Earlier this month, three of my friends and I took a trip to the New Jersey coast to look for wintering waterfowl and sandpipers. Knowing that the temperatures were going to be well below-freezing, we bundled up and prepared for a windy day. Our first stop was Barnegat Light and the jetty that I have a love/hate relationship with. I hate it because you have to be careful going from rock-to-rock and it can be slippery when wet. But at the same time I love it since it always brings us good birds. The rocks were icy, but the birding turned out to be pretty good!
My friends returning from the tip of the icy jetty
On our way down the jetty, we spotted a single Dunlin on the beach-side. It didn’t seem to want to move, though it didn’t look injured. For a moment, it seemed like it was just frozen in place.
A lone Dunlin
We found one brave songbird on the jetty. It also did not seem like it wanted to move far.
Savannah Sparrow on the rocks
Last winter, we had plenty of waterfowl close in the inlet, but both time I went to Barnegat this season it was different – there were hunters in boats close to the jetty, which kept the waterfowl distant. There was a large grouping of Eiders in the bay, but harsh light and distance made for poor photo ops. They were mostly Common Eiders, but we did spot one King. Many Common Loons and some Red-throated were also present. Scoters were even more distant with a few Black Scoters coming near the jetty. A single pair of Harlequins came in close.
The only pair of Harlequin Ducks who came in close
Harlequin Duck drake flying by
We did run into the usual flock of Dunlin and Ruddy Turnstones on the jetty. They were huddled and did not care to move as we passed by. The Purple Sandpipers were on the very tip and I did not go close enough to photograph them.
The flock of Dunlin stay warm
Ruddy Turnstones with the Dunlin
Dunlin on ice
Ruddy Turnstones using a rock to break the wind
On the way out, we walked on the sand so that we could keep our eyes on the dunes for buntings, larks and longspurs – and also to keep warm since all of us seemed to lose feeling in our fingers. We ended up seeing a ton of Yellow-rumped Warblers.
Yellow-rumped Warbler on the path
Other highlights from Barnegat included a couple of close fly-bys by a juvenile Northern Gannet, a male Northern Harrier hunting the dunes and an unexpected Bonaparte’s Gull. On our way off of the island, we checked out a few marinas for more waterfowl. We got distant looks at Bufflehead, Horned Grebes, Loons, Pintails, Black Ducks, Long-tailed Ducks, Gadwall, Goldeneyes, Red-breasted Mergansers and Ruddy Ducks.
After that, we chased reports of a Cackling and Ross’s Goose on the way to our next destination. The birds were not present, but there were some other friendly waterfowl. Sometimes, you just have to take a photo op, no matter how common the bird is.
The often-ignored Mallard Duck
Mute Swans are a beautiful bird, often overlooked by birders
Oddly enough, this is my first close photo of a Black Duck
Our final stop was Island Beach State Park. We wanted to show one of my friends the foxes and also see if we could get a glimpse of a Snowy Owl. The foxes did not disappoint.
Red Fox off the road at Island Beach
We brought our scopes out onto the beach to scan the water. We estimated around 15,000 Scoters – mostly Blacks with many Surf and White-winged mixed in. As we were leaving, we decided to check out a spot that a few cars were parked at. Sure enough, they were looking at a Snowy Owl. The bird was a bit distant, but she had a nice perch. It was a great way to end the day!
In the beginning of the month, two friends and I headed to the coast for some birding in New Jersey. It was a great trip for both birding and bird photography. Shorebirding can often be frustrating since I am still a beginner with them and I usually see them far away through a scope. We had a nice break from scope views during this trip and were able to admire their real beauty up close. The following birds are some of the more cooperative shorebirds that we found at Forsythe and Stone Harbor. See the captions for more information on the birds.
We got great looks at this Least Sandpiper at Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge
We went to Stone Harbor and found some very cooperative Semipalmated Sandpipers
A couple of Ruddy Turnstones were with them
We found some Sanderlings on a jetty
Just a few Sanderlings…
Perhaps a few hundred Sanderlings…
As the tide came in the Sanderlings were flying off the jetty to the sand
I’ve never seen so many shorebirds running with the waves
There was an extremely cooperative Semipalmated Plover with them
I was happy to finally get good photos of this species!
