From the start, it was obvious that the bugs were going to be the highlight of my visit. When I checked out the planting strip along the main road into the park, there were butterflies everywhere — hundreds of cabbage whites flittering between 2 large butterfly bushes and numerous other smaller flowering plants. I would estimate that each butterfly bush head 3 dozen butterflies, and one of the smaller bushes – probably no taller than 2 fee tall – was literally covered with them: probably 30-40 butterflies creating a cloud of life around the flowers.

I started at the small pond near the entrance, where several dragonflies were occupying the edges of the pond. Unfortunately, they were just a bit too far out into the muck to get any clear shots. I then started walking into the big pit, where I was greeted by a legion of different bees – dozens of large cicada killers and what seemed like thousands of smaller digger wasps buzzing around the sandy terrain looking for places to build their lairs. Strangely, despite all of these bees buzzing around, I never felt at risk from a sting – they seemed far too busy looking for each other than me. However, I did have an interesting moment when a red admiral landed on me — repeatedly, in fact — taking up position on my socks and hitching a ride for a while.

After an interesting but fairly birdless run around the pit, I started heading back toward the park proper, past the “warbler” pit which lived up to its name with several yellow warblers running around a mimosa next to the trail. Several other birds – notably catbirds – were also all over the place. In the air over the pit, I watched as a Cooper’s Hawk (which has a nest in the park) harassed a turkey vulture which must have passed too close to its nest. I’ve seen other birds mob hawks, but never seen a hawk take its turn.

As I walked along the trails in the woods, I was constantly mobbed by cabbage white and Red Admiral butterflies, with 3 more landing on me while I was in the woods (including two at once, one per leg). I’ve struggled to get any butterfly to land on me, but the vast quantities of red admirals (there must have been over 300+) must have made them more friendly. My mother-in-law had mentioned to me earlier in the day that the normally plentiful stinging nettle plants throughout the park were nearly stripped by the first brood of caterpillars born of the migratory red admirals in the spring — the evidence was all over the place; I don’t think I have ever seen the park as denuded of nettle as this. The number of admirals about was pretty good evidence, as well. Combined with the admirals were a large number of blue dasher dragonflies.

Eventually, I came to the back path that leads to the beaver pond near where I always see orioles. I wasn’t disappointed, as I saw a bunch of orchard orioles in the trees as well as a single Baltimore oriole flying across the glade. The mowed trail not only held birds along its edges but also had a ton of butterflies and dragonflies along the grassy path. In a short space, I saw wandering gliders, slaty skimmers, blue dashers, pearl crescents, common checkered skippers and several other skippers, monarchs and Eastern Comma. There were several others that I was unable to identify as they rapidly moved back and forth from the brush and flowers around the trail.

At the beaver pond, the dragonflies were more plentiful than I have seen in years. Strangely, it seems like both butterflies and dragonflies have had abundant population increases this year, particularly over the paucity I saw last year. As I investigated the phragamites along the sure, I saw my first-of-year Widow Skimmers, as well as a single Common Green Darner hunting the pond edge. Several skippers I haven’t identified were fluttering amid the reeds, but the pond belonged to the numerous (25+) dragonflies. On my way out, I stopped to look at the catalpa trees on both sides of the path. Some looked as though they had been ravaged by locusts, while others appeared nearly untouched by the annual population of catalpa moth caterpillars; however, at first glance I couldn’t see any of the caterpillars on the trees. Eventually, however, I saw some hanging on the undersides of the leaves, staying out of the heat. And most of them were in turn being affected by a second annual visitor to the park and a scourge to the caterpillars – braconid wasps who lay their eggs on the caterpillars in great numbers. Nearly every caterpillar I saw had a significant number of parasitic wasp eggs, although a few were ‘clean’.

Alas, it was getting toward noon and I needed to start heading out. But the park wasn’t ready to stop offering interesting tidbits here and there. An Eastern Towhee challenged me when I dared reply to his call, and an Indigo Bunting surprised me with a visit. As I was walking down the path toward the entrance, another pair of red admirals landed on me – one of my leg and another on my shoulder. The last one hung on for a while with me as I walked down, finally taking off as I approached my car.

Overall, it was a short visit — about 3.5 hours — but it was a good trip and a nice hike.

Bird List

Our first stop was “Dennis the Menace” park which was probably the only miss of the day: only mallards, Canada geese and gulls (never got close enough to ID). From there we went to the Monterey marina and the fishery pier there. It was crowded with divers and made me think fondly on my days of diving (it’s been a while). Then as we walked up the pier, Al pointed out my first new bird of the trip – a Pigeon Guillemot*, which was also my first alcid. I followed them around for a while, struggling to get nice shots of the uncooperative birds in tough light. Actually, the light was gorgeous but not when you’re shooting down from a pier. We spent a bit of time there then moved on to see what else was lurking. Turns out that a LOT of sea lions like this area: there were dozens in this little cove alone, along with a smaller number of harbor seals.

