Happy Humpback Whale
Summer seemed to explode into existence this weekend at the Jersey Shore. Once Friday’s rains subsided around noon, both the sun and crowds both came out in abundance. The beach weather was wonderful, and it seemed as though the volume of visiting people was greater than during the Fourth of July holiday. With this in mind, I stayed away from my favorite locale, Island Beach State Park, which had reached its capacity by mid-morning each day. I spent the weekend mid-mornings and afternoons at a local beach with family. I sat under an umbrella and kept an eye and half my attention to the ocean in front of me. Some birds were around, but nothing spectacular. The usual local summer gulls were around picking on some bait fish in the ocean and some unattended potato chips on the beach. Common terns, a few royal terns and ospreys mixed in with the ocean-going gulls. The only noteworthy birds were a couple passing brown pelicans and a great shearwater. Pelicans become less common