Birds and Other Nature Sightings

     A couple weekends back I forewent a peak bird migration locally and took a trip to Rhode Island.  My wife and I met up with my daughter and son-in-law, and we all took a whale watching excursion out of Plymouth, MA.  Some of the birds I miss in May I can look for in September and October when they return south.  They just might not be as colorful as they were going north. The whale watching fleets in Massachusetts tour Stellwagen Bank.  Stellwagen Bank is an 842 square mile national marine sanctuary situated in the Gulf of Maine, between Cape Anne and Cape Cod.  It is an important feeding ground for several species of whales, such as humpbacks , minke , fin , sei and right whales .  My daughter and I took one of these trips last summer and had great, up-close views of humpback whales resting at the surface, oblivious to our presence.  My wife has joined me on a few local trips out of Cape May, NJ.  This was my son-in-law’s firs...

       Over the past weekend, before the temperatures got hot, spring migrants finally appeared in numbers that many local birders had been anticipating.  I, on the other hand, spent the weekend away.  I knew a late migratory push was due to happen, but I was okay with that.  Really. On Tuesday I took a walk on some trails at Island Beach State Park with a friend to see if any of the migrant birds were still around.  The short answer is not really.  On Wednesday I changed it up a bit and took a solo walk along the beach at the southern end of Island Beach from the end of the paved road to the backside of the inlet, a round-trip hike of about five miles.  It was near 90 degrees when I left my house on the mainland, but it was about 30 degrees cooler at the beach.  As it has been for most of the year, there was not much to see bird-wise on the beach or out on the ocean though I did pick up my first royal terns of the year.  Along...

       It had been over four months since I was last out on the ocean, but I finally got back out there this past Sunday.  I joined the Cape May Whale Watch & Research Center on its 12-hour pelagic trip.  We left the dock by 6:30 in the to return by 6:30 in the evening.  This was one of the few long pelagics that was completely in daylight.  It was a little brisk with some wind at times, but I have been out in much colder and rougher conditions in the past.  I was prepared for the weather and just happy to be out on the water again. I had a couple pelagic species I wanted to see, and I actually saw almost all that I had hoped.  As soon as we were about to leave the inlet to the open ocean, we spotted a pair of harbor seals feeding on fish that they caught underwater.  On the way through the inlet, we saw a merlin perched on the jetty probably looking to score an early morning shorebird breakfast.  As usual, great cormoran...

     Late Saturday afternoon I saw reports of a Harris’s sparrow in nearby southeastern Monmouth County.  It was too late to go look for it so I reconciled with myself that if it hung around into Sunday then maybe I would go for it.  The vagrant bird was spotted again Sunday morning, so after catching up on some other things I decided to take the ride.   This bird didn’t exactly meet my personal criteria for chasing a rarity.   Normally, a target bird would have to be a potential life bird and one that I may not have another opportunity to ever see.  Harris’s sparrows only breed in Canada and winter in the central United States.  I have seen one Harris’s sparrow before, in February 2023, the last time one showed up in New Jersey.  I had distant and brief looks at that one.  That bird was about 30 miles away in Mercer County.  The current one was about half the distance.  For that reason, I decided to try for better looks ...

     For the first time this year I took a vehicle ride along the beach at Island Beach State Park.  Off road vehicle access has been closed much of the year so far due to the winter storms battering the beach.  It finally reopened yesterday and since it was cold and windy yet again, I opted for the warmth and comfort of driving rather than walking.  There wouldn’t have been much to mention about today’s jaunt except for a couple of little birds I noticed scurrying across the sand.  It was the fact that they were using their legs more than their wings that first caught my attention.  They weren’t sanderlings because they were too small.  When one stopped and turned around, I knew I had my first-of-the-year piping plovers .   When I was young, the saying was that a robin was the first sign of spring.  Then I realized that robins are around all year.  Maybe different populations of American robins come and go throughout the year...