I’ve seen both species before but never together and never in quantities like this (Al commented later that he had never seen this many pinnipeds in Monterey before). So I took quite a few shots of these neat animals, who were laying on buoys, rocks and even the occasional boat. A harbor seal came up below me, looking eagerly for a handout, according to Al. After a short time, it seemed to figure out that I was fishless and dove into the cerulean waters.

On our way back to the car, I had a chance to watch a half-dozen more pigeon guillemots in the waters just below the pier, including one who was showing off what I’d guess was mating behavior (noisy little buggers!) and a California Gull* An extra treat was yet to come – in the marina just opposite of the car, a single cormorant swam happily among the boats – a gleaming blue eye stood out from the black feathers: a Brandt’s cormorant*!  Life list entry #3.

Monterey Bay Coast Guard Pier

Our next stop was the Coast Guard pier, a wonderful place to see a number of cool things: hundreds of sea lions everywhere, timid enough for approaching close enough to touch, of all ages – it was a wonder to see and experience. They were of all ages, and the young ones were undeniably cute. Further along we were greeted by a few seals, another few Brandt’s cormorants and a small flotilla of divers all along the jetty (I have to admit, diving among the sea lions/seals would be pretty cool). But the big payoff was at the end of the jetty: dozens of sea lions, including a huge bull and a nesting colony of Brandt’s cormorants. I had the privilege of seeing mated pairs building their nests on the rocks out of colorful seaweed and other debris pulled from the sea. The male would return with the seaweed, do a short presentation dance, bright blue throat patch extended and glowing in the light.  Then he’ d place the materials gingerly at the feet of the female, where they nuzzled and worked together to put it in just the right place. Hard to describe how beautiful it was watching them work to make their nest in what seemed like a tenuous spot on the bare rocks amongst the huge sees lions.

Monterey Bay / Fisherman’s Wharf

Al was determined to help me find the other new cormorant for me, the pelagic cormorant, so after checking in with Patty, we walked along the bay toward Fisherman’s Wharf. Little did we know that this short side trip would actually be more productive than just the pelagic cormorant (which we never saw despite several false positives). Waking past the picnic area, I noticed a number of small birds flying back and forth among some trees and something made me stop. I’m glad I did, as those little birds were my first chestnut-backed chickadee*; a half- dozen of the little auburn-accented songbirds flitted in and out (and just out of sight) amongst the branches. But a few pssts later, I was rewarded by a couple of them coming out into the light on the end of some branches. A second bonus was when a couple of white crowned sparrows joined the fun. I’ve seen these tons of times but rarely in full breeding plumage, and I figured I’d try to get some shots. Turns out that these were a coastal sub species – Nuttall’s white-crowned sparrow*.

After this short sidestep, we continued on along the bay. The place was gorgeous, a meeting of jagged islets and bright blue green water, coupled with a gentle breeze that complemented the near perfect temperatures coming off the bay. We spent some time investigating several cormorants on a small rocky islet in a cove, desperately trying to make one a pelagic cormorant, to no avail. But my eye caught another shallow in the water nearby, which turned out to be a Pacific loon*, another new species (#5 so far, incl. the WCSP sub species).

Monterey Bay Aquarium

At this point, Al is getting a little bent at not having produced a pelagic cormorant for me (which wouldn’t be a lifebird, but would be my first GOOD look). In my mind, I was more than satisfied with what we HAD seen, so anything else would be gravy but he was determined, so we tried one last ‘can’t fail’ spot – the platform at the entrance of the famed Monterey Bay Aquarium. Along the way, I got to see Steinbeck’s famous “Cannery Row” and the rest of the nice town of Monterey. A first stop just short of the aquarium produced only Brandt’s cormorants and more pigeon guillemots, and we hurried to the aquarium. Sadly there wasn’t time to go into this landmark, but I was having a good enough time regardless.

We walked to the end of the canterlevered platform and quickly spied more Brandt’s cormorants and pigeon guillemots, but none of or target bird. Suddenly Al yelled,” There! With the green back!” I got a brief glimpse of an ebony bird with green accents, too fast to be sure as it sailed under the platform beneath us, but definitely leading. Sure enough, it or another bird came sailing out and this time I definitively saw the green tint and white patches on the wings that were defining field marks for a pelagic cormorant*. Now to get a picture, which was tougher as these seabirds moved quickly. After several near successes, I decided to see if I could spy one underneath the platform – and was surprised to find a male preening no more than 5′ from me!

It was a beauty in its own way, the green-black plumage iridescent in the sun, giving way to the bright red face of a breeding adult. The KALEIDESCOPE of colors was both beautiful and garish at the same time, brighter and more eye- catching than either the double- created or Brandt’s cormorants. Three only problem was that with my 300mm lens, I was actually too close to fit the whole bird in the frame! So I moved to the another side opposite of where I had been, trading proximity and optional light for a full-body shot.

