Am I Really a Leader?

Can you call yourself a leader if nobody shows up to the field trip? I have scheduled a few field trips for the DVOC over the past year. Most of the trips get rained out but last Saturday's weather was set to be sunny so I headed to Barnegat Lighthouse to meet the group at 8 AM. 8 AM came and went. Thank goodness Harvey showed up otherwise I would have been totally alone. Oh well. Their loss.

Harvey and I headed out on the jetty to see what we could find. There weren't many ducks but we saw Red-breasted Mergansers. I love the way the wind blows their feathers into a mess.

Red-breasted Merganser

 We were just about to give up on our prized Harlequin Ducks when another photographer told us that they were a little farther out. Jackpot. We found the flock up on the rocks of the jetty.

Harlequin Ducks

They swam past us while we snapped a billion photos.

Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck

We didn't find as many shorebirds as normal. Only this small group of Dunlin with a single Sanderling mixed in.

Dunlin and Sanderling

On our way back to the lighthouse, we spotted this Horned Grebe swimming away from us. It would dive under the water and resurface farther down the jetty.  I would run along to try to get ahead of it but that sucker can swim fast underwater. I managed to get this shot which shows that blood red eye.

Horned Grebe

The bird was on a mission to get somewhere fast. I couldn't keep up.

Harvey and I had a nice day. I wonder if anyone will show up to my next field trip? 

3rd and Final Post from Sunday

Here you go. The final installment from Sunday's awesome day.  More ducks for your enjoyment. I ran across a combination of ducks at the Cox Hall Creek pond in late afternoon. The sunlight reflecting off of the brown grass gave the water a tan/bronze tone which gives these photos an interesting color hue.  The first photo show 2 types of Mergansers. The larger duck is a Common Merganser and the smaller ones are Hooded Mergansers.  This is the best photo of Common Merganser that I have.

Common Merganser (center), Hooded Mergansers

Male Hooded Merganser

Ruddy Duck

 Here are a few left over photos from Barnegat Lighthouse. These are Common Eider which are really big sea ducks.  I like the way they just glide over the waves.  The second photo shows a male flapping with a bunch of females surrounding him - like "hey, look at me!"

Raft of Common Eider

Common Eiders

That's all for now. I'm slammed at work, so you probably won't get another post until the weekend.

One of Those Days - Part 2

OK, so I had a great time at Barnegat Lighthouse with the Harlequins. I also got some pretty good photos of Long-tailed Ducks (again). I just can't help myself from taking more photos of these ducks.  I finally had good lighting to get a few photos.  There were about 40 of them swimming along the inlet and calling to each other too.

Female Long-tailed Duck

Male Long-tailed Duck

Still on the jetty, I also had close encounters with Ruddy Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers. I think that these photos tell a great story of how these birds make a living. Both species pick food off of the rocks just along the water line and have a sixth sense about when they need to get out of the way of waves.

Ruddy Turnstone

Purple Sandpiper

 Red-breasted Mergansers also hang out in the inlet and along the jetty.  Have you ever had a really bad hair day?  Well then, you can relate to the male Red-breasted Merganser.  Check out his doo!

Male Red-breasted Merganser

Female Red-breasted Merganser

All of the photos you've seen so far were taken before noon.  I thought I hit the mother load and I didn't even have my Diet Coke yet.  For those of you who are not familiar with Barnegat Lighthouse, it is located at the northern tip of Long Beach Island. There is only one bridge on to the island located about in the middle. You have to travel miles north through little shore towns including "Surf City", "Harvey Cedars" and "Love Ladies".  I stopped along a bulkhead on the back bay in Surf City on my way off of the island to see if there were any other ducks.  As I got out of the car, a few ducks dove underwater due to the sound of the car door.  To my surprise, one of the "ducks" popped up about 20 feet away from me and wasn't a duck at all. It was a Razorbill!  Razorbills are birds that spend almost all of their lives in very cold ocean water. They are part of the alcid family which also includes Puffins. Razorbills have been seen as far south as Sanibel Island Florida this winter. Barbara, Diane and I saw a few flying off of Cape May Point last month but they were really far away. We also saw a few tiny black blobs flying over the water on our pelagic trip last year.  Nothing compares to the view that I had from Surf City bulkhead.  I was so surprised that the first few photos came out blurry due to my shaking.  When I calmed down a bit, I got a few good shots including this one.  You can see why they are called Razorbills. They have a funny shaped bill with a great white stripe through it.  This was just a huge bonus to the day. 

Razorbill

But wait, there's more. The Razorbill was photographed at 12:15. I still had the whole afternoon to explore some more.  Part 3 coming soon.

One of Those Days

Yesterday was one of those days where everything just falls into place to produce a great day of birding and photography. As you know, winter storm Nemo (since when do we have to use names with snow storms?) hit us on Saturday, but we were virtually unaffected with less than 3" of snow.  Sunday turned out to be one of those stellar winter days with gorgeous blue skies and just a hint of thin cirrus clouds. It started out at 15 degrees but quickly warmed up to 30. I know that doesn't sound very warm, but it was delightful to be outdoors with warm sunshine and very little wind.

