Open Eyes in NJ

Quick adventure on the Shrewsbury River - Dolphins in NJ

Dovekie — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:22:00 GMT

Today (7/2/08) we went to see some Bottlenose Dolphins that have gotten stuck in the Shrewsbury River near Sandy Hook. From the news reports we’ve heard, there are over a dozen dolphins (2 calves), they’re feeding and doing well… they just won’t leave, possibly due to construction noise from a bridge blocking their path to the ocean. Since the news mentioned they could be seen from McLoon’s RumRunner Restaurant, that’s where we went. Apparently that’s where everyone else went too: there were lots of people in the parking lot staring out into the water at… nothing. We joined the masses and watched as boaters and jet skiers went by, most of them slowly but some sped recklessly through, despite the known dolphin issue. We did manage to see three oystercatchers fly overhead, which was cool.

After an hour of standing there, a slow boater shouted to us that the dolphins were further down the river, towards the bridge under construction. Most of us went to our respective cars and drove down the road. My boyfriend and I broke from the herd and pulled onto a side street where there were just two other people. Just a few moments later in the distance we saw dolphins coming up for air! They just kept coming up for air and tail slapping. We watched for quite a while but then the crowd found the spot too. It wouldn’t have been so bad – at first there were lots of people hoping the dolphins would go back to the ocean soon & safely, and being angry at fast boaters… but towards the end there were lots of loud, rude children around and non-joking comments from the adults like ‘I don’t think those are dolphins (because of the back fins I assume), they look more like sharks to me. I’d be scared to get in that water’ and a group saying ‘Why is that coast guard boat (state police boat) there? Other: to keep people away from the dolphins. Third: People have been swimming with them while the Coast Guard boats (State Police Boats) aren’t around. First: They should really let everyone have that experience with them… as long as they don’t charge! [money]’ etc. >_< I don’t mean to be catty, but it really got to me and I needed a little vent.

We stayed as long as we could and then left, with nice memories of dolphins and fond hopes for their safe return to the ocean soon – preferably before the chaos of the 4^th of July celebration and all the extra boating there.

6/25/08 DE Water Gap - New Sightings!

Dovekie — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:47:00 GMT

Last Wednesday (6/25/08) my boyfriend and I headed back out to the Delaware Water Gap – using an upcoming deadline for a photo contest as an excuse. ^_^ I ended up with one entry (non bird) but got a whole slew of incredible new sightings! I also found out that not only does my boyfriend make a mean sandwich; he also is an excellent tracker / tiny critter spotter.

We started by visiting Kittatinny Point to photo the mountains, but it was CRAMMED with people and canoes. So we went back to good ol’ Old Mine Road. We parked at different spots along the road and waited for birds or mammals to come along. Our first sighting of the day was a chipmunk, which is pretty cool since we only have squirrels where I live. The second sighting has my totally baffled. We saw a small black or dark bird with red flashes on its wings and on / near its tail. It was fast and restless and all my pictures of it just show unidentifiable blurs. We waited a while, hoping it would come back, but it didn’t so we moved on.

We drove down to the Poxono boat launching area to photo the river and anything near it and were greeted by… flies and a stinky dead fish. As I wondered if a bear killed that large, not so freshly killed fish (left an awful lot if it did) my boyfriend noticed thousands of tadpoles in the water – my very first ones! Some had even sprouted legs. All of a sudden, we noticed a huge bird fly by – easily the largest bird I’ve ever seen! It was followed by two other huge birds – but they were pretty far away. I snapped some pictures in full zoom and zoomed in again in preview mode to make the ID. They turned out to be pretty easy to ID… big yellow raptor bill, dark body and wings, completely white head and tail… BALD EAGLES!!! There were 2 adults and one immature one all dark and spotty; my very first wild bald eagles which surprisingly flew by again awhile later despite my excited squealing and jumping around. ^_^ As if to quell any doubt, an osprey flew by a few moments later, making the comparison and ID much easier for me since I was in total disbelief about my sighting. I did manage to get a funny picture of the immature bald eagle being chased by a red winged black bird, though they were still pretty far (posted).

My boyfriend’s ‘eagle eyes’ were able to spot another wonder no bigger than my pinky fingernail – tiny newly developed American Toads! (Thanks to the folks at fieldherpforums for the ID). I have a picture of one posted to my Flickr account. After a while of reveling there and fruitlessly trying to ID or photo the tiny birds swooping at the water, we continued our drive.

Quite a ways down, I heard a very strange bird call and we pulled to the side of the road near a bush to listen. It sounded like a Pacman sound effect. I don’t know how to describe bird calls yet, but I’ll check to see if I can extract the sound from any video I took and post it here. Anyway, I have my head out of the car window, camera at the ready, when something flies to the visible branches of the near bush. It took me a moment to register because to me, it was as exciting as the bald eagles. MY FIRST CEDAR WAXWING!!! From the first time I saw their pictures and drawings in ID books and sites, I felt they were the most beautiful birds in the world and fell absolutely in love. A bunch of them appeared in the bush only to disappear within its depths and reappear seconds later. I took as many pictures as I could in an unfortunately necessary high ISO (400) due to the light (posted). We reluctantly continued on our way seeing bunnies, beautiful flowers and even our bald eagle friends again before we called it a day. No bears this time, but still such incredible, wonderful wildlife! We had a great time!

