John Workman reports:
Spent part of early Saturday afternoon at DeKorte Park (Lyndhurst). Tide was high; ground and roads soggy from the rain and flooding; sky overcast with drizzle continuing.
Highlights included:
— a single Spotted Sandpiper slurping from a huge puddle;
— six rambunctious and noisy Forster's Terns, one of whom had a half-frozen crayfish in its bill;
— a Common Moorhen (in the Kingsland Impoundment, which is across from the first parking lot right after the security booth). Bird easily visible from the walkway's blue metal benches. It was standing at the edge of the phrag islands: a dark breeding adult with a zig-zag streak of white lightning on its flank, and a bill-shield as bright and orange as the Highway Department's signs. It would swim awkwardly back and forth between the islands, freaking out one of the drake Northern Shovelers.
— 4 Eastern Pheasants, with two very vocal males.
— 4 "Stilted Fuzz-balls" (Killdeer juveniles) not far from the AmVets memorial.
— A big, all-female flock of Red-winged Blackbirds; continually making the same "konk, konk, konk" location calls, which together (and from a distance) sounded a bit like a marimba band practicing in the landfill.
(Thanks, John!)