A Great Start to 2015

     On January 1st, 2015, my mom, little brother, aunt, and I all went to two of my favorite birding places in New Jersey:  Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, and Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.  We started out at Barnegat Lighthouse State Park.  When we got on the jetty, I was a little nervous that birding was going to be slow that day because all I saw were gulls.  However, things started picking up a little bit about 30 yards down the jetty when my mom spotted a Herring Gull with a Starfish in its mouth.  Another 20 yards down the jetty we finally started to see ducks.  The first duck we saw was a Harlequin Duck which soon led us to more Harlequin Ducks.  We then stated to see Black Scoters, a couple Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Loons, and a few Long-tailed Ducks.  Even though we had already seen many great birds, the highlight of the trip didn't come until we got to the end of the jetty.  There we saw a massive flock of about 250 Common Eiders of all different plumages spread out across the end of the jetty.  Now I had gone from only seeing one far flyby female Common Eider to 250 male and female Common Eiders.  While I was watching the Eiders, a very close Northern Gannet flew over us and even took a dive in the inlet next to us.  After getting great looks of both the Gannet and the Eiders, we walked back along the jetty and added one Surf Scoter to our list.

Herring Gull with Starfish

Herring Gull with Starfish

Male Harlequin Duck

Common Eiders Flying

Common Eiders Flying

Common Eiders Flying

Northern Gannet

Northern Gannet

Northern Gannet

Black Scoter

Common Eiders

Common Eiders

Common Eiders

Common Eiders

 

 

 

     After having a great time at Barnegat, we went over to Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.  There we got Northern Harrier, American Black Ducks, Green-winged Teals, Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails, Hooded Mergansers, Bufflehead, a Common Goldeneye, Ruddy Ducks, an immature Black-crowned Night Heron, and a huge flock of thousands of Snow Geese.  We even got to see them all lift up at the same time because of the disturbance of an immature Bald Eagle.  It was a great way to end the day, and a great way to start the year.

Northern Harrier

Northern Harrier

Female Common Goldeneye

Snow Geese

Snow Geese Taking Off

   

   

Coastal Hotspots of New Jersey

   On Friday November 28th, 2014, my mom, little brother, and I went to a few hotspots along the coast of New Jersey.  We started out with Stone Harbor.  There we saw a large flock of Snow Buntings, a massive flock of Brant, a few Surf Scoters, and Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls.

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

 

 

 

     The next stop we made was at the Avalon Sea Wall.  There we saw many Red-throated Loons, Northern Gannets, Surf Scoters, Black Scoters, Common Loons, one female Common Eider, and many Purple Sandpipers of the jetty rocks.  The final place that we went to was Cape May.  There we saw American Widgeon, Eurasian Widgeon, American Black Ducks, Northern Shovelers, Hooded Mergansers, Mallards, and Tundra Swans.  We finished the day off with about six American Pipits in a flooded field by the parking lot.  It was a great way to end the month.

Eurasian Widgeon (Top Right)

American Pipits

 



Susquehanna County Herps

     On Saturday, October 4th, 2014, my friend, my dad and I went up to Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania to meet up with a Herpetologist to do a herp blitz.  It took place in Salt Springs State Park on the north border of the County.  When we got there, he told us what areas we were going to be looking in and then we headed off.  We started in a small stream near the visitors center.  The first salamander that we caught was a Northern Slimy Salamander.  We then kept flipping rocks along the stream bed turning up another Northern Slimy Salamander, multiple Allegheny Mountain Dusky Salamanders, an Eastern Red-backed Salamander, and many Northern Two-lined Salamanders.

Northern Slimy Salamander

Allegheny Mountain Dusky Salamander

 

 

 

     After searching through the stream, we went to another more wooded area of the park.  Soon after we got there, we had come across a huge abundance of Red Efts crossing the path.  We watched our step and carefully placed all of the Efts that we saw on the side of the path that they were heading towards.  Along the trail we also saw a Spring Peeper and we flipped many other Northern Slimy Salamanders, Eastern Red-backed Salamanders, and Allegheny Mountain Dusky Salamanders.  Sadly, the last herp, and only snake, of the day was a dead Northern Red-bellied Snake.  However, it was still a great day.

Two Northern Slimy Salamanders

Northern Slimy Salamander

Allegheny Mountain Dusky Salamander

Red Eft

Red Eft

Spring Peeper

Northern Slimy Salamander

Allegheny Mountain Dusky Salamander

Red Eft





An Extreme Rarity

     On Saturday September 20th, 2014, I went down to Cape May to search for a bird being seen there that had only been seen 3 other times in the United States; the Whiskered Tern.  Once we got down there, we immediately began searching through the large flocks of terns on the beaches seeing only Forester's, Common, and Royal Terns.  After having no luck seeing the bird, we went to other areas to see what else was around.  Disappointingly, there was very little activity throughout the rest of the park, so we went back to devoting our time to searching for this bird.  After a few more hours of scanning the beaches, we finally came up to a very promising looking flock.  There were dozens of birders with scopes observing the terns, so we walked up to them and without even asking, one of them said he had the rarity in his scope and offered for us to take a look.  We all looked at the Whiskered Tern with great amazement, even though it isn't a very stunning bird.  After getting the best looks possible, we headed back home knowing that we were all very lucky to have seen the bird.

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Whiskered Tern (Center)

Whiskered Tern (Center)