On Saturday, 6/8/13, there was a birding field trip to Belleplain State Park in southern New Jersey. Mainly the only thing we could hear were 17 year cicadas, but we did see a lot of great birds. We did not only see good birds, we also saw good reptiles.
These two birds, a Hooded Warbler and a White-eyed Vireo, were very exciting to see because they came very close and they are two beautiful birds. The vireo was seen first while we were watching a Painted Turtle lay eggs. We heard it first and then I set out to find it. It was not far off of the trail, so I got some good looks of it.
This pair of bluebirds were very active building their nest at the Belleplain State Park visitor center.
This is a very bad shot of a lifer Mississippi Kite flyover at the visitor center. There was a large group of about ten that flew over probably following the cicadas up north. The ones that I saw were all immature birds.
There were not just good birds on this trip but also very good reptiles. This lifer Spotted Turtle was a very exciting rare animal on the trip.