A bonus moment was our chance to catch the attention of some other aquarium visitors (probably in part due to my hanging precariously over the railing to get the best angle). Al and I were able to interest two couples in the bird, explaining a little about it and maybe planting a little seed of interest in birding.

Pacific Grove

Now that I had my trophy shot of a pelagic cormorant, Al and Patty prompted me for anything else I might want to see. It took only a short moment for me to rattle off a short list: Heerman’s gull, black oystercatcher, black turnstone. It took them only a few seconds more to come up with just the place and off we went up the road to Pacific Grove. The drive alone would have been worth it for the breath taking views of the Pacific ocean, deep blue ocean crashing in frothy chaos against the rocks of the shoreline. I was captivated by the scenery, trying to capture it on my phone’s camera since my Nikon lens could never capture the breath of what I was seeing through the narrow aperture.

We then made our way to a particular pull off and Al and I trekked onto the rocks to search for the trio of birds I had mentioned. Sure enough, a pair of mated black oystercatchers* appeared on the small island just beyond the spit of land we were on, the black feathers seeming to absorb as much light as their bright orange bills reflected. And nearby wandered not the requested black turnstones but something just as nice: a trio of surfbirds* which had lingered past their normal migration date. Other birds we encountered included numerous western gulls of all ages, a single 3rd-year California gull, a whimbrel and a Caspian tern. No Hearmann’s gull but a responding success nonetheless.

Monterey Bay preserve

Our last stop before lunch was part of the Monterey Bay preserve near Moss’s Landing. Housing a marina and access to the ocean, it also turned out to be one of the best spots to see the nearly famous California sea otters – nearly 30 strong, these large (~3 – 4′ long) mammals were a sight to see laying out and playing in the bay near the sea lions and seals nearby. Lucky for us, there was even one otter on the beach sunning himself (I’m going to pretend that’s all he was doing and he wasn’t sick).

Seeing the otters was an unexpected pleasure, but hardly the only one as a Clark’s Grebe* popped up amidst the otters and gave me a good show as well. Then, after several minutes taking pictures of these magnificent and amusing critters, we were off to the locally famous Phil’s Fish Market for lunch, with a quick stop to take a couple pictures of a pair of otters (mother/child) who were lounging in the marina on the way. Sadly, it was then time to head back as I had a workshop that night, and we stopped only for Al to show me a Eurasian Collared Dove that he and Patty told me would be in a particular 50-square-foot parking lot; true to their word, there it was (with a second one) almost as though they had dialed in their order.

Overall, I had a GREAT time in the Monterey area – the combination of awesome weather, great wildlife, good food and good friends (who were GREAT guides) really made the day a pleasant experience throughout.

After getting into town and checking in, I immediately went out to the Palo Alto Baylands up the road to see some of the specialties there. I wasn’t disappointed.  As soon add I got there I saw two of my primary goals: American Avocets and Black-necked stilts, right up against the shoreline, closer than I’ve ever had the chance to be. Creeping up to the protective barrier along the road (I needn’t of bothered), I crept closer to a single stilt and a pair of advocates who were feeding peacefully in the beautiful afternoon light. Dozens more of both species lingered in the background, going on their noisy ways through the thin marsh. I was amazed at how closer they let me get and I snapped away happily. Another photographer caught my attention and motioned me over, then pointed out a nest with a pair of stilt chicks in it. Those fuzzballs were extremely cute, and evidently were ready to investigate their surroundings.

After spending an hour with the nesting birds, I wanted to move on. Crossing the road and heading toward the nature center, I was treated to the sight of an adult stilt leading around three juveniles, puffballs of a slightly larger variety who were seemingly oblivious to my presence. It was a thrill to get to see this species so closely and in such nice light. A nearby ruddy duck wasn’t nearly as congenial, only briefly peeking his head out, never long enough for me to get my first shot of one in breeding plumage.

Other birds were also in the area, but none that I couldn’t see at home so I moved along to the duck pond to see if anything interesting was hanging out. For the most part, the standard duck pond species were there: mallards, domestic ducks and hybrids, a couple of geese and pigeons. But a little bit of wandering revealed some hidden treasures in thus alcove of mundanity.

A pair of California gulls* (1 adult, 1 immature) flew in later, a black phoebe was checking out the mud flats across the parking lot, while several nesting snowy egrets and black-crowned night herons croaked at each other from the branches of a nearby tree. A one- legged ‘grackle’ sat on a part nearby, hopping occasionally in the breeze (it turns out that grackles are rare in this area – it was actually a Brewer’s blackbird). Across the street, I was surprised by a large flock of what I thought were dowitchers, but turned out to be willets and marbled godwits* (my second new species of the day).

All too soon, it was time to get some food – it had been almost twelve hours since I ate, so I decided to hit a California tradition: In N’ Out Burger.  It was good but I don’t know that I’d call it legendary – about the same as a Five Guys burger, I’d say.

