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 200 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

• From the Morgan site, return to Rt. 35, continuing north. 

• In approximately 0.4 miles, take the right turn marked "Bordentown, South Amboy Business District."  This puts you on South Pine Avenue. 

• Go about 1.2 miles to the first light, Bordentown Avenue, and take a right there.

• Proceed to the red blinker/stop sign at Broadway and turn right again.

• You will come to a new stop sign where John O'Leary Ave. comes in at the left [no street sign was there in early January 2007].  Continue straight to reach  the pond.  Beware of oncoming traffic, especially trucks, on this narrow road.

Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

• The entrance to this park is off of John O'Leary Ave.  So, follow the instructions for the pond, but at the new stop sign, turn left onto John O'Leary.

• Cross the railroad track and take the first right (Keenan Way) into the park.

• Walk southeast along the bay.

Bird List (as of 4/06)
 

Snow Goose Brant Canada Goose Mute Swan Wood Duck Gadwall American Wigeon American Black Duck Mallard Blue-winged Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Ring-necked Duck Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Surf Scoter White-winged Scoter Black Scoter Long-tailed Duck Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Ruddy Duck Red-throated Loon Common Loon Pied-billed Grebe Horned Grebe Western Grebe Red-necked Grebe Northern Gannet Double-crested Cormorant Great Cormorant American Bittern Least Bittern Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Little Blue Heron Tricolored Heron Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Glossy Ibis Turkey Vulture Osprey Bald Eagle Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper’s Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk Broad-winged Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Merlin Peregrine Falcon Clapper Rail Virginia Rail Sora Common Moorhen American Coot Black-bellied Plover Semipalmated Plover Piping Plover Killdeer American Oystercatcher Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper

Willet Spotted Sandpiper Whimbrel Hudsonian Godwit Ruddy Turnstone Red Knot Sanderling Semipalmated Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper Dunlin Curlew Sandpiper Stilt Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher Wilson’s Snipe Laughing Gull Franklin’s Gull Little Gull Black-headed Gull Bonaparte’s Gull Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Iceland Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull Glaucous Gull Great Black-backed Gull Caspian Tern Royal Tern Sandwich Tern Common Tern Arctic Tern Forster’s Tern Least Tern Black Tern Black Skimmer Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Black-billed Cuckoo Yellow-billed Cuckoo Great Horned Owl Short-eared Owl Northern Saw-whet Owl Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hum'bird Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Eastern Wood-Pewee Willow Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird White-eyed Vireo Blue-headed Vireo Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Fish Crow Horned Lark Purple Martin Tree Swallow No. Rough-winged Swallow Bank Swallow Cliff Swallow Barn Swallow Carolina Chickadee Black-capped Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren House Wren Winter Wren Marsh Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Veery Swainson’s Thrush Hermit Thrush Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Cedar Waxwing Blue-winged Warbler Nashville Warbler Northern Parula Yellow Warbler Magnolia Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler Pine Warbler Prairie Warbler Palm Warbler Blackpoll Warbler Black-and-White Warbler American Redstart Ovenbird Northern Waterthrush Common Yellowthroat Hooded Warbler Canada Warbler Scarlet Tanager Eastern Towhee American Tree Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow Seaside Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Lapland Longspur Snow Bunting Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Red-winged Blackbird Rusty Blackbird Common Grackle Boat-tailed Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Orchard Oriole Baltimore Oriole Purple Finch House Finch Pine Siskin American Goldfinch House Sparrow

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