Today was the last day of the 2024 Great Backyard Bird Count. Day 4 is usually a quieter birding day for me since it’s on a Monday. I ended up going to Long Bridge Park, which is a place that I haven’t gone birding at too much. I did a trip there in December for the Christmas Bird Count and we had a pretty productive morning, but this afternoon was pretty quiet.
Long Bridge Park (10 species, 55 individuals)
5 Canada Geese
15 Mallards
1 Mourning Dove
1 Turkey Vulture
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Downy Woodpecker
3 Golden-crowned Kinglets
2 Carolina Wrens
6 Dark-eyed Juncos
19 White-throated Sparrows
It was a really great count weekend. Overall, Team BirdNation saw 43 species. I’m looking forward to seeing the finally results from around the world!
Today we explored Palmyra Cove Nature Park for a little snow birding. Last night we ended up getting a few inches of snow and by mid-morning it already started melting! It seems like Palmyra got a little less snow than where I live, but it was nice to be out in the quiet of winter.
We were greeted by a number of songbirds right in the parking lot: a first-of-year Brown Creeper, White-throated Sparrows, a Northern Cardinal pair, a Tufted Titmouse, Dark-eyed Juncos, and a Downy Woodpecker. A female Bufflehead at the beaver pond was a pleasant surprise as hundreds of gulls flew overhead. We even saw a mink! We ended our walk with 4 Cedar Waxwings near the visitor center. Overall we observed 17 species.
Palmyra Cove Nature Park (17 species, 314 individuals)
9 Canada Geese
2 Mallards
1 Bufflehead
1 Mourning Dove
60 Ring-billed Gulls
150 Herring Gulls
1 Turkey Vulture
3 Downy Woodpeckers
1 Hairy Woodpecker
5 Tufted Titmice
2 White-breasted Nuthatches
1 Brown Creeper
3 Carolina Wrens
4 Cedar Waxwings
16 Dark-eyed Juncos
50 White-throated Sparrows
5 Northern Cardinals
Bufflehead female (Image by Michelle Horowitz)Angry Canada Geese (Image by Michelle Horowitz)
We are halfway through the count weekend and Team BirdNation has observed 36 different bird species and 2,412 individuals. Other fun finds the last two days were a mink, deer, and a backhoe. Let’s see what the second half of the weekend will bring.
Have you participated in the first two days of the bird count? Share some species you saw in the comments below.
Hi everyone! It’s time for the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC)! This annual event takes place this weekend from February 16-19. It’s easy to participate, so check out https://www.birdcount.org/ to join the fun!
Today Dave, Baby Birder, and I made our way out to Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge for the first day of the count. It was a fairly chilly and windy morning. As expected there was waterfowl galore and lots of gulls. We observed 27 species. Highlights included a Northern Harrier, two Bald Eagles, and a large amount of Gadwalls.
Gull Pond
Edwin B. Forsythe NWR (27 species, 2098 individuals)
450 Snow Geese
70 Brant
255 Canada Geese
9 Tundra Swans
200 Northern Shovelers
160 Gadwall
24 Mallards
150 American Black Ducks
60 Northern Pintails
7 Green-winged Teals
35 Bufflehead
14 Hooded Mergansers
55 Ruddy Duck
470 Dunlin
8 Ring-billed Gulls
87 Herring Gulls
2 Double-crested Cormorants
2 Great Egrets
7 Great Blue Herons
9 Turkey Vultures
1 Northern Harrier
2 Bald Eagles
11 American Crows
1 Carolina Wren
3 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Common Grackle
5 Yellow-rumped Warblers
Dunlin flock (Image by David Horowitz)Hooded Merganser male (Image by David Horowitz)
We had an unexpected surprise on the wildlife drive today. Baby Birder, being well into toddlerhood now, isn’t super into birding. He likes birds just fine and is fairly familiar with ducks, geese, and eagles (my favorite was when he saw a Wild Turkey and called it a “duck-eagle” 😂). However, his true passion (obsession lol) is vehicles, so while he likes to see the birds his favorite part of visiting Forsythe is the other vehicles on the wildlife drive. And special for bird count weekend we had…a backhoe!
A GBBC first…a backhoe!
