Avalon Jetty

Male Long-tailed Ducks

Male Long-tailed Duck

Female Long-tailed Duck

Female Long-tailed Duck caught a snack!

Male & female Black Scoter

Happy 2012- Avalon birding

Hard to believe another year has gone by. I wonder what the weather for the winter will be. Today was another beautiful day to go back to the Avalon Seawall and jetty at 8th Street. Three Common Eiders are joined by a young male Surf Scoter (front right).

Surf Scoter .

Osprey - April 12th

The osprey are back in Cape May County. This female Osprey hangs out along Rt 147 into North Wildwood. Last summer there were 3 chicks in the nest though I didn't know about the nest until late June. The first picture is from April 12,2011. The other pictures are from June 29, 2010 and show Mom, Dad and 3 chicks.

Birding at Avalon Seawall

Today I wanted to get out and see some more ducks. I saw a number from a good distance but none up very close that I could watch. I think that Avalon is probably better when the tides are higher, bringing the water fowl in closer to the jetty. Pictures are of Purple Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones and a Surf Scoter.

Brig & Barnaget Birding - con't

When I was finished at Brig, I drove up to LBI.

One summer when I was a teenager I stayed on LBI for 3 weeks while my family went out West on a camping trip. I stayed on the South end of the island and don't remember ever going up past Surf City, which is Mid island. Boy, has LBI grown with a WAWA when you first get on the island, big mansions along the beach that are privately owned and deny beach access to all with no trespassing signs. It seemed to take forever to drive up island to the lighthouse.

In the parking lot of the lighthouse I saw some birders/photographers who had their scopes and cameras visible so I stopped them to talk with them. They said they'd had a great time and to hurry out to the jetty but to be careful out there on the rocks. I found Brant, male and female Harlequin Ducks, an immature Great Cormorant, Scaup, Black Scoters, lots of different gulls and Purple Sandpipers. I heard there was a Harbor Seal swiming in and out by the jetty but I never did see him. Maybe next trip I'll get lucky. I never did get to go south on the island so next time I plan to drive down to the south end and see how it's changed.

Brig & Barnaget Birding

Pictures from Brig - Great Black-backed Gull, Snow Geese flying, Snow Geese in water, Female and Male Northern Shoveler, male and female Northern Pintail.

Last Friday the weather forecast was great for birding and photography. Temperatures were to be in the 50's with little wind and a slightly cloudy day. I felt like I wanted to get out and enjoy myself so I decided to go Edwin Forysthe (Brig), followed by going to Long Beach Island to Barnaget Lighthouse.

I have been hearing that lots of ducks and snow geese hang out at Brig in the winter. I have also heard that the place to find Harlequin Ducks in the winter is up at Barnaget Lighthouse. I'd never been to either place so the day would be an new experience for me and when I set off I wondered what delights were in store for the day.

Brig had lots of snow geese which was a first for me. I also saw a number of species of ducks, some of which I can't ID, plus several hawks. I took the 8 mile drive around the impoundments.

More January birding

I have a hankering to see some eagles so when I was on the computer checking out Cape May County I ran across the fact the Mauricetown in Cumberland County has an Eagle festival every year that's held the first Saturday in February. Since I have only been birding about a year I haven't really ventured out of CM County so thought why not take a drive up to preview the area, see where the viewing platforms and walks are going to be held. I'd like to go but do prefer to know where I am going so I don't get lost. So off I went exploring checking out the 4 viewing areas. I had brunch at a cafe just at the edge of the water in Newport where going back the road, I saw flocks of birds - Blue Jays, American Robins, Common Crackles, Starlings plus some birds foraging on the ground including a Flicker that was apparently looking for bugs & several White-throated Sparrows. As I tried to get a good picture of the Flicker he flew off to the trees where I was able to take a picture. Drove from there, out to Gandy's Beach, where I came across about 8 Great Blue Herons and some hawks that were out in the distance. I checked out Fortescue where I saw a lone Sanderling trying to find food along the snow/ice drifted beach. Next it was off to Turkey Point where 2 Great Blue's were walking across the street with about a dozen more were all together in a field. Here I saw an Eagles nest but sadly no Eagles to be seen. But all in all a nice day and great to be outdoors even if only driving along!

Birding in January

Birding in January in NJ this year is not for the faint of heart. The weather hasn't been the best with a major snowstorm Dec 26th with snow that has lingered plus 2 other major snow events along with frigid temperatures. Just when you think the weather is going to change for the better another snow storm is predicted. I was lucky to be able to go out 2 days to the Avalon seawall.

The first day I just needed to break free or go stir crazy. I was only going to drive up to see what birds were about but not stay. I wasn't dressed appropriately that day and the winds were blowing off the water but in the forecast there was a day that was predicted to have calm winds with the temperature in the midthirties - a positive heat wave! I did walk out the seawall on that first day and the Purple Sandpipers and Ruddy Turnstones were roosting against the rocks on the South side trying to stay out of the winds. It was a quick walk out and back.

Day 2 I was prepared with many layers of clothing including long underwear, boots and gloves. I stayed out for about 1.5 hours. There were Long-tailed Ducks courting, Greater and Lesser Scaups, Surf & Black Scoters, Common Loons along with several types of gulls, Ruddy Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers. From there I back tracked to Cape May Point but all was frozen and I didn't see much of anything.

Kayaking

In October I decided it was time to learn how to kayak. I have a friend who kayaks in the back bays and on Nummy Island to get close to the birds and gets some great nature photographs. My sister, Jenny went with me. First we tried a 2 person kayak. She paddles faster than I do so we went in circles some of the time. But we had fun and laughed a lot. Next we tried one person sit on kayaks. That works better for both of us. we were able to go out about 4 times with each time a different height of the tide. The first tide was a high tide at the full moon which meant the tide was higher than all of the salt marsh so you really couldn't tell where you were supposed to paddle. In November my sister Leslie came down for the day and we went out also. Here's Leslie and there are some Brant at the bottom. They saw us and took off!

Duke O'Fluke Atlantic County Back Bay Birding

I have gone several times on the CM County Salt Marsh Safari on the Skimmer so a friend and I decided to try the Duke O'Fluke which is a covered pontoon boat that twice a week is used to cruise the back bays and marshes behind Ocean City, Margate and Longport. The trip goes from 6PM until Sunset. The waters are deeper and more open then what we traveled in CMC. You travel to Malibu Beach which features a large colony of nesting Black Skimmers and then end the cruise by going to one or possibly two islands that have hundreds of egrets and herons nesting/sleeping there at night. You also cruise through the waterways seeing Osprey nests with chicks, many types of gulls, Willets plus lots of other birds. For me the highlights were seeing the Black Skimmers skim along the water catching fish along with going to the rookeries. I'd never seen a Tri-colored Heron and only one Yellow-crowned Night Herons and we saw both and a number of them. The trip had a nice breeze compared to being on land where it was just another day in the 90's. There was almost a full moon is the sky as we cruised through the waterways and the sunset was beatiful!