15 participants met leaders Linda Widdop and Martin Selzer at the Lighthouse parking lot at 9 AM on a gorgeous day and headed out to the jetty to scope the inlet. We were treated to singing Long-tailed Ducks, Red-breated Mergansers, a few Buffleheads, and a raft of Harlequin Ducks that put on a show close to the jetty rocks. Common and Red-throated Loons, Purple Sandpipers, Dunlins, Ruddy Turnstones, Great Cormorants, a few Northern Gannets and hundreds of gulls were also present along the jetty rocks. On the beach, the group searched the ocean and found Black Scoters, a few Common Eiders and Horned Grebes. In the dunes, we searched for and were rewarded with close views of Ipswich Sparrows, Snow Buntings and Horned Larks and were surprised with an early Piping Plover poking around the plover pond.
eBird Checklist – 5 Mar 2023 – Barnegat Lighthouse SP – 33 species
