Ah, yes, the sweet taste of victory! Well, it only took 137 years, but Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey – has finally won a Bowl game. We simply crushed Kansas State in the inaugural Texas Bowl in Houston Thursday night, 37-10.

While I normally do enjoy a “good” game, I was more than happy with the utter domination: RU gained 479 yards on offense, and only yielded 162 yards on defense! After suffering through only 8 total wins in my four years at the school, and so many nailbiters – my friend Mark and I have a theory that being a fan of RU athletics decreases your life expectancy – I was not interested in any drama for a change! Heck, that triple-overtime loss to West Virginia this season knocked a solid three days off of my life on its own.

I could go on and on, but if you do in fact care to read anymore about the Scarlet Knights, simply check out the Star-Ledger on NJ.com and ScarletNation.com, and many other sites.

Before leaving for the Texas Bowl, Jeannette and I spent our Christmas with my family in New Jersey. We snuck in some birding early Christmas morning with a visit to Allaire State Park. There were hundreds of White-throated Sparrows, and a smattering of the other expected species, such as Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Carolina Wrens, Carolina Chickadees, and one single Field Sparrow.

A quick check of the ponds in Point Pleasant produced a peppering of waterfowl, including a total of 26 Hooded Mergansers and 4 Canvasbacks in Little Silver Lake. 26 Black-bellied Plover, 55 Dunlin, and a multitude of the common gulls stood guard on Point Pleasant Beach, while a handful of birds, including Northern Gannets and Red-throated Loons were moving south offshore. On Tuesday morning, Manasquan Reservoir produced a nice group of 20 Gadwall, 42 Ruddy Ducks, and more of the same woodland birds.

I began my visit to Houston with a trip to Challenger 7 County Park on Wednesday. The Texas birding guide that I had suggested that this was a place to look for Groove-billed Ani - a potential life bird for me. The thick, dense scrub of this large park is proper habitat, but this is a very rare and local species along the Texas Coast in winter, so I could not get my hopes up.

Originally, I had planned a quick visit here, followed by a lengthier stay at another nearby park. However, by the time I finished up at Challenger 7 Park, 4 hours had gone by, and it was already time for me to head back. While I did not locate an Ani, I thoroughly enjoyed an extremely productive visit. It was a (relatively) cold night, with a thick blanket of frost glistening from the rising sun. The first rays of sunshine were rapidly warming the scrubby edges, bringing insects to life, and a myriad of birds to feast on them.

Yellow-rumped Warblers were simply everywhere, with an estimated 2-3 thousand (very conservatively) scattered throughout the park, many feasting on insects and fruit on the sunny edges, or even right on the ground. Hundreds of American Robins were commuting overhead.

Orange-crowned Warblers were common, a treat for any Eastern birder. One single Wilson’s Warbler was near the northernmost limits of its wintering range. A pair of Monk Parakeets passed over, calling vociferously. I pished out a Sedge Wren from a wet area – a species that I have not seen since moving out of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Multiple Loggerhead Shrikes are always a treat to see, and I was thrilled to spot a White-tailed Kite as well. Meanwhile, as the day warmed dozens of Turkey and Black Vultures were taking to the sky.

Here’s the species list for the morning, in order of observation (a combination of exhaustion, laziness, and medicine-head are yielding me uninterested in putting this list into taxonomic order, to be honest!). 65 species didn’t seem too shabby for a morning’s work!

Belted Kingfisher
Eastern Meadowlark
American Robin
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Carolina Wren
Common Grackle
Northern Mockingbird
Great Blue Heron
Snow Egret
Blue Jay
Pied-billed Grebe
Ring-necked Duck
Orange-crowned Warbler
Northern Cardinal
White-throated Sparrow
House Wren
White-eyed Vireo
Brown-headed Cowbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
American Goldfinch
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Pileated Woodpecker
Hermit Thrush
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Brown Thrasher
Carolina Chickadee
Downy Woodpecker
Pine Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Red-shouldered Hawk
Swamp Sparrow
Laughing Gull
Spotted Sandpiper
Great Egret
Wood Duck
Eastern Phoebe
Tufted Titmouse
Blue-headed Vireo
American Crow
American Pipit
European Starling
Cooper’s Hawk
White Ibis
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Song Sparrow
White-winged Dove
Monk Parakeet
White-tailed Kite
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Eastern Bluebird
Savannah Sparrow
Gray Catbird
Black Vulture
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Sedge Wren
Unidentified Ammodramus sparrow (probably LeConte’s)
Loggerhead Shrike

Part II is next . . .