Its migration and I haven't seemed to have any time to post. I've been birding and boy has it been BIRDIE!! I have more to post from my trip to Louisiana, but will save it for another day. Today's post is from Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge and Cape May, New Jersey. Had a great trip with South Shore Bird Club members. We encountered 142 species with 10 lifers for me. According to the trip leaders it was actually a slow week at Cape May. I can't say it was slow for me. It wasn't a great trip for photography, but that was fine. Memories of some of the warblers are burned into my head. However, the highlight of the trip, believe it or not, was the 4 foot Black Racer we saw crossing the dike at Brigantine. We also watched a Yellow Breasted Chat performing his mating dance. They are hilarious. The vocalization and the actual physical flight gyrations are amazing. His bright yellow chest was evident as it hung in mid-air squawking and barking out his call.
South Shore Bird Club Members (great group)
Black Racer
Dunlin
Forster's Tern
Forster's Tern
Kentucky Warbler
Orchard Oriole
Yellow-breasted chat
(new top birds on my life list) makes me laugh!
Yellow Breasted Chat
Acadian Flycatcher
Brown Thrasher
Boat-tailed Grackle
Loads more pictures to post over the next week or so. I also went to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA this weekend. I'll be posting those soon too.
6 comments:
Lovely photos :)
Great photos! I like those chatty Chats too!
So many great birds!!! I actually saw a black racer when I was back east last weekend on the Beech Forest trail in Provincetown. Very cool! Congrats on all the lifers! I look forward to seeing the rest of your photos!
Great series of images, John. My fav. has got to be the Black Racer because it's out of the bird box and not a snake I've ever seen.
Great post and photos. Amazing number of birds seen in a day, wow.
dan
LOVELY shots John. We have a black racer that lives at our house ... in the ground near a stone wall. He/she loves to stretch out on the hot driveway. John - not kidding - this snake has to be 6' long! We saw it eating a garter snake one day and it's called "racer" for a reason. We tried to catch it to show our daughter and that snake FLEW UP the pine tree faster than we could imagine. We thought it had wings!!
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