Anyway, here are some photo highlights of day 1 of my trip:

Birding List:

Still, any time birding is a bonus and I did have the opportunity to get out more than a few times. Here’s a look back at 2009:

Birding

Total Species (overall): 421 species
Total Species (2009): 209
New Species (2009): 76

New Jersey

Total Species (overall): 225 species
Total Species (2009): 145
New Species (2009): 11

Highlights:

The year started off well, with 5 new species early in January, all relative rarities in my area: Green-tailed Towhee, Snowy Owl, Rough-Legged Hawk, Horned Grebe and White-winged Crossbill. Obviously, the Arizona trip was a major highlight – lots of new species (69, to be exact), great scenery and habitats, as well as a few lifebirds in the real sense – the Elegant Trogon, Flame-colored Tanager and White-eared Hummingbird. Seeing the Trogons was an amazing thing – especially since I got to see them mating, as well.

After a slow spring and summer with little birding, I was able to end the year on a high note with 2 more addition to the lifelist (Ivory Gull and Eurasian Wigeon), plus a new state bird (Spotted Towhee).

Overall, a slow year of birding – not many times out and not a whole lot of new birds outside of Arizona – but I’m still happy with what I got to do. Not sure how much I’ll get out in 2010 – but my goal is to top 450 species, but that will probably require a few day trips or some extra travel to get. Not that I mind that!

Pictorial Highlights

As always, you can see my Best of 2009 set on Flickr.

So, we started the morning the same way we had started them every morning, with a quick breakfast while watching the multitude of birds coming to the feeder outside our back door: orioles, grosbeaks and hummingbirds at the nectar and jelly feeders, quail, towhees and cardinals at the platform feeders and on the ground, and doves, pigeons and jays calling out in the trees.

We then set out for the trails past the Southwestern Research Station, including the Herb Martyr campground area. The book¹ told us about the views we’d see in addition to the birds, such as Winn Falls. Alas, with the drought, the falls were barely existent but the campground area did provide some excellent habitat and a little bit of real hiking (which we’d done sadly little of this far).

The beginning of the walk led us through some woods where we were quickly met by a group of small songbirds, including several ‘western’ flycatchers, kinglets, a Western Wood-Pewee* and a Cassin’s Vireo*. Then we headed down toward the creek and the dam that the book described. The dam wasn’t particularly impressive, but there was some beautiful terrain behind it. Shari decided to hang out by some pools down from the dam, while I went to explore a little bit past it. The terrain reminded me a lot of the times I spent around the White Clay Creek where I grew up even though the plants were completely different and I had to keep my eyes out for rattlesnakes here. I wandered about a half-mile up the creek, coming upon numerous lizards and a few butterflies that I never got a look at. I did, however, get to see an ‘Arizona’ Juvenal’s Skipper*, although precarious footing made my pictures less than satisfying.

Further up along the running stream (surprising in and of itself) were a small mixed flock of songbirds: Audubon’s warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets, Western Kingbirds and a bunch of other flycatchers. It was so peaceful sitting there in the fork of the stream that it was tough to get up to meet up with Shari. When I did, I was treated to a host of lizards: Gila Spotted Whiptail*, Striped Plateau Lizard* and Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard* all put on good shows for us.

The Windy Mounts

We decided to then head back up the mountain roads to the Rustler and Barfoot parks to see if we could get second looks at some of the species we missed the previous trip. But what we found was mostly WIND. There was a front coming through and that meant huge winds in all the mountain parks. At Rustler, a planned picnic ended up being in the car because there was too much grit in the air. At Barfoot, the trees were moving so much that even if there had been birds, they would have been nearly impossible to ID. The one highlight was when I was walking in a small wooded area and startled a large raptor which flew away with a rabbit sized meal in its claws. Could it have been a Golden Eagle? Maybe, but I only saw a flash of the huge brown bird and the talons holding its lunch.

The Onion Saddle/Pinery Road

From there, we started our trek to the Chiricahua National Monument using the back roads so we could look for some specialties which were known to be there, including the elusive (for me) Zone-tailed Hawk. Shari saw a couple of them, but I was always looking the other way and they would cross the ridges before I could get an ID. Overall, with the wind, the skies and rocks were fairly quiet, but were did have the thrill of seeing a Grey Fox cross the road in front of us.

Eventually, a series of less than stellar roads led us to the National Monument, and it was at the entrance that I FINALLY saw my lifer Zone-tailed Hawk*. So similar to a turkey vulture, once you have seen that trademark tail and how they fly, they aren’t to hard to tell apart. It wasn’t a great look but for 1 minute I just admired it soaring around us.

