Sky and Ice

Tags

cirrus clouds, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, ice, mallard, mute swan, postaday, Tundra Swan

More photos of the beautiful blue sky from a few days ago.

High cirrus clouds.

Deep blue against white clouds.

Tundra Swan and Mallards.

Mute Swans.

In the above photo you can see the ice begin to form on the surface of the marsh. Down below is a closer look at the ice.

Ice in monochrome.

Sun and Wind

Tags

american robin, canada geese, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, northern harrier, northern pintail, Northern Shoveler, postaday, snow geese

It was a beautiful and cold three days ago at the refuge. After hiding for most of the week, the sun was out. The wind was blowing fairly strongly and lifted the clouds toward the heavens.

Cirrus clouds and a Canada Goose.

As I drove on Wildlife Drive, a Northern Harrier pair was hunting for food, such as voles and mice, among the low vegetation along the marshes. They cut in front of my car, disappeared in the grasses at times. I tried to follow them and only managed to get an occasional shot.

Female Northern Harrier hunting.

Male Northern Harrier hunting.

Meanwhile, ducks and geese took off in dramatic formations against the blue sky.

Northern Pintails landing.

Canada Geese taking off.

Snow Geese taking off.

Snow Geese taking off.

Snow Goose taking off: “Wait for me!”

American Robin foraging for worms on the ground.

Female Northern Shoveler preening.

Favorite Images Since 2011 – Part 2

Tags

Bixby Bridge, bristlecone pine, Hà Nội, miniature horse, Moss Landing, outer banks, postaday, red fox, Việt Nam

Outer Banks sunrise, 2015.

Bixby bridge in Monterey County, California, 2015.

Ocean view in Moss Landing, CA 2016.

Young red foxes playing in our backyard in 2015.

Miniature horses in South Jersey 2016.

Bristlecone pine, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, Bishop, CA in 2016.

Night traffic in Hà Nội, Việt Nam, 2016.

Favorite Images Since 2011 – Part 1

Tags

Brigantine, bug sur, cranberry, death valley, junco, McWay Falls, Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, monument valley, paratroopers, paris, postaday, Princeton, South Jersey

I started this blog in 2012. To make room for newer posts, I had to delete some of the older posts, but kept their images on my PC. Following are some of the most liked photos throughout the years.

Brigantine, NJ at sunset – 26 November 2011.

McWay Falls, Big Sur, CA – 7 October 2012.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Death Valley, CA – 10 October 2012.

Monument Valley, AZ – 13 June 2013.

Tourist and paratroopers on a bank of the Seine river, Paris, France – 26 March 2014.

Cranberry harvest, South Jersey – 19-October-2014.

Juncos, Princeton, NJ – 14 February 2015.

2021 Images in Review – Part 4

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, egret, Fish Crow, great blue heron, great egret, postaday, red-winged blackbird, yellow-rumped warbler

I have looked many times at the following image of a Red-winged Blackbird chasing a much bigger Fish Crow away from the vicinity of its nest. It was actually chasing two Fish Crows, but only one was caught by the camera. Gumption and tenacity are words that apply well to the Red-winged Blackbird.

Red-winged Blackbird chasing Fish Crow.

This year, one big bird was everywhere around the refuge. I shot many pictures and even have one post dedicated to it, Great Blue Heron. However, the following monochrome shot was liked by many.

Great Blue Heron.

In November, I saw Yellow-rumped Warblers for the first time. They were eating Juniper berries and did not fly away allowing me to take many shots. Here are two more unpublished until today.

Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Hundreds of egrets stay at the refuge almost year round from the end of February until December. They spend their time fishing, and sometimes fighting each other, jumping up like ballet dancers.

Great Egret with a great catch.

Great Egrets fighting.

With so many egrets and other birds , I sometimes wondered whether there ever is enough fish for them. One day a few weeks ago, I looked down into a shallow part of the refuge and saw thousands and thousands of fish swimming around, with not a bird in sight.

Young fish swimming in shallow water.

This concludes this 2021 Images in Review series. I wish all of you a Great and Happy New Year in 2022!

2021 Images in Review- Part 3

Tags

Big Eyes Butterfly., Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, monarch butterfly, postaday, sayen Gardens, snowy egret, sunflower, wildlife drive

I planted small sunflower plants this year. The deer left them alone since they had so much else to eat. The one below adorned a side of our driveway.

Sunflower.

In the spring and early summer Sayen Gardens was the ideal place for photographing flowers. One day, their pond looked milky white (I don’t know why) and the few plants showing through the water got an unusual and striking background. The following shot is in monochrome.

Conifer in pond at Sayen Gardens.

My year-round favorite place is the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. In these days of coronavirus, it is the perfect place to find fresh air and solitude. Audubon groups of birdwatchers with their binoculars came there almost every day, but they tended to congregate at places near the entrance to the refuge. I prefer to drive on the 8-mile long Wildlife Drive.

Some of Edwin B. Forsythe NWR marshes as seen from Wildlife Drive.

