It’s been a long, long, time.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to get out and take any pictures. The weeks have been full, and the weekends have been pretty ucky – and when they weren’t we had things we had to do which meant that I still couldn’t get out to take pictures. So, finally, this weekend we were able to get down to Barnegat and Forsythe NWR and do some birding/photography.
We didn’t see a whole lot that we hadn’t seen a bunch of times before, but it was still nice to get out. The 40-degree forecast ended up being a mid-50’s reality, which was nice although the wind was pretty killer. And we got to walk around a bit and actually remember what the outdoors was like. Some highlights:
Barnegat
As usual, Barnegat was for the water birds – I think that we saw less than a dozen of your typical woodland species in the 2 hours we were there. What we did see:
- 33 Harlequin Ducks
- 13 Red-breasted Mergansers
- 12 Long-tailed Ducks
- 4 Brant
- 7 Common Loons
- 5 Red-throated Loons
- 19 Ruddy Turnstones
- 2 Purple Sandpipers
- 12+ (flock) Dunlin
- Black Scoter
- Surf Scoter (imm.)
- Common Eider
- Double-crested Cormorant
- normal assortment of gulls
Forsythe
There was somehow both less going on and more excitement at Forsythe. The highlight was seeing two bald eagles (1 adult and 1 2nd-year) fighting over a dead snow goose. Of course, the adult won and was tearing it to pieces. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of the ice so we could only get very long-distance looks at them. The rest of the menagerie:
- 500+ Snow Geese
- 100+ Canada Geese
- 18 Brant
- 100+ Mallard
- 100+ American Black Duck
- 1 Mallard x Black Duck hybrid (male)
- 13 Bufflehead
- 11 American Coots
- 4 Ring-necked Ducks
- 1 Mute Swan
- 6 Northern Shovelers
- 50+ Northern Pintail
- 13 Ruddy Ducks
- 1 Red-Breasted Merganser
- 12 Hooded Mergansers
- 2 Bald Eagle (1 adult, 1 2nd-year)
- 1 Northern Harrier (immature)
- 1 Peregrine Falcon
- 1 American Kestrel
- 13 Dunlin
- 1 Black-crowned Night Heron (imm.)
- 1 Great Blue Heron
- 9 Robins
- normal assortment of gulls
Not a bad day, and I got some decent shots (moreso at Brigantine than Forsythe). I’ll have them up as soon as Lightroom starts to behave.
Things to get distracted by
- Zombies vs. Robots (via Airbag) – Great concept but I’m not sure I really like the art style.
- Liebovitz Takes on Disney (via Airbag) – Amazing photographs. Leave it to Annie to come up with something this good.
- Spiders on Drugs – hilarious. Thanks for sharing, Bill!
I’ve been missing my own outlet for going on 6 months now, always good to get your creativity exercise.
It’s great that you got out. I haven’t done a whole lot of photography, or anything else outdoors, either. It’s just been so cold and/or rainy. Although the times I have braved the cold it’s been well worth it, so I’m trying to do that more.
That’s a whole lot of bird species. I bet if I had any idea about birds and paid more attention, I’d see all kinds of birds, but I just don’t know much about that stuff. That’s one thing I like about photography in general, it makes you see things you normally wouldn’t.
I can’t wait for the weather to get better to head out and take some pictures! Many of those species would be lifers to me! You had one heck of a good day!
I posted my response to your comment on my blog, but I’ll post it here too to make sure you see it:
It’s always cool to know how people get interested in their hobbies/passions. Birding and photography seem like a logical combination. One thing I like about photography is how it makes you see things you normally wouldn’t — and I’m sure the same is true with birding. It’s really cool to become more aware of your surroundings and realize how much you’ve been missing by not paying attention. Geocaching is another thing that can make you feel that way.
As for me, I am hoping to find ways to combine photography and cycling. You can go all kinds of places on a bike that you can’t on a car, and there are some places where you can drive but not park to take photos (narrow roads with no shoulder, etc), but where you’d be fine on a bike.
I had some friends in Boulder who were doing the geocaching thing. It seemed pretty cool, but I never got into it back east (I might have if I had still been living in Colorado).
But yes, once you get out and start looking around, it’s amazing the things that you see. We go out now, I am constantly amazed by the number of different things that I see. When I was a birder, I started noticing butterflies (same guy who got me into birding snuck that influence in as well). Once I was looking for them as well, I noticed all of the dragonflies and damselflies. From there, I started noticing all of the other microfauna that I just never paid attention to.
Try it sometime. Take your camera and go to a local streambed and find someplace you can just sit your stuff down and look around. Start with birds, then big insects and keep getting smaller – you’ll be amazed about what’s out there in just a small piece of nature.
Thanks for that encouragement. I will give that a shot (pun intended) once it warms up outside. I know just the spot to do it, too. Although sometimes the heavily wooded forests here make for difficult shooting, as sometimes it’s too dark due to all the shade, even on a sunny day. Hmm, I might have to change my spot with that in mind, but I’ve got a few ideas of where to go.