Chiricahua National Monument

I knew that I wanted to check the Chiricahua National Monument (pronounced “Cheer-ee-cow-hwa”) out early in the trip planning. There were some cool birds to be had there (potentially), but more so I was looking forward to taking some landscape pictures – something that I really don’t get to do here on the east coast. The park is part of the Coronado National Forest, but encapsulates a huge number of rock formations that have been formed by wind and water erosion over the centuries. From the beginning, it reminded me a lot of Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, CO, but at a much larger scale. Where Garden of the Gods was a large group of red rocks with a few formations throughout the park, Chiricahua National Monument was a vast landscape of other-worldly rock formations: pillars, spires, chimneys, balanced rocks and more. The sheer magnitude of the the formations was amazing, and we were only able to do about 1/3 of the park because of the conditions. Located at about 8,000′, the winds were gale-force at times, pushing us around and knocking Shari off of her feet at one point. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t interesting.

We started up the road toward our first destination of Massai Point, which is at the very end of the long and winding drive. Our first stop along the road was to see the Organ Pipe Formation, a large collection of pillars rising up like the namesake. As an introduction to the park, they were a good one. From there we kept driving and stopping as a number of roadside formations caught our attention (Sea Captain, China Boy). Eventually, we made it to the far parking lot, where we hiked the Massai Nature Trail and the Ed Riggs Trail, seeing a cornucopia of examples of how Mother Nature does sand(stone) sculptures. The stone structures both near and far were just incredible. We were walking among stone formations that appeared to have been sculpted by alien hands to serve uses common and uncommon. At one of the main vistas, we were greeted not only by the sun, giant rock monoliths and a spectacular view of hundreds of other stoneworks, but of a pair of zone-tailed hawks, soaring level with our line of site – not a view I expect many people get of these cool raptors.

After hiking around there, we made a stop at Echo Point but the winds were getting even stronger and the blowing sand and dirt was making it less pleasant to be out of the car. We took in a few more vistas and then decided to head back down to ‘home’ for the evening. The monument was somewhat anti-climatic because of conditions, but I’m glad that we went. Some good sites for information on this monument:

• National Park Service – Chiricahua National Monument
• American Southwest.net – Chiricahua National Monument
• WikiTravel – Chiricahua National Monument

Our Last Night at Cave Creek Ranch

After the monument, we went home to unwind and start packing for our move to our next destination. Originally, we wanted to drive down Portal Road to get the sunset in the mountains, but because of the weather the light was pretty flat, so we decided to just go into Portal to have a last dinner instead. As usual, the food was good in the quaint little lodge and we talked about our day and what we could expect for the next leg of the trip. But we had a bonus when we got to talk to the owner of the Portal Lodge, Billy (we never got his last name). We’d seen him walking around the area every time we’d been there, mostly out in his shop in the back. Billy is the town fix-it man (although, arguably, everyone has some skills at repair in a place like this) and his repair shop seems to do everything from cars to power tools to carpentry to general maintenance. Billy himself looked like he was 50′s power car aficionado with an affection for Elvis – the type of guy that when you see him you try to figure out if it’s a facade or a style. I can tell you, it’s a style and the style befits the man – an Arizona homesteader with grit in his teeth and a heart of gold for his neighbors. Johnny Cash could write a song about this guy and make you relate to every word – and it would all be true.

The Lodge was getting close to closing when we met up with him at the counter, and decided to hit him up with some questions we had about the area: how many people lived around here, real estate, cost of drilling wells, etc.² He was happy to answer any and all questions, and that led to an hour-long conversation about a wide expanse of topics from immigration to being on the volunteer fire company that covers 500 square miles of territory – much of it on less-than-developed roads, where your only marker is the guy at the turn with a flashlight waving you in – to street racing down the empty roads to the school districts. He was an incredibly interesting guy, and I think that talking to him was one of the highlights of the first half of our trip. I could easily see sitting down with him on a log and drinking a beer and shooting the shit. Not that everyone we met wasn’t extremely nice, but Billy was an interesting soul, too.

But eventually, they wanted to close up so we packed it in and headed back to the Cave Creek Ranch. After showering, we prepped our stuff so that we could get out of the area quickly and make our way to the Santa Ritas, where we would spend the second half of the trip. We then went to bed to get some much needed sleep. Except that I couldn’t sleep right away – I kept hearing some noise out the window that sounded like a bunch of chewing. I thought it might be the deer, but I couldn’t see well enough through the screen to be sure. Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me, and I grabbed Shari’s video light to go out and find out what all of the racket was about. Coming around the corner, I ended up getting quite a surprise as I found myself in front of a small pack (herd?) of javelina enjoying the leavings of corn and seed on the ground. They looked up at me and kept the young ones in the middle, but I didn’t make any fast moves and they figured I was harmless and went back to eating. Not wanting to disturb them further, I turned around and walked back to bed.

⊃¹ A Birder’s Guide to Southeastern Arizona — Rick Taylor
⊃² To be honest, after spending time at the Cave Creek Ranch, Shari and I half-joked about how it would be very cool to open our own birding lodge in a place like the Portal area. I think it would be AWESOME, although I don’t have any illusions about how tough it must be to maintain a business like that in an area as remote as it is.

