Yesterday (Mon. 9-29) I did a shorebird survey at Great Bay Blvd. WMA, Tuckerton, NJ.

Cloudy w/ some sun, mid-up'r 70's, light N winds. Shooting Thorofare: HT: 8:39am, LT: 2:58pm. Shorebird survey from 1:00pm til 5pm. Note: Biting black flies & mosquitoes!!!



Note: tidal/marsh pools full of water despite out going & low tide. Less mudflats exposed out in the marshes than when I surveyed last, 10 days ago, w/ a higher tide. Shooting Thorofare beach sod banks were exposed today w/ the low tide & several shorebird species were present & feeding in that area (BBP, SPP, SPS & AO's).

Species seen:
Least Sandpipers (2)
Semipalmated Sandpipers (5)
Semipalmated Plovers (3)
Black-bellied Plovers (28)
Greater (3) & Lesser Yellowlegs (12)
American Oystercatchers (2)

Note: at the end of the outing I saw a Clapper rail chasing a GYL along the mud bank at the marsh grass edge, pretty amusing.

Other species of note:
Clapper Rail
Great Blue Herons
Little Blue Heron
Great Egrets
DC Cormorants
Northern Harrier
Belted Kingfisher
Brown Thrasher

Also saw several different butterflies/moths. Monarchs & the others I'll have to ID from my photos. I'll post photos soon.

Check back later for a slideshow of yesterday’s photos.

SH

From 3pm til 6pm @ GBB WMA on Saturday, 9-20-08. Sunny with some clouds, warm 70's, strong ENE winds 15-20mph. Tide was high & out going. Shooting Thorofare: HT: 12:21pm, LT: 7:02pm. Little Sheepshead Creek: HT: 12:35pm, LT: 7:24pm. Mosquitos were prevalent.

Lots of Egrets, mostly Great but a few Snowy's as well. GB Herons, 1 Tricolored & a 2 B-C Night-Heron juveniles were seen. Lots of gulls & grackles today too. Off of Shooting Thorofare on the exposed sandbars off of Rutgers MRS were large groups of Cormorants. All along GBB hundreds of Tree Swallows throughout the marshes & waterways.

The most abundant shorebirds during Saturday's shorebird survey was the Blk-bellied plovers. Groups of BBP: 78 in 1 group, 100 in another & 65 in another. All were quite a ways out in the marshes @ various stops along GBB, a scope was a must but the sun was preventing any aging of the birds.

Other groups of shorebirds seen were:
Note: Distance & sun prevented the aging of most birds today.
Lesser Yellowlegs (1 group of 37), 4 Short-billed Dowitchers & a group of 6 Least Sandpipers. Single species seen: 1 juvy Semipalmated Plover, 1 juvy Least Sandpiper, 1 Greater Yellowlegs juvy, 2 Lesser Yellowlegs juvy & 1 Amr. Oystercatcher.

For photos from Saturday click the link below...

http://susan.thespikeranch.com/page33/page55/page55.html

I was in the area today & swung by Malibu Beach after an appointment. So I took a bunch of photos from 12:30pm til 2:30pm. The winds were strong at 15-20 mph & ENE. The tide was high & outgoing. No sod bank exposure during my visit today.

The Black Skimmers weren't as active feeding wise as they were when I was there a few weeks ago however they are still huge in numbers. A few times the roosts took to flight & what a sight that was. I'm not sure what the disturbance was, possibly people along the Marina docks. I was at a good distance (up on the hwy) with a tele zoom lens & didn't see anybody on the beach. Perhaps it was the strong winds stirring the birds up.

There was also a roost of Amr. Oystercatchers today (on the Seaview Harbor end/beach) & a small group of 5 AMOY's feeding further south on the beach. There were also roosting Sanderlings, a few Least Sandpipers & Semi-palm plovers trying to stay out of the wind/blowing sand by taking refuge behind some plants.

The brackish pond also held a group of BLSK's & glossy Ibis, some CAN Geese, Blk ducks & Mallards.

2 cool sights today were gulls eating starfish & 1 GBB gull eating a small sandshark!

For photos from today go to the links below or “Flash Slideshows”

http://susan.thespikeranch.com/page33/page50/page50.html

http://susan.thespikeranch.com/page33/page54/page54.html

RapidWeaver has a new version so I’m back to updating this site, as opposed to the iWeb “test” site I was messing with a week or so ago. iWeb had compatibility issues when using a server other than the MobileMe. Now if I could have a combo of iWeb’s flexibility in design & RW’s ease of updating & FTP’n to an outside server I’d be happy. But RW will suffice as I am not looking to spend too much time at the computer.

Hopefully in the next few weeks or rainy days I will remove the iWeb “test” version site, take down all the old photo albums, revamp what photos I do put up, get rid of the lost in space pages & have things in order... just remember I don’t set the bar too high so it’ll happen at my slacker pace! SH

Just a quick note: I had an appointment in Somers Point today so I took my camera with me so I could hit Malibu Beach WMA afterwards & get some photos of the hundreds of Black Skimmers. I was briefly @ Malibu Beach yesterday @ low tide & there were lots of birds to be seen. Mostly the Black Skimmers, Sanderlings, Semipalmated Plovers, some Ruddy Turnstones, Black-bellied Plovers & a few Amr. Oystercatchers. Today I caught Malibu while it was still high tide, which made for good photography as it brought the birds closer for photography. Click the link below for today's photo's.

If you get a chance, are in the area or looking to make a trip to southern NJ, put Malibu Beach on your list.

link to Malibu Beach 9-3-08 photos
http://susan.thespikeranch.com/page33/page53/page53.html