He was quite thrilled to see a backhoe laying gravel out on the road today, so we all had a lovely morning for GBBC Day 1. It’s supposed to snow 2-5 inches tonight into tomorrow so we’ll see what happens for Day 2.
It was a lovely afternoon so my mom, sister, and I went to Haddon Lake Park to enjoy the company of the ducks. We saw a plethora of ducks, geese, some tree swallows, robins, crows, and three female Bufflehead. The highlight of the walk was seeing 11 Double-crested Cormorants. I always go to Haddon Lake Park at the beginning of April to see the cormorants return, and 11 is the highest number that I’ve seen at one time. I wanted to share some of the pictures from our walk.
Sweet Mallard Pair (Image by BirdNation)Double-crested Cormorants (Image by BirdNation)Hybrid Duck (Image by BirdNation)American Crow (Image by BirdNation)Resting Hybrid Duck (Image by BirdNation)
Remember the Tale of the Three Amigos? (If not check out that link to read it :-)) It looks like we have a new trio of hybrid ducks who like to hang out together. My mom, sister, and I call the 2 ducks on the left “the twins” since they are always together. These 3 spent the afternoon swimming together in a little pod.
“The Twins” and “Black and White Duck” (Image by BirdNation)
Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid-60s, so I’m hoping to take a day trip. I’ll let you know if/where I end up birding. Also, get ready for another Warbler Sunday!
We finally did it! Dave and I took a trip to Cape May, NJ to go birding.
Birding is a big deal in Cape May. New Jersey is part of what is called the Atlantic Flyway, which is a migration route use by birds on the Atlantic Coast. There are 4 flyways in the United States; the other 3 are Pacific, Central, and Mississippi. Due to its location, Cape May experiences hundreds of thousands of birds during spring and fall migrations. New Jersey Audubon headquarters and the Cape May Bird Observatory are stationed here, and there are tons of “birding hotspots”. Cape May is the host of The World Series of Birding and two annual migration festivals (fall and spring). It’s a birder’s paradise. People flock (pun intended) to Cape May for birds. Dave and I visited 3 different locations .
Our first stop was Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area.We were right in time to watch the Cape May-Lewes Ferry take off, which shuttles people from New Jersey to Delaware. It was a pretty quiet day at the beach. We spotted some gulls, terns, and cormorants flying across the bay. On the beach was a flock of Sanderlings with some Semipalmated Plovers mixed in. It’s fun to watch them scurrying around the sand trying to avoid the waves. There was a trail that went through the forest nearby, but we didn’t hike long since it was overgrown.
Cape May-Lewes Ferry takes off (Image by BirdNation)
Sanderling scurries along the beach (Image by David Horowitz)
Our second stop was the Cape May Bird Observatory Northwood Branch. There are two branches of the CMBO, but this one was a store. You can pretty much find any birding supply or accessory there: binoculars, spotting scopes, books, feeders, nest boxes, clothing, and artwork. The staff was knowledgeable about great birding locations and they were watching the Cornell Lab’s Texas Hummers. I ended up buying myself a print by artist David Kiehm of a Pileated Woopecker (longtime readers know about my love for Pileateds) called “Lunch Counter”. You can check out his amazing artwork at Dead Drift Studio at this link.
“Lunch Counter” by David Kiehm
Our last stop of the day was South Cape May Meadow, which is run by The Nature Conservancy. The trails take you through marsh meadows with small ponds interspersed and leads to the beach. The first section of the trail featured Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Mallards, American Black Ducks, Semipalmated Plovers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Tree Swallows, and some Ospreys. The Mute Swans were very close to us and beautiful to watch.
A beautiful Mute Swan (Image by BirdNation)
Feeding Time (Image by BirdNation)
Farther down the trail we came to a second pond. There were more Mute Swans, but then we had some surprises. A Pied-billed Grebe was popping in an out of the water. Then four American Oystercatchers arrived. I was thrilled to see them. They are one of my favorites, and I haven’t seen them since June. A small flock of Snowy Egrets arrived. One of them continued to hover and it seems like he wasn’t sure where to land. He was quite a sight to watch. I was glad that I was able to get some clear pictures of him.
A Hovering Snowy (Image by BirdNation)
Other birds we saw at this pond were Black Skimmers, more Osprey, Glossy Ibis, and Seimpalmated Sandpipers. We also had a great view of the Cape May Lighthouse, which is at a park down the street. There were more trails to explore, but unfortunately we had to head home at one point since we live an hour and a half away.