Sighting List

Birds

Trip Stats (Species/New): Day: 20 / 2 | Trip: 98 / 55

What we hadn’t counted on, though was another frequent visitor at Forsythe – greenheads. These little biting buggers were everywhere, and very intent on making our lives miserable. It was a shame, too, because there was quite a bit going on at Forsythe, but it was just too painful (even with bug spray on) to stop for anything but the most interesting things.

The marshes were full of birds, if not necessarily the shorebirds we were looking for. We had hoped to see the reported American Avocets, but they were nowhere to be seen, possibly consumed by the legions of greenheads. But herons and egrets abounded, as did Forster’s terns who were snapping up fish like they would never see sushi again. Similarly, snowy and great egrets were joined by a number of Black-crowned Night-Herons, both adult and immature, throughout the wildlife drive.

There were many more birds out there – Black Skimmers, American Oystercatchers, Glossy Ibis plus the normal cadre of gulls and terns, ducks and geese. No raptors other than the Osprey and their broods, and the other shorebirds were mostly relegated to a few small flocks of Semi-palmated Sandpipers, a pair of Short-billed Dowitchers and a few willets. But all of them were mostly out of our grasp because of the darn flies.

There were a bunch of odonates and butterflies around, but it wasn’t worth getting out to track them down. I did get to see a Salt Marsh Skipper from close range while hiding in the car’s interior while Shari got some pictures of the snowy egret at the top of this post. But that was as brave as I got during the trip.

After only a half-hour or so, we decided that short of a bald eagle doing a samba across the road, it just wasn’t worth the biting pests, and decided to high-tail it out of there. However, I had to pause as I passed the fields just past Jen’s Trail – there, in the fading sunlight were thousands of Halloween pennants. It seemed that there was one on every other stem of grass, as far as I could see. It was amazing how many there were, all perched and waiting for some unknown queue.

As we sailed through the bluebird area, we heard the call of a bobwhite in the distance, saw some kingbirds and some other warbler-type birds, but weren’t willing to risk blood loss to get better looks. Still, even this downer at the end of the day wasn’t enough to change the fact that we had a good time overall.

Trip List

Birds: Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Glossy Ibis, Forster’s Tern, Black Skimmer, American Oystercatcher, Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Laughing Gull, Eastern Kingbird, Common Yellowthroat, Osprey, Purple Martin, Northern Mockingbird, American Goldfinch, Canada Goose, Red-winged Blackbird, Mallards, House Finch, House Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow

Butterflies: Common Buckeye, Cabbage White, Orange Sulphur (+ other sulphur sp.), Monarch, Viceroy, Black Swallowtail

Dragonflies: Halloween Pennant, Needham’s Skimmer, Black Saddlebags

The Meadows

But it was a fun trip, even if we missed the early-morning light. We were going for birds, butterflies and odonata, and we found all 3. We started at Cape May Meadows, getting there in the early daylight, quickly finding a multitude of damselflies all over the grasses. Common Buckeyes were everywhere, even outnumbering the cabbage whites that flittered about.

The birds were a bit more sparse than we had expected. A few geese, mallards and swans but none of the shorebirds we were hoping for. In the brush, numerous common yellowthroats sang their songs … “witchety-witchety-witchety-witch!”, but were more often heard than seen. We kept walking, reaching the beach, which revealed a few nesting least terns (none of which seemed particularly happy to see us. There was also a single piping plover, but no chicks anywhere. So back to the marshes we went.

There, we ran into odonata heaven – hundreds of damselflies and dragonflies all over the place. The damselflies seeemed pretty intent on mating for as long as possible, and most of the dragonflies were hovering over them, defending their own territories. Common green darners, wandering and spot-winged gliders and black saddlebags were pretty common over the water by the observation tower. Familiar bluets and Rambur’s forktails were the most common damsels, with citrine forktails also plentiful.

Walking toward the parking lot, we encountered a bonanza of dragons: Calico & Halloween pennants numbered in the dozens, as were Needham’s skimmers. Other species flittered in and out, usually too quickly to identify before they were gone back into the high grasses and wildflowers.

Cape May Point

Making the obligatory bathroom stop, we also paused to watch the many purple martins tending to their young, a few wayward house sparrows desegregating the martin houses for their own needs. After a short visit with the martins – the light was just a bit too harsh for good pictures of these dark birds’ ebony-violet iridescence against the gleaming white faux gourds – we moved to the other side of the parking lot and the hawk watch overlook. Things there were relatively quiet, though – nothing more than a few herons and lots of geese in the pond, so we decided to walk the boardwalk trails of the park for more interesting things to photograph.

The park was full of life – most of it with 4 wings and six legs. Sprites of one sort or another – I never got a good shot of one – joined familiar bluets, Rambur’s forktails and a multitude of different dragonfly species throughout the length of the short trail. But the most impressive site of all were the absolutely huge swamp darners, which were 4″ long if they were an inch. I’m prone to hyperbole at times, but there is no exaggerating the huge size of these dragons – they literally dwarfed the far less common Common Green Darners flying nearby. We even had a few take an interest in us, hovering around us with their own intense curiosity, and gave us good enough close-up looks to know that they were nearly the size of my hand (and I have big hands — which, as any person would tell you, means that I … wear big gloves). Beautiful dragons to see, they were even more impressive because there were an easy dozen of them mixed in with a swarm of spot-winged gliders hunting the grassy parts of the marsh.