In addition to the fabulous weather, the DVOC had a photography trip planned to Barnegat Lighthouse so I decided to join them for the morning.  Roxy and I showed up a little late but quickly found the group which was being lead by Steve Kacir. Cindy and her husband Scott were the other participants.  We wandered down the beach and along the jetty for the better part of 3 hours watching and photographing winter ducks and shorebirds.  It was really great to be with the group. We all had the same appreciation for the day and the birds.

It was one of those days.  One of those days where I have so many photos that I can't show them all in one post.  One of those days where I have so many photos that I can't decide which ones to leave out.  One of those days where I thought to myself - it's about time I had one of these days. 

Harlequin ducks are just about the gaudiest ducks that you can find. I have always had trouble getting good photos in the past due to poor lighting/weather conditions or being too far away.  Not yesterday.  We had perfect weather for photography and the ducks were literally swimming and sunning themselves within 20 yards of us.  They are pretty comfortable with people walking close to them on the jetty.  Here are a few photos. The first photo shows a single male Harlequin in the water.

Harlequin Duck - Male

Here is a group of males swimming in unison. They would group together and then form a single line, then group together again.  I love this one where they are all facing away and converging.

Group of Male Harlequin Ducks

 In case you were wondering what all of this was about - of course it is all about getting a female.  Here she is in all of her drab-ness being courted by 5 males.  She appears to be unimpressed by any of their flaunting and chasing.

Male Harlequins courting Female

 Although she appeared not to care about what was going on, she was seen a few minutes later hanging out on the rock with one of her beaus. . .

Male and Female Harlequin Ducks

 Here is another male preening in the sun.  This photos is barely cropped.  I was standing on the rock jetty about 15 feet away.

Male Harlequin preening

 As if those shots weren't enough, here is a photo of the Harlequin flapping his wings after preening AND a Purple Sandpiper wandered into the same frame.  I almost fainted when I saw that this shot turned out.

Harlequin and Purple Sandpiper

 What was Roxy doing while I was on top of the jetty photographing gaudy ducks?  Check it out - she refuses to come on to the jetty which is a good thing since her presence would definitely scare off all of the birds and I would never allow that to happen.  But there she is at the edge of the water wagging her tail waiting for me to return.  Good dog!

Roxy at Barnegat Lighhouse

More to come. I'll post other photos and the rest of Sunday's story later in the week.

Forsythe NWR for Ducks - in the rain

Well, Lori and I were the only ones that could make the trip to Forsythe NWR today but we went in sheer style and comfort in her new 2009 Ford Expedition. Sweeeeeet ride! We set up Connie's spotting scope on a tripod between the bucket seats in the back and had clear views of everything without getting wet.

The scope is a hand-me-down from Connie's dad. It's a Baucsh and Lomb Discoverer 15-60mm scope that he used for hunting. We also have a pair of hand-me-sown Zeiss 15x60 - yes, 15x60 binoculars that we lovingly refer to as "The Big Boys". They are huge. They almost look like a prop from a comedy show or something but they bring those distant ducks into view.

We got pretty lucky with the weather. Not much rain, but ferocious wind coming from the south sent wave spray over the road at times. We came to Forsythe looking for what Lori refers to as "big headed ducks": Mergansers, Bufflehead and the like. We didn't get any big heads today but we did get plenty of Brant, Pintail, Black Ducks, Mallards, Green Wing Teal, Northern Shovelers and cute-as-a-button sleeping Ruddy Ducks. We were also surprised to see hundreds (if not thousands) of Black-bellied Plovers with thousands of Dunlin. We also had 4 Lesser Yellowlegs which were good to identify by size next to the plovers.

Lori found us Meadowlarks in the grass near the Peregrine platform. The yellow chest and black V really stood out in the overcast setting. Great spot by Lori. We also saw dozens of Eastern Bluebirds on the drive out. They are planting alot of trees in the field near the "experimental pool". The bluebirds were sitting on those protective tubes for the young trees.

We decided to go out to Barnegat Lighthouse to see if we could find any sea birds blown in by the storms. Barnegat Light sits at the top of Long Beach Island at Barnegat Inlet. I thought that we might see some scoters or gannets. Nothing like that though. We did see Purple Sandpipers and Ruddy Turnstones on the rocks along the inlet. Purple Sandpiper is a life bird for both of us. We were also surprised to see 6 or so Yellow-rumped Warblers in the bushes behind the lighthouse.

Gulls are really difficult for me to identify. I'm not that advanced in my skills. I also had a hard time differentiating the terns in the inlet. One type had dark on the coverts of the wings, white on the primary and secondaries with a black edge. Another had dark primaries and was pretty big. I marked that one down as a Royal Tern. Then, there was a really small tern which I would normally mark down as a Least Tern but the range maps make it look like they should be gone by now. eBird doesn't have it listed for Barnegat Light in the "Most Probable Species" list either. So, I'm stumped by Gulls and Terns again. . .