I've had better days out.

 Freezing overnight and 31f when I left at 4:45 this morning heading for Barnegat Lighthouse State Park and the Jetty.  I made sure I was wearing correct footwear as sheepskin moccasin slippers on those rocks would be whats known as bad. I wasn't in any great hurry as the gate to the car park is not opened until 8am. I got there at 7:50 and they were already open. It was cold and windy, very windy. I obviously didn't heed my own warning. Note to Self I thought I'd only need one pair of gloves, right? I mean it's nearly April. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb. I had on a long sleeved Icebreaker tee shirt, a fleece jacket, an 850 something or other down jacket and a goretex waterproof, wind proof outer layer, a fleece hat but only one light pair of gloves. With my trekking sticks I wouldn't  have looked out of place in the Arctic..... except for my gloves. In the frigid 15-20 mph NW wind my fingers were numb. The waves were splashing on the jetty and the birds were mostly on the other side of the inlet out of the wind. I stayed on the beach side mostly but it was still windy in the lee of the jetty.

Barnegat Jetty looking East

Barnegat Jetty and Lighthouse looking West

Brant Goose

While walking to the beach a pair of Oystercatchers landed on the jetty. I found a few other shorebirds on the beach close to the jetty, a few Dunlin, Purple Sandpiper and Sanderling.

Barnegat Beach

American Oystercatcher

Dunlin

Sanderling

Herring Gull

In the 2 hours I was there I was all alone, probably a good reason not to walk on the jetty. Barnegat Lighthouse State Park and the Jetty is at the very North end of Long Beach Island, at the extreme South End of the island is a part of the Edwin B Forsythe NWR so I thought I'd have a look there. It's long, long way down. It looked very nice but nothing in the way of birds at the moment. 

Southern End of Long Beach Island

Atlantic City in the Background

I popped down the Garden State Parkway to Brigantine but that was pretty grim as well, low tide doesn't help. I've had better days on the NJ Coast.

Black Duck

Still chilly at night

 It's brightened up the last couple of days but still getting down to near freezing at night. I've still got a couple of hundred Grackles in the yard eating a lot of food. A few Robins and Cowbirds but nothing else I've seen so far but I haven't really been looking. Here's a few from the last few days.

Blue Jay

Downy Woodpecker

White-breasted Nuthatch

Flash Bird Photography

 As all of my avid readers are aware I'm a bit of a flasher occasionally. Yes, I know I've mentioned it before and both of you are already fully aware of my flashing habits as are the cats who run for cover when I have a camera in hand.

Today, Saturday was really dark and dismal but I decided to give it a go using flash, but can you tell which ones were from this morning and which ones if any were taken on a bright sunny day?

Memorial Lake on a Murky Drizzly Afternoon.

 Yesterday was really wet in the morning but the rain stopped or reduced to a fine drizzle by the afternoon. I went out for a walk around part of the lake anyway and the rain held off for me. I made friends with a very alert handsome Brown and White Border Collie named Buster. I talked to a nice elderly lady who told me of a Horned Grebe so it was a nice walk in the overcast skies.

Oldies.

 With digital storage being relatively inexpensive these days I don't throw many of my photo's away. I like to scan through them every so often and see what I can do with new post processing software. These two are from September 2007 taken with my Nikon D200 which if I remember was 10Mpx.

Jenny Lake 

Grand Teton National Park

Old Barn along Mormon Row just North of Jackson Hole Wyoming

Spring Flowers

Yesterday the 20th was the official first day of Spring. It was about 9AM before the temperature rose above freezing.  It was a lovely bright, sunny day otherwise and the Crocuses and some of the Daffodils are blooming. I'm still looking most days for my Bloodroots but I'm a little early, maybe towards the end of the week, I'll keep looking.

Thursday Part II. Siri has Brain Fart, again.

Leaving Bombay Hook I headed South West to another National Wildlife Refuge, Blackwater in Maryland. It was my first visit and I wanted to go because I'd seen some outrageously gorgeous  Great Horned Owl pictures from there. While I often hear Great Horned in the yard I only ever see them flying past in the darkness. I got there around 12ish and headed for the visitor center to ask where to look and this couple and I headed off to look. We failed miserably. I drove up and down this stretch of road several times looking but no luck in the warm bright sunshine. Plan B was always to head a little ways North to whats colloquially termed the 'Wall of Shame'. No fucking way! My name for it is "Wall of Fuck Me, this is amazing". See for yourself, hundreds of duck which I rarely see in Pennsylvania.

This is a small fraction of the ducks present.

There were Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup, Canvasbacks, American Wigeon and Mallards and really close!

American Wigeon

American Wigeon

Canvasback

Canvasback

Lesser Scaup

Lesser Scaup

Mallard

Mallard

Mid afternoon I started heading back home. The route Siri suggested may have been the fastest but I didn't want to endure the nutters round Wilmington. I asked Siri to head initially to Wilmington then as we got close I cancelled that and asked her to take me to Gap in Pennsylvania which was the way I prefer. Siri did great, we (Siri and I) got to Gap without any problems at all. I asked her nicely if she would now take me home. The route is normally cross country through Amish Country, through little towns like Intercourse, Paradise, Bird-in-Hand, Lititz, Leola. This time she took me through New Holland, Hinkletown (yes fucking Hinkletown) I'm calling this another Siri Brain Fart. Still it was a good day out.

Thursday Part 1. Mike has a Brain Fart

After the high winds of the last few days I needed to take some photographs, the cats were avoiding me if I had a camera in my hand. I decided on Bombay Hook in Delaware. Sunrise was for 7:12am  so I timed my departure to arrive shortly after for around 7:30ish. I started loading the Outback just before 5am making sure I'd got everything, big lens, medium lens, cameras, bottle of water, wallet, iPhone etc. Before I finally closed the door I had a last look to make sure I hadn't left anything. Right, off I went along the lane admiring the Quarter Moon low on the South Eastern horizon. I even started thinking about an old Emmylou Harris song 'Easy From Now On' from back in 1978, funny how something can trigger an old song. I asked Siri to play it for me. So I'm heading off singing away but after about 5 or 6 miles or so I suddenly realized I was wearing my nice sheepskin moccasin slippers rather than my Merrel Moab's. Damnit, I'd look a real tit walking around Bombay Hook in my slippers. So screaming U'ey and I'm heading back home. So that was Brain Fart number 1, wait for the next thrilling installment for Brain Fart number 2.

Bombay Hook wasn't bad, but still too early in the year. it will be much better in 6 weeks or so.

Bombay Hook

American Avocets

American Avocets

Great Blue Heron

Northern Shoveller

Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbirding