Birds of Island Beach State Park in Print

     Over a year ago I started a project to document all the birds recorded at my favorite spot, Island Beach State Park in Ocean County, NJ.  I wanted it to be in book form so that my work would be available to the public.  Since I wanted to be in full control of the project, and work with my own timeline, I chose to use one of the self publishing companies available on the internet.  I chose to format the book as a summary account of all the birds found at the park, instead of a field guide.  I used available data from several sources, such as eBird, New Jersey Birds Record Committee and historic bird banding records.  When all the research was done, the final tally was 350 full species for the park.
Front and back covers.  © S. Weiss

The birds were presented in the latest taxonomical order with both common and scientific names.  Each bird’s abundance is described, such as common, scarce, rare, historical, etc.  The most likely place within the park to find most of the birds and/or season of the year that they are around is mentioned.  All the information is referenced, and all the birds are indexed.  I chose July 1, 2023 as the cutoff date for all this information, otherwise updating such information would never end.  This also gave me a chance to include the park’s,  and the state’s, newest bird, a black-whiskered vireo seen this past May. 
Pages from Table of Contents and Index.  © S. Weiss

I included a color photograph for each bird, just for illustrative purposes.  I scoured my own photo collection and put one of the best photos I had to represent each bird.  There are a few photos that I wish were better, but they were the best available.  Of the 350 species, I had photos for 331 of them.  This is where friends really came through.  I sent friends a list of the birds of which I lacked photos, asking if anyone could help me out.  Their responses were quick and enthusiastic.  Late photos of my own that I included were my first Tennessee warbler taken at the park in October, and a Sabine’s gull I took out in Washington State in September.  
One of content pages.  © S. Weiss

Over the months the book took shape, constantly being tweaked.  I had a friend who is among the top birders in the state review the content and give me feedback.  I proofread the book as it was laid out on the computer dozens and dozens of times.  When I thought, “This is just right,” I ordered my pre-sale copy and still found some minor errors.  I would like to have had the interior pages printed on glossy paper, but wanted to keep the cost reasonable and appealing.  So with the final revision completed and uploaded to the publishing website, Birds of Island Beach State Park is now publicly available at the bookstore at LuLu.com, or at:  https://www.lulu.com/shop/steven-a-weiss/birds-of-island-beach-state-park/paperback/product-eg79gm.html?q=birds+of+island+beach&page=1&pageSize=4

I hope it is useful for anyone who checks it out, as well as enjoyed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Jersey’s First Limpkin. 11/13/2023

Image
     Yesterday, reports were circulating of a limpkin  at a private residence in Manasquan, Monmouth County.  Pictures of the bird appeared on a Facebook page.  The reports were confirmed, and this was the first limpkin for New Jersey.  Pending acceptance by the New Jersey Birds Record Committee, this will be the 497th species recorded in the state. I am not a Facebook subscriber, so I did not hear about the bird until late on Sunday.  Earlier today, an administrator of the NJ Rare Birds GroupMe reported that the bird was still in town and the homeowners were allowing viewers to see the bird.  I saw that report in midafternoon.  I have seen the bird many times in Florida, where it should be.  I always threw that bird name out whenever there was a discussion about what would be among the next possible birds to appear in the Garden State.  So, after some self-contemplating, I decided to give it a try.  I put the address in to my car navigation system and I was less than a half hour away.
Read more

24 Hour Cape May Pelagic, 6/18-6/19- Skua, Jaeger, Beaked Whales, Devil Ray, Hammerhead Sharks and more

Image
     Just a few days after returning from a Bahamas cruise, I headed down to Cape May for a 24-hour pelagic trip aboard the American Star .  We left the dock at nine in the evening to make our way out about 90 miles offshore.  After about an hour I decided to turn in for the rest of the night.  The boat is set up for daytime whale and dolphin watching tours, so there are no real sleeping quarters on board.  I enveloped myself in a sleeping bag on a metal bench on the upper deck.  The bench was only as wide as me, so it was not a comfortable night.  The sea conditions were not bad, but I catnapped through the night ride trying not to roll off the bench.  Around five o’clock, daylight started to break up the night sky and people began emerging from their makeshift beds.  I’m sure those who brought beanbag cushions slept much better than I did.  Either way I survived the night and the day ahead turned out to be well worth the ride.  We saw the expected pelagic birds for this season, plus
Read more

Cruise to Bahamas- Antillean Nighthawk, Red-legged Thrush & Bahama Woodstar

Image
     This past week my wife and I took a cruise from New Jersey to the Bahamas.  Our ports of call were Port Canaveral, FL, Nassau and the cruise line’s private island in the Bahamas.  Prior to leaving I made a list of new birds I would like to see on the trip.  The list constituted new life birds that could be seen at those locations at this time of year.  In reality it was more of a wish list as I knew I would never get all 35 birds.  I would have been satisfied with one new bird, but I got three and happy. We left Bayonne on Friday and arrived at central Florida on Sunday afternoon.  Before we left I became aware of a wayward Large-billed Tern that showed up in Brevard County.  Large-billed terns are a South American species and look kind of like our Royal Terns , but (of course) with an exceptionally large bill.  This mega rarity would have been a great score, but I had to take a pass.  It seemed too convenient as Port Canaveral is also located in Brevard County.  Unfortunately, a
Read more