After adding two Nemesis Birds to my Life List in 2 weeks (Great Gray Owl & Iceland Gull), I did not think January could get any better. My former Nemesis Birds, like the Great Gray Owl, seemed like they stayed on the top of my target list for a few years. Finding an Iceland Gull, my new #1 Nemesis bird, just 2 weeks later, had never happened to me before. Fortunately (unfortunately?) there always seems to be another species waiting to become my next #1 Nemesis Bird. One tropical species, the Mangrove Cuckoo, has successfully eluded me on every trip into mangroves, for over 26 years since my first trip down to the Ding Darling NWR on Sanibel Island, Florida, is a prime candidate for my #1 nemesis bird. However, since it was still only January, and I would not be traveling to any area with mangroves until March, I decided to pick a local species and really focus my efforts on trying to find it before my Trip to Puerto Rico in March. Out of my 15 possible lifer species remaining on the New Jersey List, only 4 species might be found in New Jersey during the Winter, but only two of these species - Ross's Goose and Barred Owl, had I actively chased. The question was which of these two speices should name as my next Nemesis Bird? My answer arrived in an E-mail from a birding friend later in evening on the Friday I found the Iceland Gull. My friend had seen a Barred Owl that afternoon down at Brigantine (Edwin B. Forsythe NWR) and included a photo of it in her E-mail. We had been trying over multiple trips over several years to find me a Barred Owl, so she knew that I would be very interested in this bird. Unfortunately due to a prior commitment, a trip down to Brigantine,
would have to wait until Sunday afternoon! However, since Brigantine also hosts a large flock of Snow Geese in winter, there always is the possiblity of finding a Ross's Goose among them. On Sunday afternoon, I drove down to Brigantine, arriving about 3:00 PM. My first stop along the wildlife drive was the Gull Pond, where off in the distance, in the general location where my friend had seen the Barred Owl (and at the far end of the drive from my current location), I could hear an Owl calling. The problem was this Owl was only doing a single "hoot" each time it called, so I was unable to ID it by its call. As for the Snow Geese, I was able to locate a large flock of several thousand birds but they were just too far out on the Salt Marsh to even try to search for a Ross's Goose. At least the Short-eared Owls were cooperating that afternoon. Then close to sunset, I finally arrived in the general area where I thought I had heard the Owl, except it had stopped calling. After a fruitless search in the area, where my friend had seen the Barred Owl on Friday, I got back into my car to finish the rest of the wildlife drive, ready to admit defeat. I maybe gone another 100 yards when I got a very brief glance of a large bird as it flew across the road before disappearing behind some trees. I quickly drove up to the point where I last saw it got out, started to scan the area and there sitting in a tree about 20' off the road was a Barred Owl! My third Nemesis Bird in two weeks and my second in New Jersey in just 2 days. Amazing!
