FRESH-WATER OASIS BY A BAY

     There is a fresh-water oasis flowing into a bay in the long, lean, bayside marsh at Bayview and Twenty-fourth Streets on Long Beach Island, New Jersey.  Take New Jersey Route 72 east on a bridge over that bay to Surf City on that barrier island with sandy beaches on its Atlantic Ocean side.  

     Several kinds of wintering water birds come to that oasis to drink fresh water flowing from a brook into the saltwater bay between that developed barrier island and the Jersey mainland.  And I have been watching those birds daily from mid-December to mid-February through a live camera and our home computer screen.  

     The fresh-water brook flows through a long, lean marsh of clump grass, tall grass, high, plumed phragmites and narrow, shallow channels on Long Beach Island.  When the tide goes out, a mud flat is exposed where the brook dumps silt in the bay at its shoreline, building it up.  Water birds drink from the fresh-water mostly when the tide is out because the fresh water spreads and services more birds at once. 

     Fresh water is lighter than salt water and lies on top of salty water.  Therefore, all the water birds that drink at this tiny bay oasis, skim fresh water off the surface of the bay at the oasis, as well as from the brook itself. 

     Atlantic brant raise goslings on the Arctic tundra.  And thousands of brant winter on this bay between Long Beach Island and the Jersey mainland, as other thousands do on numerous backwaters off the Atlantic in Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.  

     Brants' restless flocks dominate the oasis, off and on, most every day.  Brant are a little bigger than mallard ducks, and quite lively.  These handsome geese always seem to be bickering among themselves, but do no harm to each other.  Maybe, it's just their way of communicating.

     A score of stately Canada geese, several each of black ducks and mallard ducks, two elegant mute swans and a few northern pintail ducks also drink from this small oasis.  These lovely water birds add more charm and beauty to the little oasis they daily frequent to drink fresh water.     

     Several each of bufflehead ducks, lesser scaup ducks and red-breasted mergansers winter on this bay, as each of their species do on other backwaters off the Atlantic.  These pretty ducks dive under water from the surface to get food.  Mergansers catch small fish with their thin, serrated beaks.  Buffleheads and scaups dive for aquatic invertebrates and vegetation.  Different foods allow these ducks to winter together in harmony.     

     The attractive ring-billed gulls, herring gulls and great black-backed gulls winter on this bay, as they do on most every body of water along the oceans.  They catch fish, and do a lot of scavenging.

     And a stately great blue heron wintered in this little marsh, where it stalked small fish in the narrow channels.  It, too, drank from the fresh water brook.    

     This little oasis of fresh water, by a saltwater bay, is a draw for water birds that come there to drink.  And the live camera does a good job in making those birds visible to us, even close-up.  


          

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