Last Sunday, two of my friends and I drove west to Ohio for the Biggest Week in American Birding. This was my third year going to the festival and it just keeps getting better! We tortured ourselves during the drive by following the tweets coming in from guides about the great birds they were seeing. In the prior years, we went to Magee Marsh on arrival, but a certain tweet changed our minds.
Least Bittern and White-faced Ibis currently being seen at Metzger Marsh. – Rob Ripma
We ended up heading to Metzger Marsh instead and were instantly greeted by three White-faced Ibises foraging out in the open. This was a life bird for all three of us and the scope views were amazing. What a way to begin our tip!
White-faced Ibis life birds to start our festivities!
After exploring Metzger for a bit, we headed to Magee so that we could stretch our legs some more on the boardwalk. I don’t think we got past the loop at 7a because the birds were too good to pass up. My friend, Jon, was racking up life birds like crazy – not only that, but they were great views. I had a Prothonotary Warbler within an arm’s reach; he was so close that I had trouble focusing on him at times. He even landed on the bench that I was sitting on with no mind to me or the other birders going crazy around him.
This Prothonotary Warbler was too busy eating to care about his paparazzi
It was hard to leave, but we had to pick up a few groceries, check into our hotel and eventually eat dinner (at 10PM…). I also really wanted to get my hands on Athena, Leica’s Wandering Ultravids, so that I could be one of many people honored to see birds through a pair of binoculars who is on a big year.
I will get more into what Athena is, my experience with “her” and that day’s trip in a future post. One highlight from that day that I will mention now is the extremely rare bird that we chased after lunch.
Five of eight Black-bellied Whistling Ducks who were way out of range.
These eight Black-bellied Whistling Ducks (plus two more) showed up the same day we did, but we chose to see the Ibises on our way in instead. Thankfully, they hung around and were re-found the next day in an excellent spot. You did not need a scope to appreciate the beauty of these birds! I saw one of these in Costa Rica a few years ago, but this was a much better look and my US-lifer.
The next day, we started at the Magee Marsh boardwalk and the good birds just kept on coming with more excellent views of them. Every time we tried to go somewhere else, something good kept us from leaving. We walked the boardwalk from the west end to the east end and back again.
Bay-breasted Warblers were everywhere in all plumages!
Chestnut-sided Warbler posing beautifully
I always get good views of the Cape May Warblers at Magee
I got some of my best looks at some birds that I’ve only seen briefly, very high in trees or hidden behind brush and vines.
A very cooperative Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
This Mourning Warbler was constantly foraging near the west entrance
My best looks at a Yellow-billed Cuckoo
On our way to chase another bird, we passed by a group of people who were looking at what turned out to be a life bird for me – an Olive-sided Flycatcher. What a treat!
Other birders were looking at this Olive-sided Flycatcher that we happened to walk by
Just as we were about to leave the boardwalk to chase a Black-necked Stilt, a tweet came in that turned us right around.
Henslow's Sparrow is back out and walking around on the south side of the boardwalk # 19B – Raymond/BRANTTours
A Henslow’s Sparrow in the middle of the woods? Another life bird for the three of us? We’ll take it!
A Henslow’s Sparrow way out of place in the woods
We finally left the boardwalk after 2PM and looked for the Black-necked Stilt that was reported on the Magee causeway. Other birders said that it flew off, so that is one bird that we did not have luck with. You can’t get them all, but you can certainly try to.
After visiting friends on our way out and being convinced to get some ice cream, we ended up driving through the Ottawa NWR Auto Tour – birds and ice cream? Score!! The water was high, so there was not much to see aside from some waterfowl and this very cooperative Dunlin who was right off the road.
This Dunlin in breeding plumage made the tour worth it!
The following morning, we were invited to join our friends from Leica on the east beach to see if the night’s storms blew in a Kirtland’s Warbler. We did not get the bird, however, the experience was something to be remembered. We birded with the authors of The Warbler Guide and were also joined by actress, and birder, Lili Taylor (click her name for a great article by her in the New York Times). It’s a different experience getting ID tips from guys who really know the field marks on these birds. Thanks to them, I have mastered the Blackpoll Warbler’s song – one that I get mixed up with other high pitched Warbler calls.
