern Gannets, twenty-five or so Common Goldeneye, four Greater Scaup, three Red-throated Loons, a single Common Loon, bunches of distant scoter with one close enough to identify as Black Scoter, twenty or so Horned Grebes, a handful of Yellow-rumped Warblers, and many others.
We headed further south in hopes of hitting some other North Shore locations but ended up only getting as far as Seven Presidents Park. On the way we got good looks at a Lesser Black-backed Gull in Sea Bright. Seven Presidents was quiet and it was getting well into the afternoon so we decided to return to Hartshorne where we gave the kingbird a second try. The search was again fruitless, leading me to believe the bird is no longer present. There we also spoke to another birder who had just come from Thompson Park where his Ash-throated Flycatcher search had been fruitless as well. We this news we parted ways and headed home.
On the way I decided to try and add a few more birds to the day and stopped in South Amboy. Here I added twenty Bonaparte's Gulls and four Sanderlings. I also found three Lesser Scaup hiding with a group of American Coot. The coot were not FOYs but it was great to knock out both scaup in one day.
Further north and closer to home I tried for the Cackling Goose reported at Bernardsville Quarry. Again the rarity escaped me but I did add Common Raven, and Pied-billed Grebe to my year list.
All in all it was a great day of birding though all of the species seen were common or nearly so. I am glad my total is climbing but I was disappointed I didn't really add any difficult species to the total. My strategy this past week was to hit local spots after work on weekdays to build my list of common species and then chase rarities at more 'exotic' locations on the weekend. This strategy will continue again this week. My goal for January remains 115-125 species and I think I am still on track to do so.
NJ - 69
ABA - 69
World - 69
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