Barnegat Light, December 16, 2015
On a fairly pleasant day at the Shore the only thing missing were the objects of our trip, namely, the birds!! The unseasonably mild weather might be the culprit.
On a fairly pleasant day at the Shore the only thing missing were the objects of our trip, namely, the birds!! The unseasonably mild weather might be the culprit.
Four intrepid ML Birders and three guests made the trek to Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River in MD on a delightful sunny day with temperatures in the 60’s. The Bald Eagles were the highlight of the day.
Twenty-three ML Birders and guests saw 41 species at the refuge and surrounding environs on a bright sunny day. Lunch at nearby Shea’s restaurant capped the day.
The ML Birders saw 47 species at Cape May and environs on a lovely warm, partly sunny day. Sites visited were the Light House and Hawk Watch Platform, a seaside meadow, the Audubon Center and Higbee Beach where a group of porpoises frolicked offshore for our entertainment.
The temperature was 68 degrees when we started out from Lumberton. It was a partly cloudy morning with patches of sun peeking through. The temperature reached 83 degrees before we returned at noon.
We had a beautiful, warm, sunny morning, with temperatures in the low 70s. In the late morning, clouds arrived and a blustery wind caused many birds to take shelter.
Bright, sunny, pleasantly warm (low 70’s) and productive. Picked up 35 species including four warbler species and as we were heading back to the cars a Scarlet Tanager and about four Indigo Buntings.
We had a beautiful warm, sunny morning, it even felt like spring. Chris Jage, an employee of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation guided our three car loads of M.L. Birders around the sandy roads of the reconstructed cranberry bogs.
Salem County in spring can offer very interesting birding; it has early migrants and arrivals, but also can hold on to winter birds.
Arriving at the hawkwatch about 10:15, we found a moderate flight of accipiters underway, with constant Cooper’s and Sharpshinned Hawks in the air…. On our way home we found and identified a couple of interesting caterpillars.
Two trips in one – a scouting run and a fall field trip, in shorebird season.
A great day of bird photography at the rookery.
The ML Birders headed out to Belleplain State Forest on a gray and blustery day hoping to see some early arriving warblers. The birding gods were conspiring against them!
Mannington Marsh, the tidal estuary of the Salem River, is a beautiful place to look for waterfowl and early spring migrants.
A beautiful day, with thousands of Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warblers and plenty of hawks to watch.
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.