Closer to the water, black and red saddlebags hunted the low waters, competing with Needham’s and Painted skimmers amongst the reeds. Common green darners flew in and out of them, all but oblivious to their protests over an unseen territorial line, while great blue skimmers and blue dashers slid in under the radar for quick meals as they were distracted. In the distance a multitude of swans competed in a late round of faux-courtship maneuvers, while the single green heron flew over the pond to destinations unknown.

Anniversary Picnic

After our little boardwalk trek, we decided that it was time to sit and have some lunch. We had decided to do a romantic finger-food lunch – prosciutto and sharp provolone cheese, honeydew, hummus and stuffed grape leaves, bruschetta and rosemary bread, tabouli and different fruits. It turned out to be just perfect – a mixture of cool and warm, salty and sweet, all blending perfectly to whet our appetite without being too filling or hard to manage sitting at a picnic table in the park. It was a really nice time, just sitting there talking, eating and looking around at whatever wildlife came our way. We didn’t rush, we just ate and enjoyed. When we were done both, we decided to head over to Higbee’s Beach for the next part of our trip.

Higbee’s Beach

Last year, Higbee Beach proved to be a great place to visit in both June and July. It was hot both times, but there were birds, butterflies and dragonflies galore to see and photograph. This time … um, not so much. I got to see a few good dragonflies in the 20 minutes we were there, but whether it was the heat or just a bad year there, the creatures were not nearly out in the same numbers as our previous visit.

One interesting note was one of the few butterflies I saw (in general, butterfly numbers were way down this year). I took a shot of an admiral on a butterfly bush, and just assumed it was a red admiral without giving it too much thought. It wasn’t until after I posted it to Flickr that someone corrected my ID. It turns out that this was not a red admiral but a Painted Lady, a common butterfly that I had somehow never been able to find. Here I had gotten a decent shot of one and hadn’t realized it. Check up at least ONE lifelist entry!

But after a short trip to Higbee, we wandered around a bit – stopping at the Cape May Bird Observatory and several other ‘hot spots’ around town – with little to show for it before heading back to the Meadows for round II – and I’m glad that we did.

Back to the Meadows

Our second visit of the day to Cape May Meadows (now officially called the “Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge) was even more fruitful than our earlier morning trip. The dragons were out in force, and a greater number of birds were out enjoying the nice weather – Forsters and common terns, laughing gulls by the dozens and at least 17 swans (yes, 17). But as exciting as nearly a score of swans was, we decided to take another stab at the beach, even though the sun was pretty high – Shari had never seen a piping plover chick and we wanted to give her the chance.

At first, it looked like we were going to be disappointed. Not only were the chicks nowhere to be seen, but the adults were missing, too. A couple of least terns were flying nearby but seemed ignorant or unimpressed by our presence. So, we started walking back up the path to the marshes when we saw them. 2 adults and 2 chicks who practically ran across our feet. They were literally less than a meter from us, crossing the walking path. Immediately the cameras came up and we tried to get some shots.

The hot sand was making focusing difficult even at the short distances as the heat created a moire-like effect just above the top of the beach – unfortunately, the exact place that these little plovers and their even smaller chicks were taking up. We watched them get to a cautious distance, pipping their way across the hot sand away from us and then waiting to see what we’d do – which is sit down and try not to be threatening.

It seemed to work for the most part – that is, until the chicks’ curiosity got the better of their intelligence and they decided to come closer for a better look. That seemed to set the parents’ warning radar off and a new round of pips and squeaks commenced. For our part, we stayed still and tried to NOT disturb them – I even laid in the sand to create a smaller profile, but the parents were not buying it, trying to corral their young ones away from that threatening spectre of photography, Shari.

We watched as the chicks came closer and closer, parents trying to dissuade their insanity, and taking the pictures we could. Once again they chicks came within an arms length of us, only to run away in a game of chicken. The whole episode lasted for a good 5 minutes before we decided that the chicks and their parents had probably had enough excitement and decided to move on. But even that wasn’t easy, as the chicks decided that was the precise time they wanted to cross ‘the road’ right in front of us. We couldn’t win for losing! But it was an amazing experience for both Shari and I to see these little puffballs making their way in the harsh environment that is the Jersey shore.

But the excitement wasn’t over yet. As we crested the dune, I spied a dragonfly hovering next to the hedgerow. I figured out that it was a spot-winged glider breaking the first of the two of the absolute rules I had revealed to Shari only hours earlier – that they never stay still long enough for a picture. But this one was doing more than that – he hovered in place for at least 5 minutes (or at least within a few inches of the same spot). We took over 100 pictures each, and managed to get some pretty exciting flight shots. It turns out (after reviewing my pictures from the day), that I also managed to get that other perennially-tough to photograph species, the wandering glider, as well, so I had a good day of dragonfly photography.

