Find ducks and geese aplenty.
Cattle egret WHAT WE'VE SPOTTED
* Cave swallow, Cape May Point
* Caspian tern, Forsythe (Brigantine) National Wildlife Refuge
* Cattle egret, Wall Township
* Western kingbird, Cape May
* American white pelican, Mannington Marsh
Snow geese and brant are beginning to trickle into the state. Snow geese love marshlands in South Jersey, while the brant is strictly coastal, preferring saltwater.
As mentioned in last week's column, the Avalon Seawatch is the place to be for great looks at migrating ducks and geese, especially black and surf scoters.
Beautiful harlequin ducks should be arriving in New Jersey any day now and the best place to see them is along the jetty in the inlet at Barnegat Light State Park. This is also a great location to see common and red-throated loons (not considered waterfowl), as well as long-tailed ducks and red-breasted mergansers.
The usually uncommon Eurasian wigeon has been rather plentiful, with two at Cape May Point State Park; a third at the Forsythe (Brigantine) National Wildlife Refuge, just north of Atlantic City; another near the Bayonne Golf Club; and a couple spotted in North Jersey.
Cape May Point State Park also tallied an early cackling goose, the much smaller cousin of the Canada goose, while an early common eider has been hanging around near the Concrete Ship there.
Hooded mergansers are returning to our inland lakes and streams. Their much larger relative, the common merganser, is America's largest duck and has been known to visit North Jersey lakes and reservoirs.
Forsythe featured about 5,000 northern pintail and about 200 green-winged teal, our smallest duck, last weekend. Many gorgeous wood ducks have been lingering there, as well as Cape May Point.
Huge greater scaup flocks should be arriving shortly at Sandy Hook and Barnegat Bay. The migratory tundra swan is coming in right now.
Many of these birds fly diagonally across the continent -- from Alaska (and some from Siberia) to their winter homes, which spread from southern New Jersey to North Carolina, with large numbers on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia.
This column is compiled and written by Pete Bacinski, longtime New Jersey birder and retired NJ Audubon All Things Birds program director. Questions or comments should be directed to him by emailing petebacinski@comcast.net.