There are few things that I would wake up at 2:30AM for. Birding visits to the New Jersey coast is one of them. During the summer, you have to get there early or you will get stuck in beach traffic. It can get packed very quickly. I live over two hours away from most good birding spots, so the drive, plus early arrival, means getting up way too early.
Last weekend my friend, Jon, and I headed to the coast to see a Tern colony. We arrived at the beach at around 6:30 for perfect light and to beat traffic. We were immediately greeted by the sound of Terns and set up or cameras at the colony that was not far from the entrance to the beach. This was my first time actually seeing Least Terns – even though they are pretty easy to get in the summer. I had a questionable tick on my life list from back in 2011, but it seemed too late in the fall for one (the bird was identified by someone else) so I retracted the sighting from my list.
Adult Least Tern
The young were very active, but the smaller ones stayed more in the dunes. I still enjoyed photographing some tweens and teenagers who stayed not far from the tape that closed off their nesting area.
Young Least Tern
Two young Terns
Young Least Tern
Baby Least Terns stayed toward the back
A few adults stayed nearby and preened in front of us.
Adult Least Tern
Least Tern preening
The adults would come in with fish and every younger tern begged as the adult scrambled to find its baby. Some of the teens even stole the fish anyway.
An adult Tern scrambles to find its young
A juvenile begs for the fish
This adult caught the attention of many young
The colony also had Common Terns, Black Skimmers and American Oystercatchers. They all stayed very far back so I did not get many photos.
Common Terns make some noise
Possible nesting Black Skimmers
American Oystercatcher flying in
I was happy enough photographing the Least Terns. They kept me entertained as they curiously explored the world around them.
Young Least Tern inspecting a stick
Young Least Tern inspecting a shell
I’ll certainly visit this beach again in the future. Maybe there will be other young birds later in the season from the different species!
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!
American Oystercatchers are birds who I’ve been wanting to photograph for a while. I got very close to them before – but at the time I was not even a birder. Oystercatchers are very unique though, so at the time I actually did know what I was looking at.
American Oystercatcher from March 2010 in Sandy Hook, New Jersey
One of tow pair of American Oystercatcher that I enjoyed before I was a birder
Now that I am a birder, I wanted to get close again because they are a very cool looking bird! We had a nice surprise on the beach at Cape May Meadows – a pair was hanging out at the beach right near sunset, so the lighting was perfect!
American Oystercatcher at sunset
I didn’t get great photos of them together because I went closer to the side of them (my friends got great shots of the couple from a different angle), but I was still very happy with what I did get!
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!