Normally, Shari isn’t as into the dragonflies, but this courteous specimen really got her attention – more than just being a cool dragon, it allowed her to test out the settings on her D3 and try a variety of combinations of shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation and other settings. The result was a pretty cool shot of a very cool dragonfly (see more of Shari’s pictures, too). But our day wasn’t over – we still had to break Rule #2 about the gliders – that they never land for a picture. Luckily, that only took a few minutes more.

As we came to the pond by the observation tower, the damsels and dragons were still plentiful and active. But I spied one in particular hanging on a small reed by the edge of the shore. I swooped in to get a shot of this cool dragon, thinking it was a baskettail of some sort. It wasn’t until I got home later that I realized it was yet another spot-winged glider … perched!!

After getting way too many shots of this dragonfly, we decided it was time to move on … we wanted some shorebirds, so we figured that Forsythe NWR would be a great place to try. We were right – and wrong – as we would soon find out…

Trip List

Birds: Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Glossy Ibis, Killdeer, Piping Plover, Least Tern, Common Tern, Forster’s Tern, Black Skimmer, American Oystercatcher, Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Laughing Gull, Gray Catbird, Eastern Kingbird, House Wren, Caroline Wren, Prairie Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Red-tailed Hawk, Osprey, Turkey Vulture, Purple Martin, Barn Swallow, Tree Swallow, Northern Cardinal, Northern Flicker, Northern Mockingbird, American Goldfinch, Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Blue Jay, American Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, American Crow, Mourning & Rock Dove, Mallards, Starling, House Finch, House Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow

Butterflies: Common Buckeye, Cabbage White, Orange Sulphur (+ other sulphur sp.), Monarch, Black Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail, Pearl Crescent, Eastern Tailed-Blue, Painted Lady (new)

Odonata: Damselflies: Citrine Fortail, Eastern Forktail, Rambur’s Forktail, Fragile Forktail, Familiar Bluet
Dragonflies: Blue Dasher, Common Green Darner, Swamp Darner, Eastern Amberwing, Eastern Pondhawk, Calico Pennant, Four-spotted Pennant, Halloween Pennant, Great Blue Skimmer, Needham’s Skimmer, Painted Skimmer, Spot-winged Glider, Wandering Glider, Black Saddlebags, Red Saddlebags, Meadowhawk sp.

Wallworth Pond is usually not a great birding spot – sure there are geese, mallards, barn swallows and the occasional Baltimore oriole or two. But the big draw here are the bugs – particularly the dragon- and damselflies. It’s not a huge pond but it has a healthy number of lily pads, which in turn seem to bring a good number of dragonflies. Native plants along the shore also provide habitat for a number of other bug species.

Barn Swallow

When I first got out of the car, I was greeted by a bunch of barn swallows greeted me – although I hadn’t expected most of them to be on the ground. I guess that’s where the young go when they want to be fed.

Feeeeed me.

But eventually, I got bored of the swallows and started looking for my real quarry – the bugs. At first, it appeared that I might be disappointed – I couldn’t find any, no matter where I looked. But then, they started to emerge. It started with one that was flying back and forth, denying me a picture and any chance of ID. Then came a common whitetail, followed by a bunch of mating damselflies (which I later ID’d as a collection of orange bluets. But after a time in the bad light, I went to the other side of the pond. Jackpot.

Female Blackwater Bluet

It was here that I started seeing a ton of stuff – four-lined plant bugs, broadheaded sharpshooters, Dogwood Calligrapha beetle and any number of other small beetles and bugs. And there were a lot of damselflies in the vegetation in one particular spot. They were less than helpful about letting me get a shot of them, so I know that I missed a few, but I saw a bunch of eastern forktails, fragile forktails and my first confirmed pictures of blackwater bluets. I’d seen them before but never had a good shot of one.

Female Blackwater Bluet 2

But the highlight of the night – aside from the hundreds of damselflies out – was my third baskettail species of the year, a male Beaverpond baskettail. It was a great dragonfly to see, with brilliant green eyes (see the picture below), but a real pain to get a picture of. I’m 99% sure that’s what I was seeing on the other side of the pond, but I don’t remember the green eyes standing out as much as they did this time.

Beaverpond Baskettail patrolling

All in all, a good day to end a long week – I got to see and get some good pictures of several species of odonata, and added 1 species of dragonfly to my lifelist. The Odes are back!

Well, it finally happened – I actually got paid for one of my photographs. Granted, it was a request for one of my bad pictures to show off an example of how to reduct noise, but it’s something, right? LOL

Seriously, here it is in Popular Photography magazine (scan courtesy of Mon@rch – thanks Tom!) in all of it’s grainy glory. You can see the original version in my own noiseware test from a couple of years ago. Now I’m just waiting for my issue of the magazine to get here so I can see it ‘live’.
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