Winter Birding in New Jersey, USA

THE SEA BIRDS – Scoters, Harlies, Old Squaw, Loons and Mergs.

Between 7th and 13th February 2014, along with Glyn, Richard and Mike, three birding & photographer friends, we travelled to the state of New Jersey in the US. Our aim was to photograph the sea duck that congregate in the bays and off the sea defence walls at Barnegat and Avalon. We also visited Stone Harbour, Brigantine and the Cape May Peninsular. A vast and truly amazing area and some of the best birding I've ever experienced. I said this last year having visited Norway and Sweden but our trips simply get better and better !!

The sea duck were simply incredible with thousands of Black Scoter off shore at Barnegat and Avalon, emitting their eerie "cooing call notes", hundreds of Long-tailed Duck or Oldsquaw as they are affectionately know, also emitting a strange "Yodelling" sound that carries some distance and close quarter encounters with Harlequin and Surf Scoter. A few White-winged Scoter and plenty of Common Loon, Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Scaup, American Herring Gull and a large flock of very friendly Purple Sandpiper, on the Jetty at Barnegat. All made for some tremendous photographic opportunities.

I've never had such close views of sea duck as here. To eye-ball Scoter and have close encounters with drake Harlequin was a dream. There were also other birds around such as King Eider, Red-necked Grebe, Slavonian Grebe and Lesser Scaup.

We also spent some time birding the reserves at Cape May and several local woodland areas. Most of the small harbours around Cape May & Stone Harbour held Bufflehead and Hooded Merganser. Some of the vast areas of sand dunes along the Cape May peninsular were explored, looking for Snowy Owl, without success. Most of the birds that arrived in the area during December seemed to have moved off.

Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, NJ is located at the northern end of Long Beach Island and the Barnegat Jetty is a MUST-VISIT destination during the cold winter months. The Jetty is effectively a sea defence wall built of huge granite boulders and juts out into the sea for about a mile. Once out at the end it was like the arctic with a freezing cold wind chill factor but some remarkable birding sights. The main attraction are the wintering Harlequin Ducks but there are also many other sea ducks that offer close quarter viewing. The Black Mussles are the food attraction to the sea duck, and the rocks are covered in them. We visited Barnegat twice during our stay.

Barnegat Jetty, Long Island, NJ, USA – Tony Davison© – the long walk..

Barnegat Lighthouse, Long Island, NJ, USA – Tony Davison©

Avalon, Seven Mile Beach, NJ, USA – Tony Davison©

Avalon Jetty, Seven Mile Beach, NJ, USA – Tony Davison©

Another site we visited several times was Avalon, situated between The Wildwoods Township and Atlantic City. Avalon and Stone Harbor share a barrier island named Seven Mile Beach and Avalon comprises the north side of the island. The area is a huge sea bay that attracts thousands of Scoter and other sea duck. The Jetties offer the best spots for viewing but accessing them without disturbing the birds is very tricky. We viewed from the main Jetty over looking Townsends Inlet and encountered thousands of Black Scoter, with smaller numbers of Surf and White-winged Scoter including one superb male. Hundreds of Long-tailed Ducks were also mixed in.