Herping around Home

     On the last day of summer break (9/1/14) I headed to one of my favorite herping places in Bucks County to end with a bang.  I went to a spot that I had known from being there before was very good for Spotted Salamanders.  As soon as I got there, the first rock I flipped turned up a beautiful juvenile Spotted Salamander about 3 1/2 inches long.  I was very happy to have seen it because I had caught it and recorded it's measurements just over half of a month earlier in the summer under the same rock. 

Spotted Salamander

Spotted Salamander

 

 

 

     After retaking its measurements and taking many photos of the first Spotted Salamander, I continued on the path flipping all of the boards, fallen logs, rocks, and other debris I saw.  It was a little while until I flipped the next Spotted Salamander, however I got two under one board. 

Spotted Salamander

 

 

 

     After recording this one and taking photos of it, I headed back toward the parking lot still flipping everything I saw.  On the way back I flipped two Eastern Red backed Salamanders and one more Spotted Salamander.  I also saw a few Green Frogs and Wood Frogs hopping along the trail.  Although there was very little variety, it was still very nice to have seen all of those Spotted Salamanders.





Michigan

     Throughout the days of August 17th to the 27th, my family and I went up to Onekama, Michigan to visit family on my mom's side.  We stayed in the same house as last year which is right where Portage Lake meets the channel leading into Lake Michigan.  As soon as I got out of the car, I saw and heard Cedar Waxwings close by.  Unlike last year, I saw many Caspian Terns flying through the channel.
     On one of the first days of the trip, my dad took my brothers and I up to go golfing at a nearby course.  While we were there, I saw Common Ravens, Purple Finches, American Redstarts, Red-eyed Vireos, and Cape May Warblers.  On the way home, we drove by a small field that looked like it may have previously been a small farm.  In the grasses of that field, close to the road, were three Sandhill Cranes.  There were two adults, likely a pair, and one juvenile.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me, so we drove back to the house, and came back with the camera as fast as we could.  Luckily, they were still there when I got back, so we slowly came up to them in the car with the windows down, and I snapped away.  After a few minutes I carefully stepped out of the car to get a better angle of them and took many pictures.  They stayed there the whole time roaming around in the field giving us great looks.

Adult Sandhill Crane

Adult Sandhill Crane

Juvenile Sandhill Crane

Adult Sandhill Crane

Adult Sandhill Crane

Adult Sandhill Crane Stretching its Wings

Adult Sandhill Crane

 

 

     A few days after seeing the Sandhill Cranes, we went to Arcadia Marsh, which happened to be about a minute away from where the cranes were.  While we were at Arcadia Marsh, we saw Belted Kingfishers, American Redstarts, Northern Harriers, and my lifer Virginia Rail.  Although the rail was a great bird, it took a lot of effort to see.  While we were walking the trail, my mom stepped a few feet off of the trail which immediately spooked the bird that we did not even know was there up.  It just called, flew up and down, and was gone.  After waiting a few minutes to see if it would show itself, with frustration growing because of the fact that it was only behind a clump of grass only five feet away from us in the marsh, we finally heard it again.  We also heard the splashing of it quickly darting through the shallow water.  After attempting to lure it out by playing calls of it a few times, I took off my shoes and socks and stepped one foot into the shallow, mucky water.  After waiting and waiting, I finally could see the bird through the grasses, so I snapped a few crappy pictures and decided quickly that that was good enough for me.  I walked back to the car shoeless, stepping on thistle and other twigs, but happy that we were able to have gotten the bird.

Virginia Rail through the Grasses

 

 

     Later that evening, we got to the house to hear Sandhill Cranes calling from the marshes in the lake and to see a very friendly Red Fox walking around our yard.  It was a young Fox that was very curious and likely fed by others on the beach.  It allowed me to get many pictures of it, and at one point, it came right up to me, less than a foot away, and looked directly into the camera.  After checking out our place for a little while, it walked off towards another persons house.

Fox coming close to check me out

Red Fox

 

 

     The next morning, my mom and I went to a small nearby park however, this time with the objective of finding some reptiles or amphibians.  There was not much there, but on the trail I found a small Grey Treefrog blending in with the mosses.  I picked him up and placed him on a small, leafless shrub so that I could get some better pictures of him.  He was very cooperative and did not jump all over the place to make it difficult for me.  After having some fun with him, I put him back down into the grasses were he was found.

