Birding Highlights

The South Amboy site has diverse habitats, including freshwater pond and marsh, salt marsh, beach, mudflats, and Raritan Bay.   The bird list for this area includes over 210 birds.

The creek mouth and beach at Morgan are excellent for gulls and terns.  Rarities have included Black-headed, Little, Franklin's and Glaucous Gulls; Black and Sandwich Terns; and Hudsonian Godwit.

The freshwater pond at the end of Broadway is good for waterfowl during migration and winter, including Northern Pintail, Ring-necked Duck, and American Coot.  Check the muddy spots for shorebirds such as Common Snipe, Yellowlegs, and Least Sandpiper.  In spring, all five New Jersey swallows occur.  Least Bittern nests in the Phragmites nearby.

Raritan Bay Waterfront Park, formerly a landfill, is another point of access to the bay shore for migrating shorebirds in fall and spring, and for various waterfowl in winter.  One to two Black Brant have wintered here since 2003-4.

Directions

 Morgan

• From the intersection of Routes 35 and 36 near Garden State Parkway exit 117, head north on Route 35 through Cliffwood and Laurence Harbor.  (If you are coming from Sandy Hook on Route 36, you will need to make a turn onto north Route 35.)

• About 0.75 miles past the light at Laurence Harbor Parkway (24-hour Dunkin Donuts), you will cross over the Morgan Bridge (Cheesequake Creek).

• The next street on the right (not a traffic light) will be Morgan Street.

• Make a right here and follow the road around a right-angle turn (North St.) and down a hill (Cliff Ave.) to a cul-de-sac, where you can park.

• Take care crossing the tracks of the N.J. Transit Jersey Shore commuter railroad to reach an area from which you can scan the mudflats and sandbars for birds.

The Pond

Raritan Bay Waterfront Park