On Tuesday my friend Jackie & I took a much needed nature outing. We headed out & took a drive around Forsythe NWR. Finally we had a day that was actually close to winter like weather. Despite the gray of the day when the sun started to set it provided some great views with awesome colors painted across the evening sky.

Our trip started off with an adult Whistling/Tundra Swan. There were plenty of ducks and Snow Geese to see on Tuesday. As always Mallards & Black Ducks in numbers but also lots & lots of Pintails. We saw groups of Hooded Mergansers. Saw a handful of Red Breasted Mergansers out on the bay & we saw 1 Common Merganser male in the East pool. The "white swirling cloud" of Snow Geese just past dusk was quite a sight to see. We also saw 3-4 groups of 25-30/group of Sanderlings in flight along the bay beach area to the marshes. Below are a few pix I took during our trip.

I took an hour or so today to enjoy the finally crisp winter weather & walked around our town's pond, The Mill Pond. The winds had calmed this morning so the geese were on the creek & the ducks & 2 Mute Swans were on the pond. Of course on the pond Mallards were present but so were the usual winter visitors including 25 Hooded Mergansers & 8 (4 pairs) Ring-Necked Ducks. Unfortunately I did not have a camera lens that could capture the distant pond visitors. But here are a few shots of the swans.

While browsing the Stockton College website I came across some info for a Red Knot Expedition stating that researchers from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and The Wetlands Institute will journey to Tierra del Fuego. Here's the link to their site documenting this expedition....

http://loki.stockton.edu/~hernandd/TierradelFuego/Our%20Mission.html