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