5/20/08 - Big Pocono Park (PA) & Delaware Water Gap (NJ)

Dovekie — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:07:00 GMT

Note: This blog is about a trip I took on the weekend of May 20th.

My boyfriend and I went to the Pocono’s this weekend for his cousin’s wedding, and afterwards decided to do some nature viewing. Note: If I posted pictures of a bird I saw on the trip, I’ll add the tag line of (posted) just for the sake of ease. On the drive to Big Pocono State Park (Camelback Mountain) we got a little lost but ended up seeing some wild turkeys (posted) as a result! There seemed to be an adult male, a female and an immature male. The adult male was going through his mating displays which were awesome… though I always got the backend of his displays, making for less than spectacular photos. I then heard a very strange bird sound coming from behind me. It was like clucking, but different (we’ve had chickens before and this wasn’t a chicken cluck). All of a sudden I see this bizarre chicken-esque bird (posted) coming at me, making a racket and generally showing it’s displeasure with me being on the side of the road. It wasn’t a chicken though, not a normal one at least - it was black / dark brown with small white spots on it’s back, it’s neck was tawny brown, it’s head had a big white patch on each cheek, the top of it’s head was black with a small orange projection at the very top, and had red side flaps around her beak. It was being followed by an ordinary rooster. My family members think it was a guinea fowl… but I’m not sure – though I agree it was very likely a domesticated bird. Thankfully, it didn’t actually attack me. We checked our map and got back underway to Big Pocono. The views were absolutely breathtaking, and I had the toughest and most exhilarating hike I’ve ever had (just starting to hike too, we did the Indian and Orange Trails), but didn’t see much in the way of birds or wildlife, except for insects, mysterious animal scat, and a freshly killed blue jay sans its head. :-( At one point during the hike, we got to a small ledge with a fantastic, unobstructed view of the world below. We even got to see a turkey vulture soaring high above the land, but still very far below us! We saw a glace of an Eastern Towhee, a live blue jay, several crows and a catbird on our visit to Big Pocono too. After our hike, I swapped my camera for a sandwich and we ate our lunch outside of the not-yet-opened-for-the-season Cameltop restaurant (still in the park), and got to see a Cooper’s hawk rise above the ridge and fly right past us! As much as I tried though, my egg salad sandwich wouldn’t take a good picture. On our way home, we stopped by the Delaware Water Gap to take a long and leisurely drive on the scenic Old Mine Road (on the NJ side). It is absolutely gorgeous out there! The road is lined with beautiful woods and small waterfalls. The scent of wildflowers and damp trees filled the air while the sounds of rustling leaves, gently rushing water, and melodic bird songs accompanied us the whole way. I caught a glimpse of one of those singing beauties (posted) – it was yellow all over, with some darker, long stripes on it’s chest. It was rather small too, but it was alone and fast so I couldn’t compare it. I have a less than ideal photo of it and I believe that it may have been a common yellow throat. I also believe I saw a Northern Flicker. We stopped at Worthington State Forest’s boat launching area and amongst the huge blue sky with mammoth white clouds, the leisurely paced river, and the green covered island, we saw a swarm of speedy dark birds with white bellies chasing each other over the water. I tried to video and photo them for ID, but no luck. We continued our drive on Old Mine Road and after a long while, we decided to turn back. On our way back we saw more wildlife than I have ever seen before in one trip! It was around 6 or 7pm. First we saw a small, immature raptor sitting in a tree (posted). Then we saw a strange, raccoon sized mammal crossing the street… only it didn’t look like a raccoon. Upon closer inspection we saw that it was actually a PORCUPINE!!! I didn’t even know we had them in NJ. Next we saw a comical deer biting off more than it could chew in the way of huge bundles of vines. Further down the road we saw a cute raccoon digging up some earth before crossing the street right in front of us. Finally, just as we were leaving the park, we saw one of my personal holy grails of land mammals: a black bear just as it was leaving the road! We turned around and drove through again, in the hopes of seeing more bears and were rewarded with at least two more beautiful black bears. I’ve never been a bear fan, they always seemed so dopey and dangerous. But after seeing them in person, I am a total convert. Their fur is absolutely beautiful – shiny black with tones of a deep rich browns. One looked right at me then walked gently off into the forest before sitting in a big bundle of plants looking sweet. I had to use a rather high ISO on my camera to get any shots at all, making them all have too much noise for a really good picture – but I’ll cherish them forever anyway. I’m not sure if I should post non-bird pictures, so I’m not for now. So here I am, back home and sharing my experience. I hope that if anyone out there gets a chance to drive down Old Mine Road in the Delaware Water Gap in NJ, that they definitely won’t pass it up. I think driving through at sunset increased our chances of seeing wildlife. Just… stay in your car and don’t feed the bears, k? ^_^

TGS – Another Mystery Bird… and Ticks suck.

