Happy Mother's Day

American Oystercatcher Mom with her chicks

Least Tern and her chicks

A wee bit older ~ American Oystercatcher chick

Piping Plover chick

Clapper Rail chick

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

Spring is coming

Late last week there were reports of Piping Plovers arriving back in Cape May County.  I just love the Piping Plover.  It survives through great odds though their numbers are down. They have been seen at the South Cape Beach (the Meadows), Cook's Beach and also in Stone Harbor.   After getting off work I was off to SH Point to walk along the beach.  I was very happy to find 3 Piping Plovers (and probably more), some Semipalmated Plovers among the Sanderlings and Dunlin that were feeding along the water's edge.  There were hundred's of birds feeding and bathing on the beach in the waves.

Birding South Cape Meadows

American Oystercatchers and babies - South Cape Meadows

     

Killdeer

Piping Plover and chick

  

On to the Meadows & Higbee Beach

After walking the jetties of CMP I went off to the Meadows where a Great Blue Heron flew over for a great photo opportunity. There were some Piping Plovers feeding along the waters edge where the waves were crashing and chasing the birds up onto the beach.

After leaving the Meadows I decided to walk down to the beach area at Higbee's Beach as I had read on one of the field reports that there were some Red-breasted Mergansers. There were 2 of them with one swimming around and one having a nice nap. I find the Mergansers as a species very fascinating and beautiful.

Endangered Shorebirds Fencing

New Jersey Nature Conservancy put out a call via FB for help putting up the fences to protect the nesting shorebirds on the South Cape May beach. We have Piping Plovers, Least Terns and American Oystercatchers that all nest on the beach during May-August. The past 2 years Black Skimmers have come to the beach but so far they haven't nested here. Everyone is hoping that they'll choose to nest on this beach one year soon. All of these birds nest on the beach in small depressions where they lay their eggs. So each spring symbolic fencing is put up as a marker to keep people off some of the beach area to give the birds space to have their nests. I decided to go help put up the fencing. It was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the low 70's, very remarkable for March but our whole winter & spring have been unusual. There were 5 volunteers in addition to the 4 staff. We saw 5 or 6 Piping Plovers along with 4 American Oystercatchers during our workday.