The Vultures of Green Pond Road
Black Vulture, Rockaway Twp., NJ, Feb. 8, 2015 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)
(Click on the photo for a larger image.)
The vulture roost behind the Barn Restaurant and Party City on Green Pond Road, Rockaway Twp., has been active for approximately two years according to Tom Gorman in the mocosocoBirds post from January 25. This morning, 36 Black Vultures and 27 Turkey Vultures were at the roost site at 9:10 AM. Not only do small groups roost in the trees surrounding the parking lot, they are spread out everywhere one looks: rooftops, lightposts, dumpsters, fencing. It is as if each vulture or small groups of vultures have their own roosting territory.
Turkey Vulture, Rockaway Twp., NJ, Feb. 8, 2015 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)
Common Redpolls and Pine Siskins on the Move
Common Redpoll, Roxbury Twp., NJ, Feb. 8, 2014 (ID record photo by J. Klizas)
Various locations from the northwestern counties of New Jersey are reporting Common Redpoll and Pine Siskin numbers in the double digits today. In Morris, 3 Pine Siskins and up to 10 Common Redpolls were in Roxbury Township (Alan Boyd); 30 Pine Siskins were in a yard in Morris Township (J. Klizas) and a few miles down the Kemble Mountain ridge from there, 30 Pine Siskins were feeding in the tops of trees at Scherman Hoffman Sanctuary in Bernardsville (Kurtis Himmler via eBird); 4 Pine Siskins were in Butler (Jim Schlickenrieder via eBird).
Common Redpoll, Roxbury Twp., NJ, Feb. 8, 2014 (ID record photo by J. Klizas)
Rough-legged Hawks
A light morph Rough-legged Hawk was reported from Hillsborough this morning (Thom Almendinger). In the past few days, a mini-invasion of Rough-legged Hawks has appeared in the interior of New Jersey. Since this post was published, it has come to light that two light morph Rough-legged Hawks were seen near the overlook at the Great Swamp NWR today (Ted Lurker as told to Simon Lane). Be aware that Pleasant Plains Road is closed periodically due to ice.
eBird Checklists for the mocosocoBirds region may be viewed via eBird’s Region Explorer. Use the following links:
The eBird Hotspot Primer is here and can also be accessed via the Hotspot menu item on the mocosocoBirds.com website.
@mocosocoBirds at Twitter is another communications stream. Instant field reports and links of interest are tweeted throughout the day. The latest tweets appear on the sidebar of this page. One can follow mocosocoBirds at Twitter or link to @mocosocoBirds.
Finis
mocosocoBirds 
In the original post, it was stated that there were no Rough-legged Hawks reported from the Great Swamp NWR today. It has come to light that two light morph Rough-legged Hawks were seen near the overlook at the Great Swamp NWR today (Ted Lurker as told to Simon Lane). The web page is updated with this information.