“Avian Life” is brought to you by Robert Koch, robert11388@gmail.com
There are a number of duck-like birds that visit our area in winter and at other times of the year.
Two winter visitors are the American Coot and the Pied-billed Grebe. The Coot is a very distinctive bird that is charcoal gray with a very thick white bill. Its feet are very large with lobes along the toes. It is found on ponds, lakes, marshes and larger streams like the Rancocas Creek. The Pied-billed Grebe is in our area all year but it does not breed here and it is most often seen in the winter. Its most distinctive feature during the breeding season is a black ring around a bright white bill. In winter the bill is much darker and the black ring fades to only a vestige of its breeding appearance.
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Two other duck-like birds make rare appearances during winter. One of them is the iconic Common Loon of the great northern lakes. It winters in our area, on the coast, in bays and near shore waters. Its distinctive black and white breeding plumage with a checkered black and white pattern on the back fades in winter. This year one was seen on Monarch Lake splashing around and appearing to enjoy itself. The other rare visitor is another grebe called a Horned-grebe. In breeding season it has yellow tufts on the head that stick up like horns. Like the Common Loon, when we see it in winter it looks very different from its breeding plumage. Last year one hung around for a week or so on Monarch Lake but like the loon it winters mainly in our coastal waters.
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The last of our duck-like birds is a Double Crested Cormorant. It is the most widespread of the cormorant species and is more likely to be seen in spring through fall in our area although one showed up on Monarch Lake this January. It is a fish eater and can often be seen swimming along the surface and diving down for a meal. Very often it is seen out of water spreading its wings to dry because, unlike a duck, it lacks the oils to let water “roll off its back”. While very common on the coast it can pop up in just about any aquatic habitat.
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A “wader” is a general term used to describe birds that make their living by foraging along shorelines, mudflats and sand in search of insects, crustaceans, fish, amphibians, snakes and even small rodents. A general characteristic they all share is having long legs. A very large group that share these characteristics are some of the larger Shorebirds but they are not very common at Lumberton Leas. The waders we are most likely to see are Herons, Egrets and Bitterns.
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In the Heron group by far the most common and seen throughout the year is the Great Blue Heron. It is the largest heron in North America standing around 4.5 feet with a wing spread close to 6 ft. Its coloration is a blueish gray with a white crown framed by black stripes. The bill is massive and yellowish orange. It can often be seen standing at the edge of the Rancocas Creek waiting to nail a passing fish with its bill and then orienting the fish so it can swallow it head first. You can often see it flying over the campus with its slow flapping wings, crooked neck and long legs extended behind it.
Less common but frequently encountered in Spring, Summer and Fall is the Great Egret. This beautiful white bird (a little smaller than the Great Blue) with black legs and yellow bill was almost hunted to extinction is the late 1800’s when its long white plumes were very fashionable in the ladies millinery trade. Strong conservation laws have brought them and related birds back to healthy populations. It does not have as varied a diet as the Great Blue Heron and largely prefers fish but will adapt its diet as necessary. It is most often seen along the Rancocas Creek and its marsh areas.
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The American Bittern is a very rare visitor (I saw one fly over while standing at the edge of Powell’s Creek last winter). It is very secretive and blends into the reeds of freshwater marshes. Similarly, another rare visitor to our campus is the Green Heron (I’ve only seen it once). It is not rare to this area and can be seen around ponds, lakes and marshes in Burlington County.
Editors Note: Monarch Lake is that body of water to the west of the campus, easily viewed from the path off far side of the ‘circle’ in the Community Center parking lot.