Bombay Hook, June 12, 2024
Our Pathways trip to the Delaware refuge enjoyed perfect weather and interesting birds.
Our Pathways trip to the Delaware refuge enjoyed perfect weather and interesting birds.
We enjoyed a very pretty walk through historic Batsto village to the lake, which was mirror-calm. Later, we looked for a Red-headed Woodpecker along a sand road near Chatsworth, but instead found the Pine Barrens endemic plant “Pyxie” in full bloom.
The rain date of Sept. 27 was a lucky, sunny, 65-degree day in between two days of clouds due to Tropical Storm Ophelia. Despite a shortage of migrants, there were some surprises.
A mild spring day with high clouds made for good birding at Assunpink. We made a side trip to Roosevelt, a town with a fascinating history.
For the second year in a row we visited Bombay Hook in November, for a transitional season look at departing shorebirds and arriving waterfowl.
The PPA’s Rancocas Creek Farm was our second short trip of the year, and we combined it with a visit to the Eagles’ Walk Green Acres trail in Vincentown. The weather was delightful with starting temperatures in the mid 60’s into the mid 70’s at Eagles’ Walk Green Acres.
The ML Birders took our first short trip of the year to Boundary Creek Park on a mostly overcast day with temperatures in the low 60’s. The bird of the day based on numbers was the Gray Catbird. We observed a total of 30 species for the morning.
Combined notes from two trips, April 8 and April 27 2022. April 8 was a fine early spring day, while April 27 was very windy, with less bird activity.
The ML Birders took a second trip out to the Forsythe Refuge to get a better assemblage of migrating ducks and Snow Geese. We did find a nice flock of Snow Geese and a diverse variety of ducks, but unlike past trips we did not see large numbers of ducks.
The outing to Forsythe was blessed by magnificent weather and a nice variety of bird life. Egrets and Herons were particularly abundant with Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets in large numbers.
Brilliant sun and blue skies welcomed the Pathways trip to Palmyra Cove. Lots of birds, especially warblers and Baltimore Orioles, vocalizing and in many cases challenging us to not only identify them by song but to try and find them in the foliage.
The day was gray, a little on the cool side and not very breezy, but the birds seemed to pay the weather no mind.
The weather gods finally relented and gave us a mostly sunny, relatively warm and most importantly windless day to visit the refuge. We were hoping to see the Gyrfalcon which was present a few days before our visit but had not been seen in the prior couple of days.
It was cool and windy with only partial sun. However, we did see some great birds, and it started in the parking lot, where we picked up a Brown Creeper and a Peregrine Falcon that circled over us and landed on the top of the lighthouse.
The Medford Leas Birders traveled up to Princeton to visit the Rogers Refuge, which makes up a small portion of the Institute Woods.
The Pathways boat trip through the inland waters around Cape May started out on an ominous note as we traveled to our destination from Medford Leas. Overcast skies and intermittent rain occurred most of the way.
We had a fine warm day with light clouds and a bit of wind; the showers in the forecast failed to materialize. Spring was in the air and Speedwell was in bloom. Eagles and Sandhill Cranes made appearances, and we were happy.
The ML Birders headed for the shore to look for winter waterfowl. Conditions conspired to offer fantastic concentrations of the beautiful Long-tailed Ducks in Barnegat Inlet, with hundreds of birds splashing, courting and calling.
The Medford Leas Birders scouted a route along the entire Burlington County side of the Delaware River, from Bordentown to Palmyra and a bit beyond. We didn’t have many ducks, but visited some interesting places.
It was a beautiful day to enjoy the last colors of Fall and the first waterfowl of Winter. Even on Nov. 10 we didn’t need heavy coats or gloves. The Bombay Hook refuge on the Delaware side of the bay is always a pleasing birding destination.
The ML Birders gathered on an overcast, calm day for a trip to Brigantine to see what we could see. In between summer and winter, the refuge can seem quiet, but we managed to find a good number of birds.
We welcomed new members as we resumed our field trip schedule after the pandemic pause. The weather was partly cloudy and hazy with an east wind, far from ideal for landbird migration, but you can’t choose the weather when you schedule a field trip.
The Medford Leas Birders hoped for a cloudy day for their August trip to Brigantine; the weather wasn’t cooperative, and the green-headed flies were biting, but the birds did not disappoint.
Several ML Birders from the Lumberton Campus put in a full day of birding, beginning at the Visitor’s Center for Ocean City, NJ. A heron rookery is situated behind the Center and birders have an excellent vantage point for viewing.