Cape May Lighthouse (Image by BirdNation)
We will certainly return to Cape May (especially The Meadows) during fall migration. There is so much to see and do there. Next time I would like to explore the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge.
I’ve been to Cape May in the past for other reasons, but this was my first birding specific trip. Have you been birding in Cape May, NJ? If you have tell us about your experience in the comments! Don’t forget, if you have a specific bird or topic you want me to write about I would love to hear your suggestions.
This summer turned out to be very different than I expected. I was hoping to go on more birding trips than I actually did, but we had a lot of heat waves (96 with a heat index of 111?! No thanks!). Now that the weather is starting to calm down Dave and I have been able to go birding again. So expect more bird trip posts in the near future!
On Wednesday we took Dave’s mother to Edwin B. Forsythe NWR. It was her first time and I was glad that she enjoyed it. It was our 3rd Forsythe trip since May, but as usual, it was a completely new experience and just as exciting.
We took the wildlife drive. There were a lot of “peeps”. People use the term “peeps” to describe species of small sandpipers. Sandpipers can be difficult to identify, especially now during molting and the start of migration. I believe we saw a lot of Semipalmated Sandpipers with some Semipalmated Plovers (who are not “peeps”) mixed in. In the distance were Mute Swans, Canada Geese, American Black Ducks, and a mix of gull species. We were surrounded by different flocks on both sides of the marsh and everyone was either resting, foraging, or preening.
Then The Frenzy happened. I’m not sure what changed, probably the wind, but all the flocks took off at the same time. Everyone was flying in different directions, either with their flocks or as individuals. It’s hard to describe what I refer to as “The Frenzy” in words, but if you’ve ever experienced thousands of birds flying around you at one time you know what I mean. It’s always a spectacular moment.
The Frenzy (Image by David Horowitz)
(I know that’s not the best quality picture, but I wanted to give you an idea of what The Frenzy looked like. Everyone was really high up and scattered, making it hard to get a good shot)
Another great thing about this trip: herons and egrets galore! Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, and Snowy Egrets dotted the landscape, usually in mixed flocks. We even saw our first Tricolor Herons! There were 3 of them hanging with a Great Egret and some Snowies. It’s fascinating to watch the different hunting styles. Tricolor Herons hunch down close to the water/mudflats, Great Blue Herons/Great Egrets are slow and meticulous, and Snowy Egrets look like they are in a rush and run all crazy (haha I love Snowies! I think if I was a Great Blue Heron I’d be frustrated hunting next to a Snowy. He would scare all my fish away!). The Tricolor Heron’s neck was a reddish color, so it’s a juvenile. Adults have darker necks both in breeding and non-breeding plumage.
Tricolor Heron (Image by David Horowitz)
We also saw 3 Black-crowned Night-herons hiding out in a tree with a variety of egrets. One was an adult and 2 were juveniles. It was our first time seeing Bc-Nh juveniles. They look very similar to juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-herons. Black-crowns have large white teardrop-shaped spots on their wings while Yellow-crowns have small dots. We went with Black-crowned because these guys seemed to have large spots. True to their names, Night-herons are active mainly at night. People usually tend to find them roosting in a tree during the day. They blend into the branches pretty well, so they can be tricky to spot.
Juvenile Black-crowned Night-heron (Image by David Horowitz)
But the highlight of the day for me were the Glossy Ibis. We’ve seen them multiple times, but this time was special because we counted 100 of them! Usually we see no more than 10 per trip. I don’t know where they were flying in from, but they just kept coming! All 100 were not in the same place at the same time, but they were spread out in flocks of about 30.
Glossy Ibis (dark birds) with Great and Snowy Egrets (Image by David Horowitz)
Other species on this trip included 11 Ospreys, Double-crested Cormorants, European Starlings, Red-winged Blackbirds, a variety of Terns (including I think at 1 Least Tern, he was teeny!), Willets, Crows, and Tree Swallows.
Dave and I went to Cape May on Monday, so look out for that post soon!
Side note: After finishing this post, I found a pdf from the American Birding Association about identifying “peeps”. It’s calledIdentification of North American Peeps: A Different Approach to an Old Problem. If you would like to learn more about “peeps” you can click the link below. You can also download it to your computer (you know I did!) to reference it later.
