By Scott Barnes
Raritan
Bay is visible on a map of New Jersey as the large "bite"
taken out of the state's northern coast. Although the shores of
Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays are heavily developed and
industrialized, the bay still supports extensive wildlife.
The east coast bird migration flyway crosses the bay, and the
bay provides an important stopping and feeding ground for loons,
grebes, long-legged waders, gulls, and shorebirds. The bay
is an important feeding area for nesting species like American
Oystercatcher, Common and Least Terns, and Black Skimmer. It is
also an important wintering location for many varieties of
waterfowl, with globally significant numbers of Greater Scaup.
Fish such as Striped Bass, Bluefish, and eels use the bay as
both a spawning ground and a migration path to several rivers,
including the Hudson, Passaic, and Raritan. Sizable populations
of shellfish, including oysters, quahog clams, lobster, and blue
crabs, still remain, although reduced from their historical
levels. Harbor Seals are still found in late winter at several
locations.
Since 1992, the New Jersey Audubon Society has conducted a
census of the bird life along the southern shore of the Bay,
where there are a number of interesting pockets of bird-friendly
habitat: tributary creeks, mudflats, freshwater and tidal
marshes, and ponds. These studies have documented a number of
good birding sites (and a few with exceptional winter
concentrations of waterfowl), along and near this 20-mile
stretch.
| The premier
birding site along the bay is Conaskonk Point, easily doable in
an hour before or after a visit to Sandy Hook. The maturing
deciduous woods around Natco Lake, especially along the Henry
Hudson Bike Path, are the best spot for numbers of passerine
migrants in spring and fall. The public parking area on the
Middletown side of the Oceanic Bridge (Navesink River) can be a
great place to study scaup and other diving ducks, sometimes at
very close range. |
Focus on Natco Lake with Associate Naturalist Tom Boyle. |
Click on the locations shown below to read about the birdlife
found there, and for directions on driving to that location.
| Cheesequake Park |
South Amboy |
Pirate's Cove |
Treasure Lake |
Conaskonk Point |
Natco Lake |
Keansburg
Beach | Leonardo Marina |
Hartshorne
Woods | Oceanic Bridge
|