Beaver on Lake Nelson

Mike spotted this beaver early this morning. He may be bringing some branches to a nearby storm drain.

Water Snake in Lake Nelson

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water

As if we needed one more reason not to go in Lake Nelson.

Spring Lake Swan

We spent a relaxing weekend in Spring Lake.  A nice time on the beach, some good food and too many desserts: scones at Scone Pony, cranberry caramel sea turtles,  raspberry chocolate chip ice cream, canollis, a cinnamon donut,and every mini-cupcake.

Oh, we also saw some mute swans.




Spring Lake is a bit too structured for us. We enjoyed 20 years in Irvine but had to go to Newport Beach, Laguana Beach and Huntington Beach for fun and Costa Mesa and Santa Ana for some good ethnic food. Not sure we'll frequent Spring Lake but it's less crowded than most of the Jersey Shore.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

  

Juvenile Red Bellied Woodpecker

Robins in winter: Photos by Tim

 

 

A late February snowstorm in Mercer County NJ caught these early birds a little bit off guard.

Bathing Beauties: Chickadee, Nuthatch, Titmouse

 

On Saturday we had more than the usual number of birds visiting our backyard water feature.  They are so entertaining, and it really delights us.  However, we promise to leave our backyard when the fall migration picks up, so hopefully we'll have more varied photographs to entertain our blog visitors. We've been meaning to go to Cape May, Brigantine, the Meadowlands, maybe even Dauphin Island, so check back soon to see what we encounter.

Backyard Feeder Birds: Juvenile Cardinal, Chickadee, and Titmouse

Northern Cardinal


Tufted Titmouse


Chickadee

Loons from New Hampshire

We went to New Hampshire to visit Mike's brother, John, and his children, Claire and David, before they head off to college. John lives on Lake Waukewan and was nice enough to take us out in his boat in search of common loons that had nested in the area. On Lake Nelson in New Jersey, we have mallards, cormorants and Canada geese that spend the summer, but we only get the fancy waterfowl during migration. Two years ago, we saw one migrating common loon who stopped for a day.

There were a few nesting pairs of common loons on the lake. We found one juvenile with a parent and watched from a distance for a while.  We got to hear the wail sound as one parent called across half  the lake to its mate and the mate swam over.

As an added bonus, Lake Waukewan is very clean and Mike got to dive in, something he occasionally has the urge to do on hot days in Lake Nelson before he considers the algae and bacteria levels.

Common Mergansers on Lake Waukewan in New Hampshire

We also saw some common mergansers on Lake Waukewan. These appear to be all juveniles or adult females. We asked them to stop by Lake Nelson on the migration.

Clown Car: Fledging Wrens

We've been keeping a close eye on the wren house to catch the baby wrens fledging. This morning after our walk, we stepped outside with breakfast. Mike noticed one was out and got a few pictures of it. Unfortunately, he had to go to work, but Chris was set up with the binoculars and camera to see what followed. We thought we had three in there, but it turns out there were five in total. Chris watched the whole thing, which took place over about an hour after Mike's leaving for work. When she tried to share with Mike how fun it was to watch and her surprise at the number that came out, the analogy she made was that it was like watching one of those mini cars at the circus that clowns just keep coming out of. It really was a great experience, one that Chris is sorry Mike missed. It actually brought a bit of dampness to Chris's eyes when that last little one took the leap of faith and followed its older siblings into the big and exciting world that awaits them.







In the photo above, a parent wren is returning to the nest with an insect only to find two of the baby wrens stepping out.








Click on the picture below to see a slide show of the wrens leaving the nest for the first time.

Fledgling House Wren!!!

 

Robin and Chickadee keeping cool

One evening, it was almost 100 degrees when we saw this robin just plopped in the waterfall. A chickadee came by and joined in.

Goldfinch and Chickadee

The Chickade can't stay still and confuses the goldfinches at the feeder.

It's too hot for us to go far. We went to Dairy Queen to get the new (to NJ at least) Blizzard minis. Otherwise, we've just been sitting out, having a glass of wine and waiting for birds to come by. Oh, we also had the peach salsa from Terhune farms which may be better than the nectarine. Mike set up the ladder, put the tripod on top of it, and set up the birdcam to video the baby wrens first flights. Unfortunately, wrens are too small or the motion sensor isn't sensitive enough so the birdcam didn't capture it. There's a good video of Chris looking into the birdcam asking if it's on, but Mike has promised not to post it.

Three Baby Wrens

Best wren shot of the day!

Cliff Swallow Babies

We took the boat down under the bridge to check up on the cliff swallow nests. Fewer babies than we expected, but we were happy to see three nests had hatchlings in them. We are certainly getting an education with this year's hatchings. While we were watching, one of the baby birds intentionally turned itself around so its rump was sticking out the opening of the nest and pooped. That's what is shown in the bottom picture. It's not an adult heading into the nest. We didn't know about this behavior, and we'll do a little research to verify what we saw, but it sure seemed intentional to us. What a great way to keep the nest nice and tidy! We have watched the adult wrens carry the fecal sacs from their nests, but this was even more impressive.

Baby Barn Swallow

This barn swallow baby was under the bridge that goes over Lake Nelson.

Wren Feeding

We think the baby wren on the right side of the picture sort of looks like Grandpa from the Munsters.

More Wrens

We ate dinner out on our deck last night, starting with chips and a nectarine salsa from Terhune farms. The wrens were active feeding their babies and the babies have grown and become more adventuresome so we can now see them from the opening in the bird house.

Mike set up the camera on a tripod with the remote. Whenever a feeding occurred, one of us would press the shutter release. Here are some of the better pictures.




Occasionally, when one parent is inside the house feeding, the other hands it an insect. Or should we say the other "beaks" it an insect. We used to call this a hand-off but now we call it a beak-off.



 

We grilled a nice fillet mignon for dinner but these baby birds enjoyed their insects just as much.

Osprey: Photo by William

Juvenile Osprey on nest taken at Edwin Forsythe NWR in Oceanville NJ on 7/31/2010