Happy Mother's Day

Here's a collection of some of my favorite birds and their checks pictures.  Enjoy...

American Oystercatcher with days old chicks ~ South Cape Meadows, NJ

Piping Plover parent watching out for chick ~ South Cape Meadows, NJ

Piping Plover chick learning to feed at the water's edge ~ South Cape Meadows, NJ

Elegant Tern chick wanting to be feed ~ Potter's Marsh outside of Anchorage, Alaska

Clapper Rails learning to cross the water ~ Benny's landing Rd, NJ

Horned Grebe chicks take a ride on Mom's back ~ Potter's Marsh outside Anchorage, Alaska

Kayaking with Brooke & Stacie - Cape Island Creek

One of the fun things about living in CMC is kayaking in the back bays.  I just haven't had time to  kayak this spring because of working and when off of work creating new butterfly gardens for my front yard.  This weekend friends were down so kayaking Cape Island Creek was planned.  What a fun time we had 

seeing Common Terns (above) Great Egrets (left), Snowy Egrets, Osprey and Osprey chicks,
Cormorants on poles, many Green Herons hunting along the edges of the creek, Clapper Rails calling with one bathing in the creek, hundreds of Fiddler Crabs, Gulls catching crabs for breakfast  and lots more birds.

Green Heron

Clapper Rail bathing

Broooke kayaking

Stacie having fun!

 

Cook's Beach on a great day of birding

After checking out Benny's Landing Road where I finally saw my first Clapper Rail of the season I cut across the island to Cook's Beach hoping to see some Red Knots feasting on the horseshoe crab eggs. Cook's Beach was having great flybys of mixed shorebirds though I saw no Red Knots in the mix. It looked like there were good numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers, Sanderlings and a few Dunlin and Ruddy Turnstones.   Going back out the road I saw Willets, Snowy Egrets and a great Glossy Ibis feeding among the reeds in a pan.