Dovekie — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:17:00 GMT

My boyfriend and I went back to the great swamp on April 23, 2008, to see what we could see. Again, we heard lots of mysterious bird calls and saw awesome turtles and frogs. I also got a shot of a little bird I’ve never seen before. It was hanging out by the board walk near where the snapping turtle was from our previous visit. The bird hung around, though he didn’t let us get to close, and he flew under the boardwalk often. It looked like a little batman – dark cap and back, white face and chest. I thought maybe he was a swallow, swift, or martin, but his wings didn’t seem long enough. Oh well, I’m hoping that the friendly people here will help me ID it, since I haven’t been able to make a positive ID with my birding book (Smithsonian). I’ve posted two blurry pictures for ID… I gotta start bringing a tripod with me. We saw a Mallard and some Canada Geese too. When the light had just about faded, we left and went back home. There, I got to see another first – a tick crawling on my boyfriend’s arm! Ewww! At least it wasn’t attached, but the weird thing is that we weren’t near any grass or bushes – we stayed on the boardwalk over marshy areas. I guess it could have climbed up into the bird blind… but at any rate – it’s time to invest in some Off! spray.

The great swamp is... pretty great!

Dovekie — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:03:00 GMT

Soon, we were seeing lots of movement in the trees – tufted titmouses (titmice?), some sort of woodpecker (didn’t visually ID, but heard the calls and wood pecking noises), white breasted nuthatches, and more red-winged blackbirds. This second blind (“Friends”) has a pretty view, but only two Canada geese. On our way back to find a third trail, I photographed a bird I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. It might have been a tufted titmouse, but the beak seemed thinner and it seemed smaller overall. ...(read more)

My First Flicker!

Dovekie — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:55:00 GMT

April 20, 2008

Hooray!

I haven’t been able to go birding in a while, but to my surprise the birds came to me this weekend when a female Northern Flicker showed up in my yard! It only stayed a day – and was EXTREMELY jittery. As a result, my pictures weren’t good enough to post or print, but they were good enough to ID the flicker.

My boyfriend recently gave me a copy of Digital Nature Photography: The Art and the Science. I’m reading through it and so far I like more parts than I dislike (some of the writing drags on at times and can get repetitive), but overall it seems to be a very helpful and useful book. I’ve been trying out some of the techniques, but I think I need to learn more about what my camera does and CAN do. For example – I have a canon s3 IS, and it seems to automatically save images as a JPEG file. The book mentions RAW files but I don’t know how to get my camera to do that yet – I really need to study the manual. I’m also having a frustrating time with trying to focus the camera – it’ll look like I’ve got my subject in focus, but when I view the picture, it turns out I was really focused on the grass blades right behind it. So I go to manual focus but my subject moves away before I’m ready.

I often make it a point to mention that I’m new to birding, but I’m also really new to photography – I’ve only had a camera for a year. It’s a fun learning journey though. Hope to see lots of good birds / animals soon.

Ospreys at Sandy Hook, NJ… and some bad news.

Dovekie — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:36:00 GMT

Across the street from the visitor center (on the bayside) we were thrilled to see not one, not two but 4 Ospreys seemingly battling it out over a favored nest box. They dove at each other, landed on the nest, chased each other away, flew directly over head repeatedly (I thought one was going to drop a fish on me), and gave us the thrill of our lives......(read more)

A tale of two birding trips: Barnegat Light & The Raptor Trust

Dovekie — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:22:00 GMT

Friday, March 21 – my boyfriend and I took a spontaneous trip to Barnegat Light in the hopes of seeing (and photographing) the beautiful Harlequin Duck. No luck on the duck, but I did get to see some new birds!!! I saw my first oyster catchers! They repeatedly flew near the lighthouse & walking path, and landed on the beach across the way – which we found our way to. I also saw one brown bird hanging out near some red-breasted mergansers – its body was like a merganser but much bigger, and instead of the thin, slightly curved beak, it had a dagger-like bill! ...(read more)

A nice ending to Monday's Sandy Hook Trip

Dovekie — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:42:00 GMT

...because apparently it was right time to catch the glimpses and sounds of the American woodcock's mating ritual (March 1 through the 20th). I never even heard of the woodcock before so we waited with them. It was pretty dark already when we heard the bird's raspberry calls turn into the winding chirps which I learned meant that the birds had flown up into the sky and were spiraling down to earth. ...(read more)

First Blog Entry and the Hawk Incident

Dovekie — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:10:00 GMT

...The small hawk seemed quite irritated at them, as he peered into the bush. Finally he flew and clawed at the bush as he went by... landing on a fence 15 feet away from me! He stayed there for quite a while, eyeing the bush and eyeing me... ...(read more)