Sunday, July 7, 2013

Beach Babies

Here are some pretty cute photos of beach babies - American Oystercatchers and Least Terns - all taken while I waited for the Brown Booby to show up at Seven Presidents Park in north Jersey.  The Booby only made a brief appearance way offshore which counts for the stupid contest but can't top last year's sighting (remember it with me by clicking this link).

The Oystercatchers have one chick that they were feeding while I was there. Dad (or Mom) brought some sort of little black mussel or clam or something back, dug it out and then let the chick pick it up and gulp it down.

Oystercatcher with chick
Chick with gooey clam thing
Chick with clam
Down the hatch
The other beach babies were Least Terns. They all nest in a roped off area.  This Mom was pretty close to the rope and revealed 2 chicks when she got up and walked over to squawk at us for being too close - even though we were outside of the roped area.  I snapped a few photos of the babies before she got back to them.  Then she didn't sit on them anyway. I guess they could use a little sunshine before it got too hot.

Least Tern
Least Tern - new chick underneath (look closely)
Least Tern - chicks (there are 2 of them) and Mom
Least Tern Chicks - look closely
The next post will be a compilation from our trips to Potter county.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did remember your posting from last year, but went back and enjoyed it again. When will the contest be over? HH

Linda said...

the stupid contest lasts the whole year. Not over until Dec 31st. We'll celebrate with a quick drink on Jan 1st regardless of the outcome.