Birds and Other Nature Sightings

   Yesterday was a pleasant fall day, a perfect day actually to spend on the beach.  One of my favorite activities is taking a leisurely drive along the beach at Island Beach State Park and with the day to myself, that’s what I did.  Inland birding was rather slow, and an earlier walk at Reeds Road, one of the park’s birding hotspots, also did not produce many bird highlights.  So, as a sports fishing beach buggy permit holder, I entered the beach at the Gilikins entry point at the park’s northern section.   Now that the summer tourist season is over, the bathing beaches are open to beach buggy vehicles, and I can drive the beach for nearly seven miles to the north jetty at Barnegat Inlet.   After a short lull the last couple days, the sea duck and bird migration flight along the Atlantic corridor was back in action.  Waves of scoter flocks were traveling south, each flock containing probably anywhere from 50 to maybe 200 birds each.  I conse...

   This past Friday I went on a 12-hour birding and marine life pelagic boat trip out of Cape May.  I was hoping to see jaegers (parasitic or possibly a pomarine), a couple different shearwaters or some other surprise birds.  Unfortunately, the only truly pelagic birds seen on the trip were some northern gannets, and they were on the inshore portion of the trip.  The only surprise birds we saw offshore were a couple of yellow-rumped warblers and a blackpoll warbler about 50 miles out.  As it turned out, they were the only birds we saw that far out. The trip, however, was salvaged by the whales we encountered on our way out and on our return to inshore waters.  In all, we saw seven humpback whales and a rarely encountered North Atlantic right whale.  On the way out, one of the humpback whales was very accommodating.  For what seemed like over a half hour, it surfaced time after time near the boat.  After surfacing and diving along one sid...

 This past weekend my friend, Captain John, invited me on another fishing trip for tuna.  Based on the successful trip we had two weeks ago; I was excited for another day out on the ocean.  The offshore weather forecast for Sunday called for light winds and two-foot seas meant a smooth and quicker ride.  The fishing reports indicated that schools of larger yellowfin tuna, in the 80-pound range, and bigeye tuna, which run twice that size, had moved into the area.  The weather forecast, the fishing reports and my own hopes of seeing some summer pelagic birds, had my anticipation levels heightened. We left the dock by 1:30 a.m. and headed northeast out of Barnegat Inlet.  We arrived at the fishing grounds just before sunrise and the seas were light as had been forecasted.  However, we would spend about the next six hours searching for tuna.  The closest thing we caught was a false albacore .  False albacores are not considered tasty.  It is...

 This past weekend a friend invited me to join him on his boat for a tuna fishing trip.  I didn’t hesitate to take his offer.  The trip offered me two of my favorite activities - fishing and wildlife viewing.  Luckily, the weather, the tuna and the marine life all cooperated for me.  We caught yellowfin tuna and saw plenty of dolphins, whales and a few pelagic birds. We left my friend’s dock at around 1 a.m. aboard his 36-foot fishing boat.  The boat, all decked out with offshore fishing gear, headed out of Barnegat Inlet on a course about 90 miles to the northeast.  We arrived at the fishing grounds around 5:30 a.m.  I can’t identify the exact location because my friend, like any other dedicated fishing captain, doesn’t give out his secret GPS coordinates.  But eBird decided to place my checklist in New York waters. Left, Wilson's storm-petrel.  Right, Cory's shearwater.    © S. Weiss Left, great shearwater.  Right, grea...