Terns & More

Terns species sought after by birders were returning to their nesting grounds on the keys near Fort Jefferson. - Brown Noddies are flying close to the surface, Sooty Terns higher ...

Both species appeared fully engaged in courtship (bringing food for a potential mate) ...

Sooty Tern

Sooty tern

Brown Noddy

Brown Noddy

 Elsewhere around the island, there were a variety of pelagic and shorebird species. A sampling ...

Willet

Royal Tern

Black Skimmer

Good Birding ! !

South Jersey Shorebirds

A miscellany of shorebirds along the Delaware Bay:

Least Sandpiper ...

Least Sandpiper

Semipalmated Plover ...

Semipalmated Plover

Short-billed Dowitcher ...

Short-billed Dowitcher

Willet ...

Willet

Horseshoe Crabs mating ...

Horseshoe Crabs mating

Dunlin ...

Dunlin

Red Knot ...

Red Knot

Short-billed Dowitcher ...

Short-billed Dowitcher

Good Birding!!

Samples from Cape May

Clapper Rail is easy to hear in the New Jersey salt marshes, but a sighting is often a matter of luck, or long patience waiting for one to walk into the open. But it is Spring, they have just arrived, the hormones are surging, and they are hyper. At Jake's landing I kept seeing the birds pop out of the marsh grasses, fly a short distance, then disappear into the grasses again. But I was patient and tried to be alert. The payoff:

Clapper Rail

Clapper Rail

Wrens are compact bundles of energy and irrepressible song. Higbee's Beach WMA teemed with Carolina Wrens; Jake's Landing hosted vocal duels from Marsh Wrens, and in various places House Wrens let their song tumble forth. It was a particular treat to see the House Wrens in a "natural" setting, rather than a backyard setting ...

Carolina Wren

House Wren

Marsh Wren

 The Red-winged Blackbird is rightly appreciated for the bright red epaulets which he flashes to intimidate rivals and attract females. The female is usually passed over as a rather dull, medium-sized, brown bird, but the one below demonstrated an often overlooked and under appreciated variety and beauty ...

Red-winged Blackbirds - female

Red-winged Blackbird - female

Red-winged Blackbird - male displaying

 Courtship season is going full tilt. Forster's Terns used the same land posting at Jake's Landing that I have seen them use in previous years. The gentleman on the right did not bring the lady a fish, and after a few moments she flew off in an apparent huff ...

Forster's Terns

... and across the marsh, the Willet winged back and forth with their "pee-will-willet pee-will-will-it" ...

Willet

 And finally, the Seaside Sparrow is not much to look at, and nor is his song much to listen to, unless you happen to be another Seaside Sparrow in the throes of the breeding season ...

Seaside Sparrow

Good birding!

Marsh Birds - Brigantine

The recent day trip to Brigantine yielded my first photos of the Gull-billed Tern, a regular but uncommon summer resident in Forsythe NWR ...

Gull-billed Tern

Forster's Terns were not very cooperative as they fished the channels, usually choosing to give me backlight or their backside, but this one grabbed a worm out of the mud and I grabbed a photo ...

Forster's Tern

The bubbling energy of wrens always engages me, none more so than the Marsh Wren. Notice that this one is wearing jewelry ...

Marsh Wren

Wrens are "troglodytes" - cave dwellers. There were at least two newly made "caves" in the vicinity of the singing male ...

Marsh Wren nest

I wonder why this hen Mallard had only one duckling following her. Did her eggs not hatch? Had a predator taken eggs? Or had predators taken the young ducklings?

Mallard hen with her lone duckling

Willets are common nesting shorebirds along the coast, their "pee-will-willet" carrying over the marsh grasses ...

Willet

In a post early this spring, I said that one goal for this season was to capture the Red-winged Blackbird showing his epaulets in all their glory. This gentleman cooperated magnificently ...

Red-winged Blackbird

Good birding!!

from southern New Jersey

I had three days in Cape May and southern New Jersey - 1 1/2 days of beautiful, sunny weather, and 1 1/2 days of gray overcast and drizzle.  I'll come back to the nice days in future posts after I've had more time to sort the photos. For now, a few samples from a gray day at Brigantine (Forsyth NWR).

First an observation. On Monday and Tuesday the number of shorebirds was very small, and at the famous Reeds Beach where so many feed on the horseshoe crabs, there were none - zero - on Monday. Then Wednesday morning I began with a drive across Nummy Island: the shorebirds arrived overnight or early morning. There were thousands feeding in the marshy puddles of the island.

The same was true at Brigantine. In spite of the gray day and poor light, the birding was good.

Willets did not just arrive, however. They are well into their courtship and breeding cycle, chasing across the marshes with "pee - will - willet, pee - will - willet." This one was attending to its good grooming - bathing and preening.

Ruddy Turnstones, Dunlin, both yellowlegs, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Semipalmated & Black-bellied Plovers, Whimbrels - all were present in large numbers. Focus here is on the Ruddy Turnstone, with Dunlin nearby ...

Four tern species were busy with their courtship - Common, Forster's, Gull-billed, and Caspian. This Forster's Tern was busy flying the channels and fishing, proving that he could be a good provider for the lady nearby ...

One highlight of the day was the American Bittern, which I do not see every year and seldom see very well ...

Good birding!