Harlequin

The reason one goes to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park in February, and why Patty and I were there and saw the fire, was to see these:

Harlequin Ducks, like this dapper male seen here.

As February days go, it was a rather nice one.

Sunny, relatively warm, with little wind.

But we only saw this one male Harlequin. This was quite unusual.

February is prime time for ducks along the Jersey shore.

And Barnegat is a prime location for winter ducks.

I don't have a single image of a female Harlequin from this visit.

Nor an image of multiple Harlequins. Very strange.

Bye bye.

🦆  🦆  🦆  🦆  🦆

I took this picture of a Rehn in February 2011 at Barnegat. The first time Patty and I were there concurrently.

I have no idea what she was taking a picture of.

Or why she got in my way to take it.

We did see Harlequins, like this female:

Opera Glasses

In the Twin Lights post I mentioned that an antique set of binoculars caught my eye.

Today, another set caught my eye. These were much more accessible as they were in my Mom's china cabinet.

They belonged to my Mom's Mom's Mom, or my Great Grandmother.

Here's the note from my Grandmother that was with them:

So they are at least 106 years old and no doubt older.

Old and new.

🏡  🏥  🏡  🏥  🏡

The reason I'm at my parent's place and looking at Mom's knickknacks, is because dad is home.

Here he is in his recliner in his 'man cave', texting. He still has a ways to go to regain full strength. But he's come a long way since New Year's Eve.

Is That a Bird In Your Pocket?

Yes, yes it is. The bird, a Long-tailed Duck, is in a pocket. And I put it there. But it is not my pocket.

It is Cliff Hence's pocket. It was fortunate that Cliff had such big pockets. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to carry the duck back to his car. But I'm getting ahead of the story here.

Yesterday, Patty led her first field trip for the DVOC, to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park. Known for its overwintering waterfowl and its sometimes treacherous jetty.

Patty in Action on the Jetty

I slipped and fell on the jetty yesterday, scraping my knee and getting my jeans dirty. My camera was fortunately unharmed in the incident. But this story isn't about me ...

One of the main attractions of Barnegat at this time of year is this handsome fellow, a male Harlequin Duck.

Brant were also common in the inlet.

And there were a good number of loons, both Common like the one shown below, and Red-Throated, which were camera shy.

We had but three species of shorebird, Dunlin, Purple Sandpipers, and Rudy Turnstones. Here is shot of the latter.

But the stars of yesterday's show were the Long-tailed Ducks, there were large flocks throughout the inlet. We heard them calling all morning.

But the bird in the pocket did not want her starring role.

Cliff was first to spot the bird, struggling to get out from between the large stones that form the jetty.

As you can see, these ducks need to build up speed before takeoff. And our poor trapped duck had no room for a takeoff run. So she was trying to jump out, without success.

Worse yet, she was being pummeled against the rocks as the wave broke over the jetty.

Cliff had by then sat down on the rocks and was trying to lift the bird with his feet, but it was wary of us and kept out of range. Then fate smiled on the bird and washed it closer to Cliff. He quickly moved into the space between the rocks, trapping the bird in a smaller space from which he could retrieve it.

But when he tried to lift it up, he was surprised to find that he could not. It was hooked. And the hook was attached to fishing line that was snagged somewhere below. Fortunately I had a pocket knife and with the help of third birder we managed to cut the line. But we could not remove the hook from the bird.

So Cliff handed the bird to me and climbed up from between the rocks. I had called a local wildlife rehab center, Woodford Cedar Run and they had agreed to take the bird. So now we needed to get it there. And that's where Cliff's pocket came in. We put the bird in his pocket, which both calmed the bird and held it securely as we headed back down the jetty to the parking lot.

This jetty.

With all those slippery rocks. And we were all the way out at the end. Imagine needing to hold a duck, with both hands, and trying to negotiate this. Thanks to Cliff's Big Pockets we did not have to.

It took a while, but Cliff and I made it back to the cars. Cliff punched in Cedar Run's address to his GPS unit and was soon off. He later emailed that he had made it to Cedar Run and that the hook had been successfully removed. Cliff also posted a video of the bird struggling on his Facebook page.

It was a nice trip on a great morning to be out. And thanks to Cliff's efforts one that had a happy ending for one Long-tailed Duck.

Familiar Faces

February is the time to visit Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, the time to see the wintering waterfowl. And perhaps something unexpected.

