Category Archives: Pastimes

Birds, In the neighborhood, Pastimes

World Series Day

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Sandy Hook Century Run Team 2009

(except for the ones who bailed out before 5 pm.) Note Linda in front in dead bug posture.

We had a fantastic day and ended with 134 species! Wow! What I love about Sandy Hook, and what I guess I missed birding in W. Va. is variety and the chance to witness migration as it happens.

There were Palm Warblers in every beach plum

and Clapper Rails that played hide-and-seek all day long

cooperative Cuckoos

and Yellow Warblers willing to pose

and the most spectacular sunset to end the day.

But there were also flocks of shorebirds, and Blue Jays, and a nice little hawk movement when the fog finally lifted, and Fowler’s Toads calling in the dunes, and Nighthawks, and a Mississippi Kite or two, and night herons taking off from North Pond at dusk…

I could go on and on, but I’m tired enough to be delirious. 16 hours of birding will do that, I think.

Birds, Pastimes, Whatever

A nearly shameless plug

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This Saturday is World Series Day here in NJ when teams of birders set out to find as many species as possible in one day. I’ll be out there, for the 11th year in a row, with the Sandy Hook Century Run Team. My first year, it rained buckets all day and I’m afraid the weather is shaping up to be the same this Saturday.

Migration is at its peak in NJ during this, the second week in May, and all told World Series teams have raised more than 8 million dollars through the years for conservation causes.

Our team is birding in support of the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory where I volunteer and I’d love it if you’d toss some money our way! A fun way to pledge is an amount per species… we usually see between 120 – 130 species from dawn to dusk.

So far I have pledges for 37 1/2 cents per species… I’m hoping to get that to $2.00 per species. Leave me a comment if you’d like to pledge.

Thanks! Wish us luck!

Pastimes, Seasons, Snapshots, Wanderings, Wildflowers

Bloodroot

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Books say improbable things about Bloodroot like that it blooms in colonies and that its seeds are spread around the forest by ants.

If the ants were doing their job, Bloodroot would be easier to find. The woods would be carpeted with it, like they are with Spring Beauties and Squill, now.

As it is, I have to get my knees muddy searching for it. If the forest faeries are feeling a need for amusement, they’ll send a couple teenagers along the path to find me butt-up and nose-down in the shady leaf mold.

Pride and decorum be damned, there’s only so many spring days to find Bloodroot. I’m glad to have enjoyed it for another year.

Garden, Pastimes, Seasons, Snapshots

Celebrating spring

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I feasted on some familiar delights today… daffs and crocus and forsythia, a beginner’s yoga class that left me feeling competent for a change (!), a longish walk with Luka past the neighborhood raspberry fields with their huge clump of purple hyacinths blooming right in the middle, the soft fur on Boomer’s cheek with his big ears drooping to meet my fingers, the local osprey pair rebuilding their cell tower nest after it was removed this past winter, newly arrived great egrets stalking the creek at low-tide… all brought a comfortable smile to my face.

How did you celebrate this day?

Pastimes, Whatever

A box of goodies

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The magic of a good teacher-naturalist lies in live props, I think.

Tonight was the children’s program at our monthly Audubon meeting and this guy had the kids enthralled with his box of tricks… tree frogs and turtles and the hugest boa constrictor I’ve ever seen.

Every kid had the chance to (gently) touch each animal and that goes a long way to keeping their attention, of course. I wish that our chapter did more outreach to kids in the community to get them interested in nature, but this program for kids once a year is the best we can manage, usually.

Birds, In the neighborhood, Pastimes

The worst bird walk ever*

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Is February an easy month to find birds anywhere?

Sandy Hook can be something like a wonderland of waterfowl at this time of year, but today it mostly wasn’t. There were a couple of distant loons, a speck raft of red-breasted mergansers, a long-tailed duck or two, an imaginary harbor seal, a nice flock of faraway snow buntings and great looks at the world’s largest gull.

Yawn.

We did get to see this great big boat heading out to sea though.

Despite the lack of birds, it was a beautiful day to be out, with a hint of spring in the air. Not really, but at least the wind wasn’t quite so biting for a change.

*Post title suggested by our field trip leader

Birds, In the neighborhood, Pastimes

A friend is a lucky thing to have

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My friend Janet and I are beginning to think that we’re something like good-luck charms for each other when it comes to getting life birds.

The last time we saw each other in May for the World Series of Birding it was a Cape May Warbler. The time before that, also on World Series Day, it was a Eurasian Collared Dove and a Wilson’s Plover.

Today it was this little beauty: an Orange-Crowned Warbler. Pretty, huh?

This bird belongs out west and is pretty common there from what I’ve read. There’s one at Sandy Hook most winters, but I’ve not ever bothered to chase it, thinking that it must be dull and drab and skulky and not worth the effort.
It was a bit skulky, of course, but its color stood out nicely against the winter browns of the faded goldenrod and leafless, but still lethal, poison ivy.

