Down the New Jersey shore birding

I have been meaning to post this thread for a LONG time but I've been lazy. :-)

I have a lot of pics so I'll just do several at a time.

I'll start with pics from May when we stayed in Cape May for a few days.

We went on an early morning bird walk with bird experts Pete Dunne, Don Freiday and other Cape May Bird Observatory associates at the Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge.

The weather was not good at all for photographs be we saw Swallow-tailed Kites flying overhead along with Bald Eagles.

Some other birds seen were:

Common Loon,
Horned Lark
Bonaparte's Gull
Lesser Black- backed Gulls
Chimney Swifts
Northern Gannets
Swamp Sparrows
Red-eyed Vireo
Double-crested Cormorants
Purple Martins
Fish Crows
Gadwall
Barn Swallows
Least Tern, and many many more!!
and many,many more In total almost 60 different birds seen in 2 hours.

Here are a few pics I was able to get before the rain started 1/3 of the way through the walk.

A beautiful Little Blue Heron (new bird)

Here it is again with another new bird for me, a Tri-colored Heron

The first path goes down to the beach. Just south of there is the Cape May Point State Park with it's lighthouse.

Piping Plover (new bird)

Here is a Gull standing proudly with his crab catch.

It was after this that the rain was coming down pretty hard so my DH took the camera back to the car as I stayed on the walk.

I didn't know until later that my DH needed to find a bathroom so he drove down to the State Park to use their facilities. While there he took this pic of a controlled burn they were doing of some invasive grasses.

Back at our hotel there were a Mallard couple swimming in the pool.

I'll be back later to post some more.

Oops, wrong shot of the Little Blue Heron and Tri-colored Heron

That's a shame it had to rain....I'm sure it was an interesting day anyway.

Wonderful shots, Pelle. I look forward to more. Cape May looks like a fabulous place.

Great pictures Pelle. Love that one with the Little Blue Heron-what a cutie! Glad to hear they're doing controlled burns. It's wonderful for the wildlife.

Looks like you had a great trip Pelle...love the shot of the Mallards in the pool...LOL! Looking forward to seeing the rest of your trip!

Thank you guys. I made a ton of mistakes with my settings and lost a lot of pics of Ospreys flying around.

Right in the town of Cape May at a lake we saw this Brandt (new bird).

Next stop was at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor. Here is the male Osprey perched with a Willet flying by.

Osprey on the nest.

A Willet

If I'm wrong on any of these Resin can correct me. :-)

Dunlins (black bellies) and Dowitcher species.

Sixty species in a couple of hours is some good birding. Enjoy.

Fire is one of the most under-utilized and cheapest conservation techniques, especially for upland birds on the prairies. When I was involved with a conservation group, we bought burn equipment and donated it to county agencies for use by landowners.

A Forster's Tern on the dock . Thanks red, it was something I would highly recommend.

Wings up!

Standing on the dock looking over the water into the meadow we saw a Whimbrel (new bird).

On the way down the path going back to the car we saw a nice size group of birds in the first pond. Dunlin's etc.

Among them was a Black-bellied Plover; you can see him on the left here.

What wonderful trip it's. Thank Pelle for sharing the pictures.

look at what I am missing up here... need to go south!!

I'm going to try and wrap this May trip up.

We spent a short amount of time at the Cape May Point State Park. Their were quite a lot of hawks circling very high up so we went on the Hawk Watch platform. Among other hawks there were Broad-winged Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks (both new birds) along with Turkey Vultures and others I've seen before.

In the first pond there wasn't much going on but here is a duck, perhaps a Mallard. He looks a bit surprised. :-)

A Canada Goose

The Mute Swans are considered an invasive species but it is still cute when they have goslings. Sorry for the blurry pic. On the way out of the park we watched a Cattle Egret (new bird) in a grassy area between the drives.

This message was edited Jul 25, 2009 5:51 AM

very nice... yes that duck does look surprised

Last stop before leaving was just down the road from the Park called Sunset Beach. This is where you can see what is left of the Concrete Ship. It's a cute little area with a few interesting shops.

There are lots of Double-crested Cormorants swimming around the ship and even inside.

You can see one here playing "King of the Hill" as a boat passes by and others are in the water.

so many birds I have never seen before... these are great Pelle

Nice pics, Pelle and congratulations on the Brandt new bird.

I have a lot more pics but I'll end the thread with a shot of the Lighthouse through the reeds. Thanks everyone; glad to have the May trip posted.

Wonderful pictures. Funny; we grow a small iris named 'Dunlin' but I had never seen a picture of the bird. Plenty of cattle egrets in our area.

Beautiful Pelle and congratulations on the Brandt find. You have lots of critters that I've never seen before.

Nice thread pelle, some neat birds. We had a cement ship where I grew up (Seacliff Ca.) They built a pier out to it and made it a State Park.

Hi adel, I think there are about 10 around the country (not positive).

The beach areas of the Migratory Bird Refuge, State Park and Sunset Beach are no swimming allowed,all protected.

Thanks guys!