Along the Road

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  I spent my Christmas on the road, driving down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with my family. After checking the weather conditions along the route, I decided to avoid a possible ice storm along I-95 between Baltimore and Richmond by taking the longer route down through the Delmarva Peninsula. What a great decision, even though the drive took 13 hours.  Driving south along the East Coast Highways at this time of year, you should expect to see good numbers of Red-Tailed Hawks, Turkey & Black Vultures, Pigeons, Morning Doves, Robins, Starlings, mixed flocks of "Blackbirds", Crows and assorted Sea Gull species and if you are lucky, something really unexpected.  Maybe because it was Christmas, but this trip had some real surprises.  It started off with a Common Raven in New Jersey, a juvenile Bald Eagle in Maryland, flocks of Northern Gannets flying next to us while we on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel and the biggest surprise of the day - a Snowy Owl that flew in front of my car while in Delaware. Turned out to be great day of birding along the road.

With one week to go, it will be interesting to see if I will be able to get #1000 for my Life List this year.  However, Myrtle Beach does have one great resident target species - Red-cockaded Woodpecker. It is not quite a nemesis bird, but it is a species I've missed on my previous trips down here.  Hopefully, I will be able to report later this week that I was successful. 

A December Surprise

December can be an interesting time for migrants. On Sunday, as I came out my front door, I heard a familiar call and quickly located the source - a small sparrow that was foraging in my front lawn. While White-throated and Song Sparrows are common around my home at this time of year, this bird was a Chipping Sparrow.  Although it is a very common summer resident, I have rarely see one here between late October and early April. So to
find one here in my front yard in mid-December was a treat. However, what really surpised me was that this bird appeared to be in fresh breeding plumage.  Talk about a confusing bird! I don't know if it was a late Fall Migrant headed South or real early migrant North.

Winter Birding at Barnegat Lighthouse

The mile long jetty at Barnegat Light State Park is one of my favorite winter birding locations when the conditions are right.  The jetty is also an "oasis" of rocky shore where you are certain to find several species that are rare along the rest of 120 miles or so of sandy beaches that we call the Jersey Shore. Saturday's  weather prediction was for sunny skies, with temperatures rising above freezing and most importantly a west wind to flatten out the ocean, nearly perfect conditions for a winter trip to Barnegat Light. After meeting a few friends in the parking lot, we started walking out on the jetty, scanning both the inlet on our left and the beach on our right,  Long-tailed Ducks, Red-breasted Mergansers, several species of Gull and a cooperative Common Loon were quickly spotted, but it was until we were about 2/3s of the way out on the jetty that we found our primary target for the trip - Harlequin Duck, one of the most beautiful ducks in North America.  Further out on the jetty, we found Purple Sandpiper, Red-throated Loon, Common Eider, Black Scoter and Northern Gannet.  On the way back, a pair of cooperative Ipswich Sparrows were hopping about on the jetty; and then on the beach side, our last target species for the trip - Horned Lark.  Total Species for the trip 25.  Another great winter trip to Barnegat Light!

Common Loon

Horned Lark

Harlequin Ducks