Grey Treefrog

Grey Treefrog

Grey Treefrog

Grey Treefrog

 

 

     On the last day of the trip, we went up to the Platte River to kayak all the way through to Lake Michigan and then to hang out there.  After kayaking down the river and seeing a Snapping Turtle, many Eastern and Midland Painted Turtles, many Great Blue Herons, and a few female Hooded Mergansers, we got to the shore and brought our kayaks up.  Like always, I went with my mom across the river to the beach of Lake Michigan to look for the few Piping Plovers that nest there.  We walked down the shore watching Caspian Terns, a few Bonaparte's Gulls, Least Sandpipers and finally got the Piping Plovers.  We watched them for a while and then we headed back.  It was a good finish to a great trip.

Bonaparte's Gull

Piping Plover

Least Sandpiper

Caspian Tern



 



  



Bayonne, NJ Rails

  On Sunday (8/3/14), I met up with my birding friend to look for the American White Pelican in Richard W. DeKorte Park and to look for a King Rail in Bayonne, NJ.  We met up at DeKorte park at around 8:45 AM.  We went up a trail and saw the American White Pelican and a few Least Bitterns.  We were informed by another group of birders that if you don't go at low tide to see the King Rail, you won't see it at all.  It was two and a half hours past low tide, so we changed our plans and headed straight to the spot in Bayonne where it was seen.  As we got there we were walking by groups of birders that were saying, you probably won't see it because you missed low tide.  We went anyway to check it out and not only did we see the King Rail, we saw the King Rail mating with a Clapper Rail.  We also saw an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron

King Rail

King Rail

King Rail mating with Clapper Rail

 

 

 

     After that, we waited for them to come back out, but they never did.  So we walked down the bridge and trail some more to see if we could find a Sora that had been seen there recently.  We did not see it, but on the way back my friend spotted another family of clapper rails.  They were being very cooperative and staying close.

Adult Clapper Rail

Adult Clapper Rail and Chick Head

Clapper Rail Chick

 

 

 

     When we got back to the King Rail spot, another birder pointed out to us another rare bird: a Saltmarsh Sparrow.  It was being very cooperative and giving us great looks.

Saltmarsh Sparrow

Saltmarsh Sparrow

Saltmarsh Sparrow

 

 

 

     We finished up the day looking at an adult and immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron sitting close on the rocks next to an immature Black-crowned Night Heron.

Adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron



 

  



Bombay Hook NWR

    On Saturday July 12th, 2014, I went to Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge.  As soon as we pulled in to the parking lot for the nature center to meet up with the rest of the birding group, I got my first lifer and nemesis bird of the day, a Northern Bobwhite.  He was singing away back in a thicket behind a large field.  Soon after, we saw many Blue Grosbeaks and my second lifer of the day and my number one bird on my nemesis list, a Yellow-breasted Chat.  The chat was singing his crazy song and popping up to the tops of the trees every once in a while.  I didn't get the greatest looks of him, but luckily just when we started to drive the dike loop, a much more cooperative Yellow-breasted Chat was posing at the top of another tree in a neighboring brushy field.  He was a bit far, but we got great looks. 

Yellow-breasted Chat

Blue Grosbeak

Blue Grosbeak

 

 

 

     When we started the drive, we immediately saw American Avocets, Snowy Egrets, Greater Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitchers,  and Semipalmated Sandpipers.  We also heard many Marsh Wrens singing in the reeds.

Marsh Wren Silhouette

American Avocet

Various Shorebird Species on the Mud Flats

 

 

 

     Later in the loop we saw more Marsh Wrens, Forester's Terns, a few Black-necked Stilts, a Tundra Swan, an immature Bald Eagle, and many Ospreys.  In the sections of forest along the drive, we heard Alder Flycatchers, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers.

Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilt

Marsh Wren

Marsh Wren

Marsh Wren

 

 

 

     After lunch, we finished the drive in the grassier and more forested areas.  In one of the first fields we drove by I heard my last lifer of the day, a Grasshopper Sparrow singing its distinctive insect-like song.  Soon after, I spotted it in the grasses.  We watched it for a few minutes and then we kept driving by the field.  At the end of the field there was another Grasshopper Sparrow on top of a bird box.

Grasshopper Sparrow on top of Bird Box

Grasshopper Sparrow in the Grasses

 

 







      We finished up the day with around 90 species, and I got three more lifers.

Birding the Beaches of Strathmere

     Throughout the week of July 5th - 12th, I am going to be birding the beaches of Strathmere, a town on the southern coast of NJ. 
     On the first and second day I woke up early to take a walk on the beach to look for any shorebirds around.  I saw a few American Oystercatchers, three Least Terns, and many hunting Ospreys along with the common beach gulls: Great Black-backed, Herring, and Laughing.  I also saw two other Tern species: Forester's and Royal.

Least Tern

Osprey

Osprey coming close to check me out

American Oystercatcher peeping

American Oystercatcher