The day of our visit was a nice one, no wind, and surprisingly few people (or shorebirds). We did see these familiar faces (can you name them all?):

One of the few people we saw was sitting not far past the lighthouse on the walkway before the jetty, camera with very big lens aimed at ... nothing. Hmmm. So I asked, "what are you waiting for?" "Whatever," he replied. We chatted a bit, with him mentioning that he was down for the weekend form Massachusetts just to shoot the waterfowl. We then wished each other luck and Patty and I headed down the jetty. But there was something ...

As we were leaving we met up again as he was photographing the lighthouse. I then mentioned that I thought we had seen each other before. And it turned out that we had.

We had last seen each other each other in January. In Vermont. On the side of a snow covered dirt road. Looking at this:

A (much too distant for good photos but cool to see through a scope) northern hawk owl. This is a bird that normally inhabits Canada and Alaska and is rarely found in the lower forty-eight. We saw it on a weekend getaway.

We chatted some more and I asked where I might see his photos. He looked for a card but couldn't find one. So I made a note of his website. Still there was something nagging at a corner of my mind ...

When I got home I went and pulled my Trinidad and Tobago field guide from the shelf. And found his business card. We had first met at Asa Wright Lodge in Trinidad, Christmas week 2012. He had helped me set my flash so I could take the pictures of the bats using the hummingbird feeders, after I realized they were using them (he got some very nice shots).

~~~~~~~~~~

His name is Chris Ciccone and you can find his excellent images here. Enjoy!

Dapper

Another shot from the scouting trip.

Longing

“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to 

collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, 

but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea”

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery




**********
My favorite shot from the trip

Ones That Got Away

Here's an image of one of those fancy ducks we saw on our trip to Barnegat Light State Park.

The problem with diving ducks is that they dive! Usually just at the moment you train the camera on them and click the shutter.

Here's another different fancy duck, diving.

I didn't even have time to level the camera and it was gone. Loons and grebes are prone to do this as well. But with a little patience, and a lot of shutter pushing, it is possible to capture these dandies.

Here's an image of the first duck species, pre-dive, albeit a bit farther out than the diver above.

It is a male long-tailed duck, although long time birders may know it as an oldsquaw, a winter visitor to these parts who breeds in the Arctic. 

The second is the fanciest duck at the inlet and a major draw for photographers and birders alike. And as you could imagine it was a key target bird for us birder-photographers.

Harlequin ducks, female on the right left and more gaudily plumaged male, who's not quite in full breeding regalia, on the left right [thanks Wren!]. The nice thing about harlequins is that they like to hang out on the rocks of the jetty. And it is much easier to get a good photo of a bird on a rock than one bobbing on the waves. And it doesn't hurt that they are much closer either. These too are only winter visitors to our shore, breeding up north along fast moving streams. 

Harbor Seals and Harlequins

For several years in the middle of the last decade* the NJ State Parks Department held an event in late winter celebrating the overwintering wildlife at Barnegat Inlet: Harbor Seals and Harlequins it was called. As far as I can tell, this event was last held in 2007, discontinued, no doubt, due to a lack of funds. I went a couple of times and while I saw plenty of harlequin ducks, I never saw a harbor seal. In fact, I'd never seen a seal in New Jersey.

*The "oughts", the "oohs", what do do you call those years?

Until last Saturday that is. When I saw not one but two harbor seals. My birding buddy Laura invited me on a Monmouth County Audubon Society trip to Barnegat (she's a big wig in the society).*

*Then she promptly bailed on me, something about a dentist appointment. Yet it's somehow my fault that she couldn't join me to see the tundra swans! (Thankfully, she did catch up with us later in the day.)

My first look at a harbor seal was early in the trip. It was a brief distant glimpse, just a head above the water. It wasn't until we were leaving that we came upon the one pictured here. Nicely posing in the golden light of the setting sun. Aware but unconcerned with all the photographers and other gawkers.

Conversely, the harlequins were scarce this trip. This is one of only two drake photos. Usually they are right up on the rocks of the jetty, well lit from the low southern winter sun.

And this one of only a half dozen or so shots of the hen. The surf was a bit rough along the jetty, so bad we couldn't walk out to the end. And the ducks were somewhere else, I know not where.

But I was at Barnegat Light State Park, on my annual winter pilgrimage. With friends old and new. As well as my life harbor seal. Pretty cool.

365 Theme 176: Look Alikes

Two male and two female harlequin ducks.

365 Theme 275: Sense Of Motion

A blurred harlequin duck flying by.