In the summer familiar, and sometimes unusual, butterflies abound along Wildlife Drive.

Monarch butterfly with damaged wing.

Big Eyes, a butterfly I had never seen before.

Egrets were in abundance at the refuge and provided many photo opportunities.

Snowy Egret.

Snowy Egret in monochrome.

2021 Images in Review – Part 2

Tags

boat-tailed grackle, brood x cicada, east point lighthouse, great egret, postaday, white ibis

2021 was the year of the 17-year Brood X cicadas. Tens of thousands of their shells littered our yard and their singing during the day was incessant, lasting from early morning well into sunset.

Cicada molting and emerging from its shell.

East Point Lighthouse on the Delaware Bay, with sand berms to prevent erosion.

Great Egret taking off.

Boat-tailed Grackle.

Some of my most satisfying photo captures are the following of a superb flyer, a White Ibis near its rookery in Ocean City, NJ.

White Ibis.

White Ibis preparing to dive.

White Ibis diving.

2021 Images in Review – Part 1

Tags

bluebird, bunker, cape may lighthouse, deciduous azalea, mockingbird, postaday, red-winged blackbird, snow melt

In four more days, 2022 will be upon us. For the rest of this year, I will repost some of the images that you, the readers of this blog, have commented on or liked. A couple of them will be posted for the first time, since I suspect you may find them interesting.

Water drops from snow melting on top of a birdhouse in our backyard.

World War II bunker on beach in front of Cape May lighthouse.

Mockingbird near beach at Cape May Lighthouse.

Female Bluebird with pine needles for the nest she was building.

Meanwhile, the male Bluebird was attacking his rival on our bay window glass.

Red-winged Blackbird singing an aria.

Deciduous azalea flower in spring.

Cellpic Sunday – 26 December 2021

Tags

absecon, cellpic sunday, echinacea, Oculus, one world trade center, postaday

This is my first post for Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday challenge. Here’s the link to his post:https://photobyjohnbo.wordpress.com/2021/12/26/cellpic-sunday-225/

So far I have not taken many pictures with my cellphone, a Samsung Galaxy S21. Following are some that I took over the past few months, in no particular order.

Woods near cranberry field.

Flower pot, somewhere.

Street scene in Absecon, NJ.

The following photo was taken two years ago, with an older Samsung Galaxy camera, a free one from the telephone company.

One World Trade Center in New York City, with part of Oculus and older buildings in foreground.

Saturday Miscellaneous

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great blue heron, great egret, green-winged teal, Northern Shoveler, postaday, ruddy duck

I shot the following photos over the past several weeks. The birds and ducks shown are some of the usual visitors to the refuge during fall and winter.

Great Blue Heron waking up.

Green-winged Teal.

Ruddy Duck.

Northern Shovelers.

Female Northern Shoveler.

Ring-billed Gull.

Great Egret caught a fish.

Peregrine Falcon

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Peregine Falcon., postaday

Peregrine Falcons stay year-round along the ocean in New Jersey. I see them occasionally but usually they fly too fast for a good photo. In the fall they make a habit of perching themselves on nests that Ospreys abandon when they migrate to warmer climates. Two days ago I saw a Peregrine Falcon on Wildlife Drive at the refuge, surrounded by several cars like mine.

Peregine Falcon.

Like a fashion model, it knew how to pose and obligingly turned its head for another shot.

Peregine Falcon.

Finally too many cars had stopped, and it flew to another Osprey nest on the other side of the road and turned its back on all the humans.

Peregine Falcon.

Then it flew away very fast.

Peregine Falcon.

Great Blue Heron

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great blue heron, postaday

Yesterday the refuge was mostly deserted. Only a few white egrets remained, the rest having migrated just before the cold arrived. However, there were many ducks which come and stay during the colder months, and Great Blue Herons which do not migrate. I found several of them as soon as I arrived and, when the light was right, got the following shots.

Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Herons. The heron in the foreground was about to take off.

Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron.

Tundra Swans, Ring-necked Ducks, and a Plane

Tags

postaday, ring-necked duck, Tundra Swan, ups

Last week, a flock of some twenty Tundra Swans could be heard whistling noisily as they fed on one of the refuge marshes. I did not see them until the last part of Wildlife Drive. They were swimming around near a similar number of Ring-necked Ducks. This was the first time I saw and recognized these ducks.

Tundra Swans.

Ring-necked Ducks.

Tundra Swans.

Tundra Swan.

High in the sky a UPS plane was heading toward Newark airport, probably bringing in all those Christmas gifts.

UPS plane.

The Demon of Yodok

Tags

concentration camp, Juche, postaday, The Demon of Yodok

Juche: The Demon of Yodok is the first book in the Juche series by Adria Carmichael a writer who lives in Switzerland. I read it last year and found it hard to put down as it is one of the rare fictionalized accounts of life in North Korean concentration camps, Yodok being the most notorious.

Juche: The Demon of Yodok.

If you want to read the book, Adria is offering the Kindle edition for free on Amazon at this link from December 4 until December 8, 2021.