One thing I enjoy about birding is that you can do it anywhere. There are no specific places you need to be. You can find all sorts of interesting birds, and don’t even have to leave your own backyard.
I don’t actually have a “backyard” but I because I live in an apartment complex. But I do have a nice large balcony that looks out over a lawn with some trees and live next to a wooded area, so I see a decent amount of birds.
I don’t really know my human neighbors that well, but I certainly know my avian neighbors. Over time I get to know the resident birds and their habits and am excited when new species move into our area. This spring/summer a new couple has moved into the neighborhood: the House Wrens.
Every morning, one the the wrens (I like to call him my “little friend Wren” haha) sings out from my balcony. I was honored that Wren chose our balconies of all the ones he could have chosen from. Then I noticed that Wren had a plan, and it was sneaky. (Below is a fuzzy cell phone picture of Wren on my balcony)
My little friend Wren on my balcony 🙂 (Image by BirdNation)
Wren is trying to take over my nest box. He likes to sneak in but doesn’t succeed for very long. The male House Sparrow who resides there always kicks him out. Wren is pretty persistent though and usually will try multiple times before flying off. He’s not afraid to put up a fight either. It makes for quite a spectacle.
This has been the summer of the wren for me. I have been seeing Carolina, House, and Marsh Wrens pretty frequently, but my neighbor House Wrens are my favorite so far. So in honor of my little friend Wren and his mate, here are some fun facts about House Wrens.
Despite being a plain-looking brown bird, House Wrens are anything but dull. House Wrens are energetic and bubbly little birds. They move quickly, fluttering about with their tails straight up in the air. Their songs are just as lively as their personalities. They let out an exuberant, trilling song that ascend then descends. (If you’ve never heard a House Wren, I suggest you look up their songs. It’s delightful!)
House Wren (Image via animalia-life.com)
They may only weight about the size of two quarters, but if you’re a bird you better watch out! House Wrens are fierce competitors when it comes to looking for nest sites. If they want a certain spot they will harass larger birds, sometimes even killing the young that is already in the nest.
Breeding House Wrens choose new mating partners each season. To persuade a female to court with him, a male will prepare multiple nests. Single males may try to steal a female from another male after nesting has already begun. If the single male succeeds, he will get rid of the former male’s eggs so he can have his own. Females may leave the male to take care of the chicks to start a nest with a new male.
House Wrens have the largest range of any New World songbird. Their range extends from Central Canada and all throughout North/Central America and can go down to the southernmost tip of South America.
(Map via the Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
House Wrens earned their names because they tend to live close to humans and in man-made structures.
Who is your favorite avian neighbor? Tell me about them in the comments.
Hello friends! Sorry I seemed to fall of the face of the Earth for a bit. It’s been a crazy, busy week, especially with the past holiday weekend. We’ve been having a heat wave here in New Jersey, so I haven’t been out birding in about a week. I usually encounter a lot going on outside my balcony, but even the backyard birds have seemed awfully quiet and absent due to the heat. The temperatures should be going back down into the 80s next week, so I’m hoping to get some birding in next week.
My last birding trip was actually on Sunday, July 3. Dave and I wanted to try somewhere different. We took a trip to Heislerville Wildlife Management Area. Heislerville WMA is a marsh habitat that borders Delaware Bay and the Maurice River in Cumberland County NJ. We’ve never visited before, so we didn’t really know what to expect.
The experience was a little confusing. We found the signs letting us know we were in Heislerville WMA, but we weren’t really sure where to park or where the wildlife auto loop entrance was. We did find something pretty cool though: a rookery. A rookery is a breeding colony. In the past I’ve talked about the Great Blue Heron rookery at Amico Island, but this one was a little different.
