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DVOC Field Trip Report
by Sandra
Keller
August 25, 2014
Stone Harbor Point, NJ
The Stone Harbor - Nummy's Island area is a hot spot for shorebirds and terns. The area has an abundance of saltmarsh, sandbars, and mud flats - but only when the water levels cooperate. Throw in the current dredging - which changes the water levels in some areas, overall rising sea levels, and just the challenge of predicting tide levels and it can be hard to predict where birds will be in the area. One constant is Stone Harbor Point at high tide. This area is always exposed and recently has expanded as sand as added to the point. It is a very long, hard walk down on sand - 2 miles I believe, but well worth it. We haven't made the trek for a few years now, so I this year would be good to start it again. We did get very lucky with the weather - one of the coolest Augusts in decades and just enough wind to keep biting insects down.
This trip has always been excellent for
good looks at terns and gulls and sure enough we started with 7 Lesser Black-backed
Gull - 6 second summer birds and 1 first-summer. All in one flock. 25 roosting
Caspian Terns were in a tight group toward the end. A surprise was 2 juvenile
Royal Terns in with them! I am presuming a safe place to roost is a safe place
to roost - doesn't matter the species. 18 more Royal Terns were further down
at the tip. Adults and juveniles. Least, Common, and Forster's Terns were also
seen and studied well. Shorebird highlights were the 80 roosting American Oystercatchers,
2 Red Knots, and the 7 Piping Plovers - these last were together in a tight
flock as we walked back. I was a bit surprised at seeing so many because I know
the colonies in the area failed, but Stone Harbor is an area that attracts migrants
and we presume these were from farther north.
We still didn't find much in the way of exposed mud flats when we started birding
Nummy's Island, but this tide level can be good for herons and egrets. We tracked
down 2 Tricolored Herons. 92 of these were discovered roosting in the area at
dusk by some Cape May birders who made a special survey trip on the Osprey.
This area is proving very good for various species! 3 Whimbrel were found. These
can be difficult at times if are roosting in the marsh grasses.
After an hour, the sandbar at the north
end of Nummy's Island finally exposed somewhat. The "western" Willets
were easy to observe here as they probed for food.
A surprising find was a Yellow-crowned Night-heron out on a mud flat past the
sand bar.
Some of us ended at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor - but at low tide
the water levels were still high. We had another Tricolored Heron here, plus
a close look at a juvenile Western Sandpiper. My highlight here was the family
of new birders we talked with a bit. They were very enthusiastic and hopefully
we will see them on another DVOC sponsored field trip!
I would like to thank all the trip participants for spotting, sharing ebird lists, id discussions, food! A great trip with ample opportunity to study and photograph birds and a few butterflies. I am happy to answer any questions. Please email me at - [email protected] Next year's trip will follow the same - in fact, we will spend another hour at Stone Harbor Point.
Tern notes - we had what we believe was
just a newly fledged Common Tern. I can't find much on bill shape. Young birds
of all species have different shaped bills than the adults - terns are no exception.
Our bird showed a thick based short bill. We saw a dark line so to speak on
the shoulder. I believe this is was the start of the dark carpal bar that is
diagnostic on Common Tern. I have just never seen one that long before.
A truism for birding is that not all birds can be identified - and I can't be
100% sure with this individual!
Here is the link for the ebird Stone Harbor list:
http://ebird.org/ebird/nj/view/checklist?subID=S19575073
And here is the Nummy's Island list:
http://ebird.org/ebird/nj/view/checklist?subID=S19575402
Sandra Keller