Neither of us could take very much credit for finding the bird; it’d been reported for a while and someone stopped into the bird observatory this morning during my stint there and told me exactly where to look for it. Janet and I set out together around 2:30, chatting merrily away, and happened upon another birder with his scope trained on it. Very convenient!

All of this leaves me wondering if I shouldn’t find more excuses to bird with a good-luck charm, or Janet.

😉

Birds, Pastimes, Wanderings

Yes… I can do this!

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I was writing this post in my head yesterday as I sped down the parkway to Island Beach State Park and expected to have to title it, “How Not to Lead Your First-Ever Field Trip”. First on the list was to be, “Be on time for once!” but I was already late when I’d thought of my post title.

Anyway… you might remember me mentioning here that I’m now responsible for planning field trips for my local audubon chapter. It’s gone well so far, but I couldn’t find anyone able to lead our November trip to Island Beach. I was even almost begging near strangers at the hawkwatch in Cape May two weeks ago. Remember Lloyd? Yeah.. he said no, too. I never found anyone, so short of canceling the trip I thought I’d make a go of leading it myself and hoping no one showed up.

😉

The weather was awful… rainy and foggy… so zero participants seemed like a real possibility. It turned out there were seven people waiting on me to get there, and thanks be, all were beginning birders, as is typical for these field trips. Beginning birders are easy to please and, luckily, don’t know gulls any better than I do. We just agreed at the outset to ignore them! We saw some of my beloved sanderlings on the beach and I struggled with some terns that were lazing among the fiishermen, but I decided they were Forster’s and (laugh) they all believed me!

Being *the leader* imparts a certain authority that I’m not entirely comfortable with, but other people who lead trips have told me that pretending confidence is half the game. Whatever. Here is the second of three shorebirds that I can identify in winter. Funny how Black-bellies are so wary compared with the sanderlings… I had to stalk this guy up into the dunes for a pic.

We spent some time scanning Barnegat Bay and came up with a couple groups of Bufflehead and a couple Loons, but that was it. Island Beach is a barrier island and has a wonderful maritime forest like Sandy Hook; we found some Kinglets and Yellow-rumps, but ended up watching the feeders at the nature center to escape the rain for a bit and actually be able to study some common birds. The beginners liked that, I hope, plus I got my first Junco of the season.

The show of the day was the Northern Gannets in a feeding frenzy just off the beach. What cool birds! Sadly, I don’t think Gannets are easy for beginners to appreciate. They all kept asking me, “How can you tell they’re not gulls?” I guess their crappy little binoculars didn’t help any. I remember feeling the same way the first time I saw Gannets… the field trip leader pointed out back then that the Gannets were refrigerator white and pointed at both ends, so I just repeated that back to the group. Plus, the way they drop like arrows into the water is just the coolest thing and unique to Gannets, maybe.

Have a look at this video I found on YouTube to see what I mean. The music is pretty annoying and its filmed on a boat, but pelagic trips are where one expects close views of Gannets. On lucky days they’re close to shore, but I’ve not ever seen them feeding as close as my little group of beginners got to see yesterday.

I also got to ramble on about the huge stand of beach heather that Island Beach has, plus all the other nerdy stuff I know about plants. Nice to have a captive audience, I guess. Reminds me of being in the classroom in front of a group of sleepy 20 year-olds. Anyway… I’m encouraged and think I might be able to do this again sometime. In a pinch anyway.

😉

Oh! This is especially for Susan. There was an older couple with us who are world travelers… going to Borneo to bird in a couple weeks then to some other exotic-sounding place. We got to talking about spring warblers and they said that THE place to be is Magee Marsh in early May. So I believe you now, Susan. Ohio’s on my list for someday.

Birds, In the neighborhood, Pastimes

Fields of gold

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The open fields glowing with goldenrod and the wooded trails of Tatum Park were the backdrop to Monmouth County Audubon’s first field trip of the season this morning. This late summer flower, together with the asters, keeps the honeybees in business now and the sight of it will be a welcome memory to anyone walking these same fields come the dark days of December.

Our group of twelve enjoyed the restless voices of Robins and Catbirds in the woods, had a nice look at a Cooper’s Hawk gliding through a swarm of Tree Swallows high overhead and had a demonstration from our field trip leader of the explosive seed dispersal technique of jewelweed after a brief glimpse at a hummingbird feeding among its flowers.

We ended our walk puzzling over the identity of a quickly departing flycatcher while a fawn of the year emerged from the jewelweed and goldenrod at our feet. Two Common Yellowthroats and a Downy Woodpecker were found feeding in the same area. While there didn’t seem to be many birds present today, the warm sun and all that goldenrod made up for the lack of migrants.