Eurasian Marsh-Harrier in New Jersey! ~ November 9, 2022

I was watching the election results and got to bed late last night. My ringing phone woke me up around 9 AM. It was Jason Horn. He asked if I wanted to go look for a Eurasian Marsh-Harrier that had been seen yesterday in Whippany, New Jersey! This bird had originally been found in Maine back in late August and then disappeared for months until it was surprisingly refound yesterday in nearby New Jersey. It was a 'no-brainer', so I rushed to get ready. He picked me up and we drove about an hour to the area and started looking for an access point to the area where Chuck Hantis had photographed it yesterday. We eventually ended up at the small marsh behind the Powerhouse Fitness Center, known locally as the Melanie Lane Wetlands. Frank Sencher, Jr. was already there searching with his scope. After about an hour or so, Jason spotted two raptors circling way out over the far side of the marsh and one looked promising. Frank got on it with his scope and confirmed that it was the bird! There was only room for two people at the water's edge, so I was back behind them looking through more trees. I couldn't get on it as it kept getting higher. Frank was nice enough to let me look through his scope, but it had moved when I took a look. I was worried that I might end up missing it altogether as I looked through the trees. Luckily, it got higher, but soared right over us. After it got to the south of us, it turned back towards us and began a long stoop toward the marsh. The ducks in the pond scattered as it worked back and forth over the marsh. I snapped as many photos as I could through the gaps in the trees and was pretty happy with the results.

Eurasian Marsh-Harrier

Jeff Vinosky showed up right after the find and also got to see it hunt the marsh. Unfortunately, the bird eventually climbed back up high into the sky and soared off to the north. The word was sent out and birders began showing up in numbers. When we left around 3 PM, the bird had not returned.

To my knowledge, this is only the second record for the United States and, obviously, the first New Jersey record!

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UPDATE on 2/1/2023: An amazingly sad story about this bird was posted to the ABA Rare Bird Alert Facebook page. According to the post, a U.S.D.A. (United States Department of Agriculture) newsletter stated the following:

Significant Birdstrike at Newark International Airport, NJ Involving a Rare Species Not Typically Found in the United States

"In November 2022, a United Airlines B-737 aircraft on final approach at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), NJ reported a bird strike at 3000 feet above ground level, 9 nautical miles from touch down. After landing, a United mechanic inspected the aircraft and found bird remains on the fuselage but no damage. The Smithsonian Feather Lab, using both whole feather morphology with museum specimens and DNA analysis, determined the species was a Eurasian Marsh-Harrier, a bird that typically occurs in southern Eurasia and North Africa. Remarkably, a bird observer had reported, via eBird, a sighting of a Eurasian Marsh-Harrier about 6 days earlier at Troy Meadows Wetlands, approximately 20 miles from EWR, and may be only the second sighting of this species in the United States!"

I did a search on the "F.A.A. Wildlife Strike Database" and confirmed the report. Their database lists that "Incident Number 1348054" occurred at 3:45 PM on November 19th and that it involved the Marsh-Harrier and United Airlines Flight 224. The last eBird report of the bird is listed as the 12th, so this rarity was hunting that area for at least a week-and-a-half. The odds of this happening to this particular bird are astronomical. It's a very sad ending to a bird that survived a trip from another continent, only to meet its demise while soaring in the New Jersey sky.

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