We went back to the boardwalk where we photographed birds from the famous boardwalk tower and wandered around in search of other cooperative subjects. Rain started to threaten the skies so we decided to hop into the car and chase another tweet to get my friends a new life bird.
Red-necked Phalarope spinning at Pearson Park Wetland complex. Look from picnic table between cabins-Lpeyton
We arrived at Pearson Metropark and parked the car to eat our lunch. We strategically parked next to the marsh where we saw a Sora two days prior. The bird was seen within seconds, but it scooted back into the reeds. We kept an eye out as we ate our sandwiches and the bird came back out for a great showing. The three of us were able to take amazing photos of this elusive bird!
A Sora out in the open
The rain let up and we got out to look for the reported Phalarope. The bird was almost at the feet of the people who were already looking at it. I got down low on the wet rocks and waited for the bird to come near me.
Red-necked Phalarope foraging very close to the path
This. Bird. Was. Close.
See the Red-necked Phalarope in the frame with me?
That evening, like every other night, we joined up with the event’s socials to meet new people and see everyone who we’ve stayed in touch with over the years. This year, I really wanted to take a photo with Kim and Kenn Kaufman because I always forget to get photos with people. As busy as they were, they stepped aside and posed with me.
Honored to take a photo with Kim and Kenn Kaufman
I also took a photo with another birding celebrity (though, he is so modest about it) – Greg Miller, you know, the guy who Jack Black plays on The Big Year (in the movie, his name is Brad). I have to say, Jack’s fun personality fits Greg perfectly.
Me with Gregg Miller
On our last day, we woke up to heavy rain and decided to go to the boardwalk anyway. We were not surprised to see a decent amount of people wearing raincoats, umbrellas and waterproof optics enjoying the birds.
A little (ok.. a lot of) rain does not stop the birders!
All-in-all, it was another great trip. We got together with friends who we only see once a year, made some new ones along the way and saw some awesome birds. I’m already looking forward to next year!
I think I have an addiction. It is called Barnegat Light. This gem of a place has brought me five excellent trips since my first time going there in November. We had two goals this trip: find Piping Plovers and give my friend, Teri, the Barnegat experience. This trip was suppose to happen last weekend, but the weather did not cooperate and the east coast had heavy rains. This weekend, however, it was warm and the sun was shining.
Barnegat Lighthouse from the jetty
We were greeted by one of the most beautiful waterfowl – the Long-tailed Duck. They were beginning to enter into breeding plumage, something that I have not seen yet.
Female Long-tailed Duck in transitional plumage
Another first for me were Laughing Gulls in breeding plumage. I’ve only ever seen them in the fall. They stayed away from the jetty.
Distant Laughing Gull in breeding plumage
Bird-wise, it started out very quiet. The jetty looked empty and we could not see birds in the water. This could have been due to the very high winds which caused massive waves in the inlet.
High waves across the Barnegat inlet
We left the jetty and went onto the beach to look for Piping Plovers along the fenced off breeding grounds. Still nothing. We finally spotted two birds.
American Oystercatchers near a high tide pool
American Oystercatchers! It seemed like they didn’t want to move, so we made our way closer to them and dropped as low as we could go for some photos. After reviewing the photos on the computer, I noticed something special – the blowing sand was visible in our photos. The three of us had no idea we captured this!
American Oystercatcher surrounded by blowing sand
After this treat, the birds came moving in. A large flock of shorebirds zipped past and landed on the jetty.
Mixed flock of Dunlin, Sanderlings and Purple Sandpipers
We made our way back up on the rocks and snapped away at Dunlin, Purple Sandpipers and Sanderlings. These birds gave us some great photo ops!
Dunlin with a Sanderling in the background
Sanderlings
Purple Sandpiper closeup
That is when we started to see an over-whelming numbers of birds. Adult male Surf Scoters, Loons, Cormorants, Long-tailed Ducks in breeding plumage – it was difficult to concentrate on one bird.
