Took a trip with Jim Hoyson, Bruce Troy, and Mark Kasper to the Jersey Coast yesterday for a bit of ocean/start of the year birding.

The highlight was an adult Glaucous Gull that I kicked up right in front of me at Shark River Inlet. It landed in the inlet right in front of me so I ran to the car for my camera— because I’m stupid and will never learn my lesson to always have it at the ready. By the time I got back it was sitting on the opposite side of the inlet, but not too far for some documentary photos. The bird hung out for about 10-15 minutes until a jogger on the other side pushed it up and we watched as it headed into the ocean. Also present on a jetty viewable from the inlet were a couple Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

The amazing thing is that I got not one, but two Glaucous Gulls on the trip. A second cycle bird was standing on the rocks across from Barnegat Inlet. Way too far for photography, but scopable. Two Glaucous and not a single Iceland— which was one of my target birds I was fairly confident I’d score. I wasn’t even entertaining the idea of Glaucous…

Other highlights were the Harlequin Ducks and Purple Sandpipers at Barnegat. And, really, all the coastal species I don’t get to enjoy here, or at least not in the same numbers and so close.

Did some sketching over the past couple days since I haven’t in forever. First I doodled the Ivory Gull and wound up taking into photoshop for some coloring. I definitely didn’t make the head round enough, but I was mostly trying not to look at the photo and decided to make it more angular for visual interest.

I also drew a winter plumage Ruddy Turnstone. I only had a thin lead mechanical pencil so it looks a little stiff.

My daughter, Emma, and I chased the juvenile Ivory Gull being seen in Cape May today. If it had been just me I probably would have spent more time with the bird, but still I had great looks at it. Photography was a little more problematic because the first time we stopped to see it the bird was farther away. But the second time(after an unsuccessful try to see the Swainson’s Hawk and some time on a cold beach) we realized we could walk out on the docks to get closer. But the problem there is that forced me to digiscope on a floating dock with limited space for me to set up. So these are the best photos I could muster.

Emma on the other hand got some nice shots with my slr that I don’t really use. It’s a leftover from my wedding photography days and is a slow camera with a slow lens. But she managed some nice shots that are possibly crisper than mine, just further away.

Call me a sadist, but below is one of my favorite photos of the day. Wouldn’t you know I accidentally picked out a juvenile Little Blue Heron at Two Mile Landing next to a couple Snowy Egrets. I actually didn’t know it was different from the snowies when I stopped. However, I wanted to find toll for the bridge, so I figured I’d show egrets to my daughter while I stopped the car to sift for change. Putting binoculars on the group of birds I realized one was a little blue so pulled out the digiscoping setup. The scope was loose so I took the time to tighten it. Once I got it up and focused, the damn bird flew. But it amused me and my daughter that for how long the bird stood there, it chose to lift the second I hit the shutter.

I birded a good deal so far this weekend.

I started with a Thanksgiving day trip up to Lake Wallenpaupack, Dunmore Reservoir, and Lake Scranton. There really wasn’t much worth mentioning. Wallenpaupack held the same female LONG-TAILED DUCK that I found a couple weeks ago on my birthday. It was very foggy around most of the lake and so I headed out early. Dunmore Reservoir held nothing; I couldn’t see a single gull over the dump. Lake Scranton held the best birds of the day with a female SURF SCOTER and a RED-THROATED LOON.

Friday I decided to hit Francis Walter Dam and Beltzville State Park. Absolutely nothing. I did get a couple HERMIT THRUSH at Beltzville, worth mentioning since I haven’t seen any in a while.

Today I did the same trip as Thanksgiving. Wallenpaupack was pretty dead. Same female LONG-TAILED DUCK. Dunmore Reservoir seemed very interesting with hundreds of gulls swirling around.

In all the swirl of gulls I could only find about 6 HERRING GULLS, mostly immature. The rest were RING-BILLED GULLS.

There were more gulls to weed through at Lake Scranton. Finally, out of the mass of lighter gray popped a darker mantle- a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. It was too far for any real photography and the birds all lifted and apparently it went out on the lift as I never refound the bird.

A female Black Scoter was on the other end of the lake. It was very close in, but dogged me on photos as it dove everytime I got it in frame and focused.

After a trip with my daughter to Chuck E. Cheese, I did a quick spin around Harvey’s Lake. I’m glad I did as I found 5 LONG-TAILED DUCKS and 4 BLACK SCOTER. The scoters were all female, but the oldsquaws were all male, 4 adult and 1 first winter. Another treat was a fos COMMON GOLDENEYE.