Brant are small geese that feed primarily on eelgrass. They arrive in mid-October and remain at Sandy Hook until around mid-May. The word "brant" comes from the English "burnt" and refers to the dark head.

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Eiders are usually found in New England but occasionally a few turn up near the sea walls and jetties. Eiders dive for their food and eat mollusks off the bottom. Eider down is used in clothing because it is such a good insulator. Don't worry, they don't kill the birds for it, they collect it from their nests.

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In the fall, migrating great blue herons will linger around Sandy Hook until the bay freezes. They are the earliest wading bird that we see migrating north in the spring.

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Cormorants are one of the most successful and widespread birds along the world's coasts. The double-crested cormorant is abundant year round in Sandy Hook Bay and feeds by swimming under water and catching fish of all sizes. In the Orient, trained cormorants are utilized by fishermen to catch fish.

This immature bird is drying its wings so that it can fly. Cormorants have "wet feathers" that allow them to swim under water easier, but they need to dry before they can take off.

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Storm petrels may be the most abundant bird in the world, but are rarely seen from the shore. Occasionally we can spot them on Sandy Hook Bay in July and August, but usually we only see them on boat trips. The birds seem to walk across the water and the word "petrel" comes from St. Peter.

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Buffleheads arrive at Sandy Hook about October 20th and head back north around May 20th each year. They are a diving duck and eat small mollusks and crustaceans off of the bottom of the Bay.

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Large rafts of ducks spend the winter and late spring on Sandy Hook Bay. The most common species are scaup, but mixed in with them, the occasional canvasback and redhead ducks can be found. In early spring there are sometimes 30,000 or more ducks on the bay. Most will have migrated north and west to their breeding grounds by May 1st. The word scaup is an English word that refers to shellfish beds, a clue to what these birds are feeding on at the bottom of the bay.

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Mallard ducks are year round residents at Sandy Hook and often nest here in the spring. Mallards are "puddle ducks" and feed along the shoreline. The smaller bird is a ruddy duck.

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Redhead ducks are one of the most abundant ducks in the midwest and winter in great flocks along the Texas coast. Some migrate to our coast to find open water during the winter because the fresh water ponds where they were raised are frozen.

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The ring-necked duck is a diving duck that is uncommon but usually found over-wintering in small numbers in coastal fresh water ponds.

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The ruddy duck is the smallest of the "diving" ducks and feeds on the bottom. Because of the different location of their legs, puddle ducks, like mallards, can walk easily on land, whereas the diving ducks have difficulty.

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Formerly a winter migrant, the Canada goose has become our most common resident goose because suitable habitat (corporate lawns, golf courses and ponds) has been created for it and because Fish and Game authorities transplanted young geese to establish populations in coastal states. In many places they have become a nuisance.

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This mysterious looking goose appears to be a cross between a Canada goose and a white-fronted goose. The white-fronted goose is a western bird rarely found in New Jersey.

The snow goose migrates to New Jersey during the first week of October. Most birds spend the winter in the marshes of southern New Jersey, but occasionally juvenal birds, like this one, can not keep up with the flock's movement and drop out to spend the winter at Sandy Hook.

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