Thousands of Ducks

 

We took a drive up the what is fondly called the North Shore on March 8.  It is a pleasant drive up from Point Pleasant to Sandy Hook with lots of birding haunts along the way.  It is especially good during the winter months because of the many ducks and shore birds you can catch in a short amount of time.  

We must admit that on some levels our trip was a failure.  We have been looking for the elusive snow bunting at Sandy Hook and the equally evasive cross bills at Seven Presidents Park in Long Branch. Neither co-operated on this day.

 As we were driving on Rt 8A heading toward Sandy Hook we crossed the Navasink River.  There we saw more ducks than you could ever imagine on the river.  The river was literally covered in what appeared to be mostly scaup.  There were a few mallard, mergansers, and bufflehead scattered amid the flocks.  As we watched from the bridge, groups or flocks of the large gathering took flight until the sky was black with ducks like a swarm of gnats.  Most left within three to four minutes gathering in a circling flight until they took off to the skies.  We drove over to the entrance of Hartshome Woods (Claypit Creek entrance) just across a small bridge off of Locust Ave. We walked down to the rivers edge where we were able to get a picture of very small segment of the ducks that had not flown.  Some of the huge flock had returned as we were leaving. 

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We continued on the Sandy Hook and heard lots of red wing blackbirds and song sparrows and of course gulls and starlings were in abundance.  The only other sign of spring we saw was a female cowbird. She posed for quite a while so that we could catch  a picture of her.