ML611336799

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Continuing, highly anticipated 1st New Jersey record, which, considering the widely documented multi-year northward expansion underway of this species, was not an if so much as a when and where. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed the when and where in this case but here it is! Originally found and posted to Facebook by Erica Higham on 11/12, refound the next morning by Harrison Hepding with permission to disseminate to the masses then secured by Andrew Marden. Excellent job by all involved and a big thank you to the many homeowners for being cool with all of us birders roaming the neighborhood in pursuit of this bird. Many non-birders stopped on Church St to look at the bird during my stay, a few saying they had seen this bird on the news the night before or that morning. When initially trying to locate the bird this morning a few homeowners wished me luck and noted the locations where they had last seen it. Pretty great all around. Throughout my stay the Limpkin worked a small patch in the SW section of the field along Church St near intersection with Rt 35. Aside from a roughly 20min rest in the sun, not long after the sun started hitting its feeding location, the Limpkin spent the rest of my approximately 2.5 hour observation period feeding continuously. The Limpkin would feed by slowly walking an area and occasionally probing around into the ground and was regularly seen picking out earthworms and appeared to be eating slugs as well, most food items however went unidentified (will see if photos show anything other than earthworms and slugs). What appeared to be a whitish, sticky substance would often accumulate at the end of the Limpkin's bill as it fed, despite close photos though I couldn’t determine exactly what it was but I suspected remnants of food items considering it was eating earthworms and slugs. For the most part this bird moved well and appeared healthy but on a few occasions it lost its balance while adjusting its weight as if its legs (right leg only?) were weak. The Limpkin fed without showing any obvious signs of wariness to the presence of people and a few times approaching so close to myself and others along the field edge that we would back up. Distinctive, large brown wader, long, slightly drooping orangey bill, whitish and brown streaky head and neck, whitish spots/streaks against brown body and wings; expected ssp group and readily field identifiable; photos/video later

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS R7

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

500

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

3834 pixels x 2556 pixels

Original file size

6.81 MB