Surf Scoter off the jetty
Long-tailed Ducks, including adult males in both breeding and winter plumage
Great Cormorant after defending a fish from Gulls
Red-throated (non-breeding) and Common (breeding) Loons
And then we spotted Barnegat’s staple wintering bird, the Harlequin Duck.
Harlequin Ducks were still present
The males were getting very feisty now that it is closer to breeding season.
Harlequin Duck chase
They were trying to attract this beautiful girl.
Female Harlequin Duck
We made our way back up the jetty, chasing more Harlequins and looking for new birds. A young Cormorant followed us, but every time we would point our cameras at him, he would dive.
Cormorant making a dive
I did manage to get a nice photo of him though.
Immature Double-crested Cormorant
We ran into our shorebird flock multiple times. They would stay perched until the waves hit the rocks hard.
Shorebird flock getting hit with waves
The waves were just getting worse as we made our way to the end. I stopped a bit early, anticipating wet rocks (and wet camera?) and my friends started their way further up.
High waves along the beach
They changed their minds too and headed back toward me. We could see many birds in the distance – Northern Gannets, many Scoters, tons of Long-tailed Ducks, possible Eiders… too bad we could not get close enough!
A very distant Gannet
We headed back up the jetty, once again, chasing the Harlequins for photos of them on the rocks. I never did get that op this time by, but still got nice photos of them.
Drake Harlequin Duck
We saw other good birds on the way back toward the lighthouse.
Black-bellied Plover in winter plumage
Common Loon in breeding plumage
We then went back onto the beach to look for the Piping Plovers. Unfortunately, it was probably a bit too windy for them and we did not see any. Now that I see the moving sand in some of my photos, I know why a small bird would want to stay away.
Searching for Piping Plovers
On our way back up the beach, we ran into four very cooperative Brant and I got my best photos of them. It was nice getting down at eye level rather than shooting them from above on the jetty!
Some Brant swimming in one of the tidal pools
Even though we dipped on the Plover, it was still a great day of birding. We were able to achieve the most important goal of the trip – introduce a new person to Barnegat and, in the process, get her hooked to it!
This weekend, I went to Barnegat, New Jersey with a friend to photograph waterfowl, specifically the Harlequin Duck. Not only did I get to see my gorgeous life bird Harlequins, I also saw four more unexpected life birds.
My Harlequin Duck life bird
After finding this beautiful male, we came across some Sandpipers on the rocks. My face apparently lit up when my friend told me they were Purple Sandpipers.
One of my Purple Sandpiper life birds
Further down the jetty, a flock of waterfowl was floating not far from the beach. This flock contained three more life birds: Common and King Eiders along with Black Scoters.
Common Eiders with Scoters
First year male King Eiders
One of my Black Scoter life birds, there were also adult males further away
The King Eiders were a rare find and we got great looks! They are beautiful even though we did not see any adult males.
King Eider female (front) and juvenile male (back)
Another huge highlight was finally getting close to Long-tailed Ducks and Surf Scoter.
Long-tailed Ducks
Surf Scoter
The Sandpipers along the rocks also allowed us to get very close. There were a lot of Dunlin.
Dunlin on the Jetty
Lots and lots of Dunlin.
Flock of Dunlin
Along with Ruddy Turnstones…
Ruddy Turnstone
And even more Purple Sandpipers.
One of my Purple Sandpiper life birds
This turned out to be one of my best photo trips! The New Jersey coast has been very good to me!
I have been extremely busy lately with buying a new house, getting it ready, packing and moving. In between all of this madness I went to Cape May with my friends for our annual Fall migration trip. I still do not have the time to write about it, so I will leave you with some photos for a preview of what to expect. And I will say this – as far as the ratio of good-to-bad photos, this was my most successful trip yet even though the main point of it was birding rather than photography.
One of a pair of American Oystercatchers
Forster’s Tern flying by
A Sanderling running away from the waves
A beach full of Black Skimmers
Snowy Egrets at Forsythe NWR
Young Herring Gull flying by
Ruddy Turnstone on the rocks
Like what you see? Check back for more later this month!
