The other wintering sandpiper we found on the jetty was Purple Sandpiper:
They are able to stand on the most slippery rocks, leaning forward so much that they are almost upside down, to get at the algae or some insects at the puddle below. The male and female have different size bills, so that they can feed from the same territory without stealing each other's food:
From time to time, we would come across an interesting shell on the beach.
Then the sea gull (another Bonaparte's Gull) dived and caught a fish right next to the jetty:
At this point we got off the jetty and moved to the ocean-facing beach. That was a lot more unsettled, with larger waves that seemed capable of capsizing any bird venturing there.
Even when they weren't covered by the wave, the ducks had to work to get to the top of it.
There is a military base somewhere nearby, as evidenced by this helicopter that flew over us (or maybe it was involved with Hurricane Sandy restoration efforts on the neighboring Island Beach):
Nearby, a black scoter was swimming across the sun path:
While the group went back to the parking lot for lunch, I stayed back on the jetty. The birds were getting some lunch of their own. The first one was this Common Eider:
Then the Common Loon showed up again, with some sort of mini-flounder in it's bill:
By the end of the trip there were some more rarities (some visitors from Florida!) but that's in the next post.
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