Birds and Other Nature Sightings

      Today was foggy with a northeasterly wind.  I thought it would be a good day to walk and see if the weather would bring some interesting birds to the beach.  I left the mainland and drove over to one of our local beaches.  Unfortunately, as I crossed the bridge to the barrier island, the fog was a little heavier than I thought.  Visibility on the beach was limited.  I could barely see beyond the breakers and only made out a pair of laughing gulls , a common loon and a long-tailed duck . More surprising to me was the lack of gulls sitting on the beach, actually there were none.  Usually, they ground themselves with the fog and gather in groups facing into the wind.  I did notice that posts had been planted on the beach from the dunes towards the water line.  They held signage stating that the area behind this boundary was now a piping plover nesting area and that vehicles were prohibited.  I walked the nesting zone to it...

     Four new birds visited New Jersey last year to bring the state list to 503 species.  Two of the new birds are newly recognized species, having been split from other species last year.  The four new birds to visit the Garden State last year were common swift , Vega gull , Fea’s petrel and Scopoli’s shearwater .  Here is a summary of the new birds visited. On March, 9, 2024, a Vega gull was found at Gateway National National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook, Monmouth County.   Vega gull became a new species in 2024.  It and three other new species were split from herring gull .  The other three species are American herring gull , European herring gull and Mongolian gull .  Vega gull is an Asian species.  It is very similar to American herring gull and its identification needs to be carefully scrutinized. On May 17, 2024, a swift larger than the expected chimney swifts was noticed in Cape May.  The original spotter photograph...