Sights of Spring

Over the past 2 weeks, Dave and I have gone birding 7 times. We’ve had an interesting variety of early spring weather conditions, including chilly 40s and rain in the 70s. Here are some of my favorite moments from the last two weeks. (I don’t have pictures from all 7 trips)

Palmyra Cove Nature Park (3/23/18): first of season Killdeer and Osprey. Also saw a Muskrat

Killdeer (Image by BirdNation)

Muskrat (Image by BirdNation)

Osprey with Goldfish (Image by BirdNation)

 

Barnegat Lighthouse State Park (3/25/18)

Common Loon (Image by BirdNation)

Purple Sandpiper (Image by BirdNation)

 

Palmyra Cove Nature Park (4/4/18): It started raining when we arrived, so we ended up walking in the middle of a short rainstorm. It was a really cool experience. There were still a lot of birds out, and by the time we finished walking the rain had stopped (29 species in total, including a first of season Palm Warbler and many Eastern Phoebes). We also had a chance to watch the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge open, found a goose egg, saw interesting fungi, and discovered a bunch of forest snails.

Tacony-Palmyra Bridge opening (Image by BirdNation)

Cove in low tide (Image by BirdNation)

Goose Egg (Image by BirdNation)

Canada Goose (Image by BirdNation)

Interesting Fungi (Image by BirdNation)

Snail (Image by BirdNation)

 

Island Beach State Park (4/6/18): Saw about 200 Northern Gannets and many Osprey. First of season Snowy Egrets and Laughing Gull

Osprey (Image by BirdNation)

Northern Gannet (Image by BirdNation)

Bivalves (Image by BirdNation)

Osprey Pair (Image by BirdNation)