This rookery was for Double-crested Cormorants, Great Egrets, and Black-crowned Night-Herons. They were on a little island of trees, not far from the side of the road where people were crabbing. There were about 250 Cormorants, 40 Great Egrets, and 35 Black-crowned Night-Herons. I actually didn’t notice the Night-Herons at first until Dave pointed out a few; they blended in really well. Some birds were sitting on nests, some were standing around and/or preening, and some were coming and going. It was very loud and fascinating to watch. I’ve only ever seen 2 Black-crowned Night-Herons in my life, so seeing 35 of them in one spot was a treat! (The Night-Herons are hard to spot in these pics, they blend in perfectly)
After watching the rookery for awhile we moved on to another impoundment across the street. There were large flocks of Laughing Gulls and Herring Gulls (easily 150-200 + per species), some Snowy Egrets, and more Great Egrets. We did eventually find the wildlife auto loop. It’s 8 miles, but we didn’t stay on it very long. Some of the other birds we saw included Red-winged Blackbirds, Gray Catbirds, American Robins, Song Sparrows, House Sparrows, Blue Jays, a Great Blue Heron, Mourning Doves, Downy Woodpeckers, an Eastern Kingbird, Crows, Carolina Chickadees, and Northern Cardinals.
We only stood for about an hour and mostly watched from the car, but saw a decent amount in a short time. We could barely walk around though because it was really buggy even with spray on.
Overall, I had mixed feeling about this trip. The rookery was amazing, but it was a little confusing to get around and pretty crowded. It may be nice to visit in the fall when it’s less crowded. I am glad we tried something different though.
Tonight I’m having one of those moments that remind me why I love birding so much: you just never know what you’ll find.
I’m pretty pumped right now, and didn’t plan on posting tonight, but wanted to share my excitement with you, my BirdNation friends :-).
It was perfect timing. I opened up my e-mail on June 17 to read my daily New Jersey Rare Bird Alert from ebird. And I got excited, because there was finally a rare bird in my county, only 15 minutes away. Just in time for my summer break to start.
Here’s the thing about the NJ Rare Bird Alerts. Most of what comes up is not in my county. And I mean they are not even remotely close. Many of the people reporting these rare birds live in North Jersey (I’m a South Jersey girl), so unless I drive a minimum of 2 hours (which is not happening) I will not see these birds. But I opened that e-mail, which told me there were Dickcissels in Laurel Run Park, and got excited. “I can go there, it’s up the road from Boundary Creek!”, I thought. And I had all the time in the world because I was on vacation! So the rare bird search began.
Laurel Run is a meadow habitat that is a square trail one mile long. It meets up with Rancocas Creek. I had never been there before, but Dave and I have driven past it a few times, wondering if it was just a field. Over the next few days we visited the park twice, and walked the loop 3 times.
No Dickcissels. “Oh well”, I thought, “at least we tried.” We did see some other good stuff. Mourning Doves, Red-winged Blackbirds, Barn Swallows, Yellow Warblers, an Indigo Bunting. We did figure out that we saw some Grasshopper Sparrows, which is a life bird for us. We saw a few things we didn’t recognized, but got a few pictures.
So tonight I was looking through those pictures. And that’s when the excitement started.
The Indigo Bunting…was not. It’s a Blue Grosbeak! It’s bill is so thick! Another life bird.
Blue Grosbeak (Image by David Horowitz)
Then there’s Mystery Bird. I could not, for the life of me, figure out who this little guy was. Dave and I were thinking some sort of thrush maybe. I used all my field guides, and even my new Sibleys wasn’t being much of a help because I wasn’t sure where to look.
Mystery Bird…(Image by David Horowitz)
I resorted to Facebook. I posted my (not very good quality) photos on the New Jersey Birders group, and within 5 minutes got 3 responses: Juvenile Horned Lark. Other people in the group got excited about it too, and start sharing their pictures of the same Horned Lark.
Juvenile Horned Lark! (Image by David Horowitz)
And…that was not what I expected at all. But I’m so excited. I thought we didn’t see much at the moment we were there, but learned we did great! I didn’t see the Dickcissels, but I ended up with 3 new life birds and didn’t even know it at the time: Grasshopper Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak, and Juvenile Horned Lark.
And that’s one of the many (million) reasons I love birding. It’s better to go without expectations, because anything is possible. You just never know what kind of cool birds you might run into in the field 🙂
On Sunday Dave and I visited Edwin B. Forsythe NWR. I make it a point to visit Forsythe at least once a season. I always see something interesting no matter what time of the year I visit, so I was looking forward to seeing what we would discover.
We usually hike a little bit of the Songbird Trail, but it was already getting hot so we went straight for the 8 mile Wildlife Drive. At the beginning of the drive there’s an observation platform that goes out into the marsh. There’s an Osprey nest there, so we like to check out the family in the summer. A few visits ago we observed a small flock of Glossy Ibis foraging there, so I was hoping to see Ibis again.
