Photo Study Of Some Birds At Sandy Hook And Belmar, January 23rd, 2010

Photo Study Of Some Birds At Sandy Hook And Belmar, January 23rd, 2010

Ed Norman, Mike DeBonis and I took advantage of yesterday's sunshine and went to both Sandy Hook and Belmar to see and photograph birds.

Species seen but not photographed at Sandy Hook were:

Common Goldeneye
Canada Geese
House Finches
House Sparrows
Horned Grebes (4)
Red-breasted Mergansers
Common Loon
Red-winged Blackbirds
Great Black-backed Gulls
Yellow-rumped Warblers
Song Sparrows
Glaucous Gulls (2)
Buffleheads
2nd Year Bald Eagle

Belmar's Shark River Lake had a congregation of close to 300 Mute Swans. Silver Lake's island hosted seven Black-crowned Night Herons (three adults and four juveniles.) In addition, there were ~ 150 gulls sitting on the ice (mostly Herrings.) But the open water around the edges gave us great photos of American Coots, American Wigeon, Hooded Mergansers and Northern Shovelers.

American Coot At Silver Lake

American Wigeon Drake On The Ice At Silver Lake

Hooded Merganser Drake At Silver Lake

Northern Shoveler Drake On The Ice At Silver Lake*

Northern Shoveler Hen On The Ice At Silver Lake*

Please click on either the thumbnails or the captions below to see a larger image...thanks!


A-AmericanCoot	B-AmericanCoot	C-AmericanWigeonDrake	D-AmericanWigeonDrake	E-AmericanWigeonDrake

F-AmericanWigeonHen	G-Brant	H-HuddledAndSwirlingBrant	I-GadwallDrake	J-GreatCormorant

K-HerringGull	L-HerringGull	M-Ring-billedGullPortrait	N-JuvenileBlack-crownedNightHeron	O-HoodedMerganserDrake

P-HoodedMerganserHen	Q-HoodedMergansersParade*	R-Long-tailedDuck	S-NorthernMockingbird	T-NorthernShovelerDrake

U-MuteSwan	V-MallardDrake*