Barnegat Light and Jetty, January 23

I arrived at Barnegat Light and Jetty between 9:00 and 10:00 am after a stop  for gas and at Walmart to pick up some supplies.    Top left is a view of the Light and my new Dart Dart.  I have also included pictures of the long walk out the jetty at least a mile for the benefit of my nephew Erik's wife Kim.  She gave me a Christmas present this year of a book entitled "1,000 Places to See Before You Die."  I thought that Barnegat Light would be in that book, but it is not.  Well it should be.  This is for you Kim!  The next photo to the left is the lighthouse with my Dodge Dart in the foreground.  The next photo shows the jetty stretching into the distance.   The pipe railing is on a short concrete walkway.  The tower at the end of the jetty is the short vertical object that is aligned with the right most vertical pipe on the railing.  It is small because it is about a mile away.  The third photo shows a zoomed in view of the tower at the end of the jetty.  It was cold and very windy today.  I wore five layers of clothing including thermal underwear, a fleece sweater, a nylon windbreaker jacket with lining and a rubberized rain coat as a wind barrier with a hood, wet suit pants as a wind barrier, a warm knit hat under the hood, wore warm wool gloves and took two back-up sets of gloves with me. I saw twelve new birds:  Red-breasted Merganser, Brandt, about twenty Long-tailed Ducks, at least ten Harlequin Ducks, two Black-bellied Plovers, four Sanderlings, about ten Red-throated Loons, several Common Loons, thirty one Purple Sandpipers, six Ruddy Turnstones, at least twenty five Common Eiders, and fourteen Black Scoters.  Most of these birds were out at the end.  It was a long walk.  The bird photos are Purple Sandpiper,  Harlequin Duck, Common Eider and Long-tailed Duck.  In the early afternoon I drove south to Cape May to look for the King Eider reported there, but did not find it.   I looked at the point and on the bayside near the ferry slip.  The high wind probably kept the bird in hiding.  At about 5:00 pm I headed back toward Cincinnati and stayed the night at Exit 226, Carlisle, on the PA Turnpike.  The total is now 104 one higher than my had written list.  I discovered in writing this blog that I did not count Brant.  Tomorrow I leave for home for a furnace inspection appointment late in the afternoon.