Jun 2006
Blog | Sep 2006 | May 2006

Barnegat Light beach nesting areas

June/13/2006 08:31 PM
This afternoon I headed up to LBI & went with my sister and nephew to check on 1 of the beach areas they helped to fence in back in April. We were at 16th & 15th streets in Barnegat Light. We saw 1 pair of Piping Plover on the 15th street beach, in the predator cage as well as out & about running around. We saw another pair of Piping Plover on the 16th street beach as well as a Least Tern pair. The Least Tern pair had to swoop & fend off 2 AO's that entered the fenced in area. The AO's didn't give up easily & the battle went on for a few minutes. Once the AO's left the 1 Least Tern returned to the spot it had been nestled into. The Piping Plover pair was unaffected by the AO's. We also saw the Least Terns swoop at a few people who were coming up the beach paths & along the beach near the fenced in area.

bllh

Photo Album

Other related links for nesting shorebirds:

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/bnb_brochure.pdf

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/pipingplover/pdf/catseat.pdf

http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/ensp/pdf/delbayshrbirds.pdf

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/somjuly.htm

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/end-thrtened/plover.pdf

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/end-thrtened/leasttern.pdf

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/end-thrtened/blkskimmer.pdf

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Survey wk 6: GBB Tu, June 6th, 2006

June/06/2006 05:20 PM
Today I was @ GBB WMA from 11:45am until about 3:00pm. Late this morning and into this afternoon it was cloudy, overcast and had periods of light rain early on. It was fairly windy with Winds E-NE. The winds stayed steady with occasional stronger gusts. Little Sheepshead Creek HT 4:32am & 5:18pm, LT 11:15am. Shooting Thorofare HT 4:18am & 5:04pm, LT 10:53pm.

Today being the last (?) week of spring shorebird surveys and knowing the few shorebirds I did see today, I wish I had made last week's survey so I could compare weeks 4, 5 & 6 but so it goes. Today the number of Diamondback Terrapins was close to the number of shorebirds I saw and chances are there were plenty more turtles to see!

dt

Today's birds consisted of Willets for the most part. I did see a total of 2 SPS, 1 BBP, 1 SPP & 3 AO's. 2 of the AO's were roosting in the marshes by the Rutger's Marine Research Station (near the big tower). I remember seeing them roost there last year around this time. The other AO was out on the SE end of GBB @ water's edge, a common spot as well for AO's @ GBB. Other birds seen were a Green Heron, Savannah Sparrows, Seaside Sparrows, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows, a Least Tern, A Gull-Billed Tern & a Forster's Tern.

June 6th Photo Album

Missed survey week 5

June/04/2006 09:25 PM
Unfortunately with too many activities on last week's calendar I was unable to survey GBB WMA for week 5. I would have been curious to see what kind of numbers GBB had in comparison to week 4 & this last week of surveying, week 6.