When I lived in southern NJ, I often went to the Forsythe Refuge, Brigantine, and was fascinated by the comparisons in sightings from year to year. Plus, I usually knew when to go in order to see a particular species of bird. Tens of thousands of snow geese filled the refuge in December. I could usually catch a glimpse of a pair of wood ducks in the spring. I was lucky to catch a number of rare sightings that took place at the refuge as well. I was able to see the snowy owl that graced the refuge in March of 1997, the juvenile purple gallinule in the autumn of 1998, and white pelican and arctic tern in 2003.

In addition, since I lived on the east coast/Cape May flyway, I had many, many new bird sightings right in my backyard every spring. My favorite memory, though, is looking out my window on the freezing cold morning of January 1, 2004, and spotting a woodcock searching among the dead leaf debris. My heart actually leapt. I grabbed my spotting scope and watched for more than an hour. All the while I feared the poor bird was surely going to freeze to death because I had heard about groups of woodcocks found huddled together, frozen to death, along Cape May roads. I never saw the woodcock again, but I hoped that it would find refuge in the many piles I had made of broken limbs, pine and fir branches, dead leaves, straw, and thick wads of dryer lint.

Mon@rch – It was quite fun although hopefully future counts will yield more birds (and perhaps better weather).