There were no Ibis but we did see a family of Ospreys (3 chicks on the nest), Barn Swallows, Red-winged Blackbirds, and a Yellow Warbler. Down below were hundreds of Fiddler Crabs! They were trying to get away though, because a turtle came parading through the mud. The little guy moved pretty quickly like he was on a mission. Although the Fiddler Crabs were scurrying away, he seemed to have no interest in them. He had places to go I guess. Then we heard a call.
‘Ttp Zhe Eeeeeee!”
The call came from within the tall grasses. I’ve heard this call before, but wasn’t sure who it was. As we scanned the marsh, suddenly a little brown bird popped up from the grass. Ttp Zhe Eeeeeee!
There it was! A Seaside Sparrow. Seaside Sparrows are drab, with a yellow spot over their eyes, and a large bill. They are usually heard and not seen, so I was shock when it popped out of nowhere. It was our first life bird of the day.
Seaside Sparrow (Image by David Horowitz)
Turtle on the go! (Image by David Horowitz)
The tide was low, so the first part of our journey was all mudflats. As we continued there was more water, so that’s where all the action began. It was busy: a family of Mallards, Glossy Ibis (finally!), Great Blue Herons, Canada Gee, Laughing Gulls, and Double-crested Cormorants. As I was taking notes Dave asked, “Hey, are those birds over the the skimmer things you were talking about?”
Glossy Ibis (Image by David Horowitz)
Black Skimmers! A dream bird of mine. Every time I visit Long Beach Island during the summer I hope to see Black Skimmers, but never do. There were about 4 of them skimming along the water. Black Skimmers are unique because their lower mandibles are much longer than their upper one. They keep their bills open as they skim the water’s surface until they hit a fish. I was happy seeing them, but wasn’t prepared for what would happen next.
Black Skimmer (Image by David Horowitz)
On the other side of the marsh something big was happening. There was a flurry of black and white in the distance. I thought it was a bunch of gulls and terns, but it was more exciting than that. It was a huge flock of Black Skimmers coming our way!
I’ve never experienced something quite like it. There had to be at least 200 of them.They were everywhere! And they were loud too, all calling out “Yip! Yip!’. The flock split; some went out towards the ocean, while the rest did a loop around the marsh before landing together in a mudflat. It was by far one of the most thrilling displays I experienced at Forsythe.
A group of Black Skimmers (Image by David Horowitz0
We continued on and saw another one of my favorite birds, Snowy Egrets. They were stalking around looking for fish while Herring Gulls and Common Terns flew and dove overhead. There were also Great Egrets, Grackles, Red-winged Blackbird, Willets, Lesser Yellowlegs, Tree Swallows, Crows,more Osprey families, and a family of Mute Swans with 2 cygnets.
Willet (Image by David Horowitz)
Common Tern (Image by David Horowitz)
Mute Swans (Image by David Horowitz)
Toward the end of the trail there were some terns hanging around. I’ll admit, terns are new identification territory for me. I was able to figure out that I was seeing some Common Terns, but there was another kind as well. They had black heads, all black bills, and black legs. Turns out they were Gull-billed Terns. They are usually uncommon, but a birder from a Facebook group I’m in told me that they have been starting to breed at Forsythe. It was our final life bird of the day.
Gull-billed Tern (Image by David Horowitz)
I learned later in the day that Dave and I saw a something rare during our trip. There were 3 Ruddy Ducks hanging out not far from the Gull-billed Terns. I was a little surprised to see them, but we took a few pictures and moved on. In the evening I received my daily E-bird NJ Rare Bird Alert E-mail and the 3 Ruddy Ducks were on there. They should have left for the season, but for some reason these ones stuck around. This was the first time I saw one of the birds on the Rare Bird List in person. I submitted my checklist that night and the following day my Ruddy Duck report and comments were on the e-mail. I know that’s such a bird nerd thing, but I was excited about it! 😛
As usual, Forsythe NWR never fails to please. If you’re ever at the Jersey Shore and want to go birding you should definitely spend a day at Forsythe. Have you done any shore birding lately? If you have, what kind of shorebirds are you seeing?
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