Last Summer, I went to Italy to visit family. I have been there before, but not as a birder. I used Birding Pal to find a local birder who may be able to take me around. Thankfully, I found a very kind birder and also met a couple other local friends of his. Since it was the middle of summer, we went looking for water birds. He took me around Castel Volturno, Riserva Oasi Dei Varicon and other areas to the north of Naples.
The first birds we saw were all Sandpipers – Common, Wood, Green – all of which look very similar to me! The most exciting early sighting was a Grey Heron. I was very happy to see the Eurasian counterpart to the American bird that I love so much!
Grey Heron with Eurasian Coots and Black-headed Gulls
The next location was full of Black-winged Stilts, Yellow-legged Gulls, Mediterranean Gulls, Little Egret and Moorhens. I also caught glimpses of a Eurasian Oystercatcher, Gull-billed Tern, Little Tern. I did manage some [bad] photos of some of the birds.
Black-winged Stilts
Eurasian Oystercatcher with Mediterranean Gulls and Black-winged Stilt up front
Yellow-legged Gulls with Black-winged Stilts
Common Moorhens
We stopped at a beautiful spot, Riserva Oasi Dei Varicon, which brought us many more great waterbirds. Here, we saw Redshank and Greenshank, Kentish Plover, Little-ringed Plover, Little Stint, Shelducks, Garganey, Ferruginous Duck, Little Grebe and Sandwich Terns.
Sandwich Terns
Shelduck
Redshank and Greenshank
While driving around, I got better looks at some of the birds and saw many others that I did not get photos of suck as a Eurasian Kestrel, Crested Lark, Turtle Doves, Magpies and Night-heron. Some that I did get photos of are below.
Little Egret
Squacco Heron
Cattle Egret with Cattle
Zitting Cisticola
We were staying in Sant Agata were I saw mostly common birds like the Italian Sparrow, Blackbirds, Eurasian Collared Dove and Hooded Crows.
Italian Sparrow
Eurasian Collared Dove
We took a tour to Pompeii and the Vesuvius and saw some other common birds such as swifts, Hooded Crows, Jackdaws and Magpies. The bird I was hoping to see, the Hoopoe, was no where to be seen even though they are known to breed in Pompeii.
Hooded Crow
Jackdaws
Common Swift
Alpine Swift
And on our way back home from that tour, we saw a beautiful Serin above the streets.
Serin (wild Canary)
Other birds were spotted around family’s property including Spotted Flycatchers and, one that I was very happy to see, the European Robin.
Spotted Flycatcher family
European Robin
We took a trip to Trieste to see cousins and were surprised with some good birds in the gardens. Even though these are common birds, I was very happy to see them! They were very attracted to the plum trees which made it easy for me to see them.
Eurasian Jay with a plum
Eurasian Jay
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Blackbird Fledgling
We also saw many colorful Chaffinches while out in the area.
Chaffinch
We made a last minute stop to Isola della Cona, South of Malfalcone. This reserve gave me the best surprise of the entire trip – a bird who was on my must see list that I did not think I would see – the European Bee-eater!
European Bee-eaters
The reserve itself was full of Camarague horses and Cattle Egrets who would hang out nearby.
Camarague Horse with Cattle Egret, Lapwing, Wagtail and Duck
Cattle Egret
Other great birds at this location included Northern Lapwings and White Wagtails. I never did have to go chasing any of the Lapwings who showed up on the east coast of the US since I already saw them here!
Northern Lapwing
White Wagtail
The reserve was also full of many birds I already saw, plus some new waterfowl.
Black-winged Stilt
Northern Shoveler
Mixed Ducks
Graylag Geese
Common Snipe
Black-headed Gull in winter plumage
Common Sandpiper
The sun was strong and heat made for poor far-away photos, but I am happy that I at least got these memory photos. The last good bird here was another common one that I was happy to see – the European Goldfinch.
European Goldfinches
Overall, I saw over 50 life birds, and even though I didn’t get to see a Hoopoe as I had wished, I really enjoyed the birds I did see!
