Saturday, April 02, 2016
Riverside Church
For the past 3 years a red-tailed hawk and a peregrine falcon have nested within 100 yards of each other in Riverside Park. Good luck to them both, hopefully they can both succeed!
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Square One
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
Monday, February 01, 2016
Manasquan Reservoir
Havent been to this location since the summer and thankfully the water levels are back to normal. Also back to normal are the resident bald eagles who seem to be working on one of their old nests. I had 7 bald eagles on the day including a group of 3 juveniles bathing.
Friday, January 15, 2016
Barnegat Light
Just a beautiful morning there today. Birding began on the drive out with 2 adult peregrines on the Surf City water tower.
While there the police chief shared that they have been nesting there for the past 7 years. Closeup photos revealed both birds are banded with DEP tags. Also saw a cool territory defense and "eechuk" calls when a Cooper's flew past.
Further down I had an additional 2 peregrines on the Barnegat Light water tower. These two were definitely not the same birds as they both had empty crops and were untagged as far as I could see.
Due to high winds I birded the trails first as the day warmed up. I had 2 yellow-rumped warblers and this Cooper's hawk lurking in the scrub.
While there I met two women who were there to see the Harlequin ducks. One of them was a bit older and it would be a lifer for her. So I shepherded them to the jetty and lo and behold a lone harlequin male had made his way toward them, saving her the treacherous journey! Here's a pic of them out on the jetty after.
Along the way I had many common loons, gulls of intermediate plumage, 3 harriers across the bay in Island beach and 2 what I think are red-breasted merganser females.
Also ran into a guy who said he had a harbor seal feeding along the jetty. At the tip were large rafts of ducks shifting about.
Black scoter,
surf scoter,
long-tailed ducks,
2 red-throated loon and 2 common eider!
Driving back along route 9 I stopped in Tom's River and found the usual raft of about 25 canvasbacks along with about 50 ring-necked ducks.
There were also about 100 mallards and 12 bufflehead.
While there the police chief shared that they have been nesting there for the past 7 years. Closeup photos revealed both birds are banded with DEP tags. Also saw a cool territory defense and "eechuk" calls when a Cooper's flew past.
Further down I had an additional 2 peregrines on the Barnegat Light water tower. These two were definitely not the same birds as they both had empty crops and were untagged as far as I could see.
Due to high winds I birded the trails first as the day warmed up. I had 2 yellow-rumped warblers and this Cooper's hawk lurking in the scrub.
While there I met two women who were there to see the Harlequin ducks. One of them was a bit older and it would be a lifer for her. So I shepherded them to the jetty and lo and behold a lone harlequin male had made his way toward them, saving her the treacherous journey! Here's a pic of them out on the jetty after.
Along the way I had many common loons, gulls of intermediate plumage, 3 harriers across the bay in Island beach and 2 what I think are red-breasted merganser females.
Also ran into a guy who said he had a harbor seal feeding along the jetty. At the tip were large rafts of ducks shifting about.
Black scoter,
surf scoter,
long-tailed ducks,
2 red-throated loon and 2 common eider!
Driving back along route 9 I stopped in Tom's River and found the usual raft of about 25 canvasbacks along with about 50 ring-necked ducks.
There were also about 100 mallards and 12 bufflehead.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
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