Two Southeastern Rarities in Ocean County NJ, September 2017

I used to bird in NJ quite a bit while growing up in Maryland - when I moved away from the Mid-Atlantic region for good in 1993 I had a respectable 240 on my NJ statelist.  And then over the next several years I would have frequent business trips to the Garden State, allowing me to add a few birds here and there, increasing my list to 277 by 2009.  But then my work responsibilities changed and I had no more NJ trips for quite a while. 

Then in September 2017 an impromptu trip to Princeton came up.  These meetings were actually supposed to be in Houston, but the location was changed due to all the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey.  I would likely have a free morning during the trip, plus I would be coming in the evening before, so I would have a little free birding time in the area.  As soon as my trip was confirmed my thoughts went to pursuit of the most common NJ bird that I still needed for my statelist – Barred Owl.  In fact, missing Barred Owl in NJ may well be the most glaring gap in any of my statelists.  Per my statebird map below, I’ve seen or heard Barred Owl throughout almost all of its eastern range, plus in WA and OR in its expanding western range.  But I still needed it in NJ!

I planned to arrive in northern NJ in the evening, and with some eBird research for likely Barred Owl locations, decided to try for it at dusk at the Great Swamp NWR.  I’ve birded Great Swamp in the past, even trying for Barred Owl there, but this time I hoped for a more successful visit.  After all, it is a quite common bird in the proper habitat.

As for my free morning, I first thought about trying for passerine migrants at spots near Princeton.  But my eBird Needs Alerts didn’t come up with too many realistic possibilities.  Then I noticed multiple records of Mississippi Kite at a “stakeout” hotspot in Ocean County.  I was hoping to stay closer to Princeton, but this location was only about an hour and 15 minutes away, and this likely represented the most reliable possible statebird for me.  That is assuming the Kites hadn’t migrated south yet.  And just before my trip a pair of Wood Storks were reported at a wetlands just 10 minutes from the Kite location.  Despite the longer drive time, I would still have plenty of time to try for both the Kite and Storks and still get back to Princeton before my meetings started.  That gave me 3 targets to pursue – my plan was set.

The day of my drive to NJ was hot and muggy, with the possibility of evening thunderstorms.  As I got close to the New York City area the skies were looking ominous, though the storms seemed to be mostly north of the city.  But then as I got into NJ storms were now just to the west – I crossed my fingers they would hold off until after dusk.  When I arrived at Great Swamp right around sunset the good news was it hadn’t started to rain yet; the bad news was it was extremely windy – miserable conditions to try to hear an Owl.  I got out of my car and with the noise of the wind blowing through the trees I didn’t even give owling a try.  And then it started to rain, so I just cut my losses and headed to my hotel, once again unable to fill the biggest gap in my NJ (or any) statelist.  Hopefully the next day would be more successful.

My first target that morning was a stakeout location in Waretown where Mississippi Kites had bred at least since 2015.  Up to 3 birds had been reported at this spot up through the day before my trip, so I was hopeful that I could find them quickly.  The problem was finding the correct location.  Not surprisingly these birds were “old news” by the end of their third breeding season there, and few eBird reports gave detailed locations for the birds.  I also read about a preferred roost tree, which photos showed to be a tall dead deciduous tree, but I couldn’t be sure of the location of the tree.  Plus the Kites were reported from literally dozens of different locations in the general vicinity.  So my plan was to head to the GPS coordinates of the eBird stakeout hotspot, and then keep my eyes open as I arrived in the area. 

Morning traffic was a bit tough that morning, but I eventually got to the general area and slowly drove through the suburban neighborhood that the Kites had called home – it looked a lot like the neighborhood where Kites have nested in NH for the last several years.  I got to the location of the hotspot (at the corner of Walker Lane and Elizabeth Avenue), and prepared to pull over to park.  Just then I looked up and saw a tall dead tree, and spotted a small raptor flying from the tree and heading down the road in front of me – it was the Mississippi Kite.  I had apparently pulled in right beneath its preferred roost tree and unfortunately flushed it from its roost.  That certainly wasn’t my plan. 

NJ was my 23rd state for Mississippi Kite.  Although I still need it AL and VA within its regular southeastern range, I’ve seen it in a number of states in the Midwest and Northeast as part of this species’ apparent attempt at range expansion.

Given my fleeting looks at the bird, I was hoping that it would soon come back to its roost tree.  So I stepped a short distance away to wait its return.  Unfortunately a couple minutes later several cars arrived dropping kids off to a school bus stop at that same intersection.  Finally, fifteen minutes later the bus arrived and the moms headed out of the area.  And now that it had quieted down, I was once again hopeful the Kite would return.  As I waited a pair of local birders arrived, but despite 3 pairs of eyes, we had no other sightings of the Kite in its tree or overhead. 

I was beginning to run short of time, and started to think that I should head out to try for the Wood Storks.  I mentioned the Storks to the other birders, and they were planning to look for them as well.  So with no additional Kite sightings, we decided to give the Storks a try, and we could then come back to try for the Kites again if there was time. 

I followed the local birders to the Bayshore Drive Impoundments section of Forsythe NWR.  We first went to an observation deck on the north side of the impoundments, and found quite a number of waders, but no Storks.  I then mentioned that one sighting the day before mentioned seeing the birds “from the north end of the public beach deck”, and if the eBird location was correct, that would be just a mile or so around the bend on the east side of the impoundments.  So we decided to try to find that spot.

As we got to the public beach we could see a long deck paralleling the beach that was 4 or 5 feet above the parking lot.  We walked up on the deck and looked toward the impoundments to the west, and although the extra elevation was helpful, we still only had limited line of sight into the wetlands.  But since the post mentioned the north end of the deck, we walked to the far north end and looked from there.  Sure enough we had a much better view of the impoundments, and we all simultaneously spotted a pair of large white waders in the far distance.  I got them in the scope and sure enough they were the Wood Storks.  Despite being roughly a half mile away, I got this barely passable phonescoped photo of one of the Storks with a much smaller Egret in the foreground.

NJ was my 10th state for Wood Stork, and my second as a rarity along with MA.

With that one checked off pretty quickly, I still had time to give the Kites one last try.  I headed back to the roost tree, and waited around for a few minutes, but with no luck.  It turns out that my sighting was the last one at this site on eBird for the year before.  Luckily that last bird decided to wait to begin its southbound migration until I was able to see it.    

Adding the Kite and Stork brings my NJ statelist up to 279.  And although I sure would have loved to finally get a Barred Owl in NJ, all things considered, I’d rather add the rarities to my list.  The Barred Owl will have to wait until another trip.