Silent Sunday

Tags

bufflehead, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, postaday

Bufflehead turning.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, juniper berry, postaday, yellow-rumped warbler

Yesterday, driving along Wildlife Drive I saw several birds jumping in and out of a juniper tree on one side of the road. I stopped and took photos of Yellow-rumped Warblers, birds which are quite abundant in the fall as they eat the plentiful berries on the juniper. These birds normally eat insects but in the fall they love the juniper berries which are too bitter for human consumption.

Young Yellow-rumped Warbler eating juniper berries.

Yellow-rumped Warbler with a juniper berry.

Reaching up.

Make no mistake about it, it’s a yellow-rumped warbler.

Yellow-rumped Warbler.

I think they were female warblers. Some took time to look at the photographer.

“Make sure you tell them how pretty I am!”

Female Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, even if you are not in the US.

Monochrome Monday

Tags

lesser yellow legs, postaday

Migrating Lesser Yellowlegs.

Suburban Fall Colors

Tags

carolina wren, fall colors, postaday, red maple, sugar maple

Fall is still lingering on, and the colors are probably at their peak. Over the past several days, I have been photographing fall colors as shown in the following photos.

Sugar Maple.

Young Red Maple.

Another view of Red Maple.

This Magnolia tree lost its leaves several weeks ago, but it is displaying many flower buds for next spring.

This Carolina Wren has not migrated yet, and blends in well with the fall landscape.

Monochrome Monday

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great egret, postaday

A flying Great Egret seems to be a good subject for Monochrome Monday.

Great Egret.

Great Egret.

Great Egret.

Great Egret.

Great Egret.

Silent Sunday

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great egret, postaday

Great Egrets.

Great Egrets.

Great Egrets.

Taking Off

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great egret, postaday

A Great Egret was taking off at the refuge.

Silent Sunday

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great blue heron, mute swan, postaday, ring-billed gull

A corner of Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.

Mute Swan.

Great Blue Heron.

Ring-billed Gull.

Bald Eagle

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, postaday

This morning a Bald Eagle perched on an abandoned Osprey nest was surveying the marshes.

Bald Eagle on Osprey nest.

It looked directly at me as I got out of the car to take its picture.

Bald Eagle looking directly at photographer.

I took a few shots and turned away. At that instant it flew up in the air and I missed most of the flight shots, except for the following.

Bald Eagle preparing to dive.

It tried to catch something, but missed it.

It flew up.

Bald Eagle banking.

Bald Eagle flying away.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, lesser yellowlegs, postaday

The other day, when I arrived at the refuge a flock of several hundred birds flew up into the sky as if they were starting to migrate. They did not look like Canada Geese, and could have been Lesser Yellowlegs starting their migration to warmer places. Please let me know if you can identify them as another kind of bird.

Migrating Lesser Yellowlegs.

Migrating Lesser Yellowlegs.

A closer look at migrating Lesser Yellowlegs.

Flying

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Forster's Tern, great blue heron, postaday

A pair of Terns looking for fish.

Great Blue Heron patrolling the marsh.

Great Blue Heron soaring.

Fighting Egrets

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great egret, great egret fighting, postaday

Two Great Egrets were fighting at the refuge. I have seen them do that before, with most “fights” lasting a few seconds. The following lasted almost a minute, over several bouts in succession until everything quieted down. Were they competing for territory, or for some female egret?

Great Egrets fighting.

Great Egrets fighting.

Great Egrets fighting.

Great Egrets fighting.

Great Egrets fighting.

Great Egrets fighting.

Great Egrets fighting. The one on the right retreated.

Adria Carmichael: Review of “The Siege of An Lộc”

Tags

Adria Carmichael, An Lộc, postaday, The Siege of An Lộc

Adria Carmichael is the author of the highly addictive Juche series of dystopian novels set in the totalitarian nation of Choson, a very realistic fictional portrayal of North Korea. She has completed the first three books, which are currently available on Amazon, and is working on the fourth in the series.

Following is Adria’s review, posted on Goodreads, of my second novel “The Siege of An Lộc”:

Having grown up with movies and TV series about the war in Vietnam from a US perspective, it was truly enlightening to read a book on this topic from another perspective, written by a South Vietnamese native who himself had to flee to America when his country was invaded by the north.

The book is part love story in the midst of a devastating war, and part history book with detailed accounts of the two-month long siege of the small, but strategically important city of An Loc. For me, it was the stories about the people fighting for their lives and freedom that captivated my interest, and I have to admit that I skimmed though some of the lengthier descriptions of military events that were not directly connected to the main story. The characters were fantastic though, and I followed their struggles and development with great interest.

Love was at the heart of the story, and I liked that the book kept me rooting for the sweet but fragile romance between the protagonists Trung and Ly that started so innocently in a restaurant in Saigon and then continued down into the muddy trenches of An Loc under the constant enemy bombardment that gradually turned the city into dusty piles of rubble.

Another aspect that fascinated me was the contrast between the self-image of the northern army and the view of the people of the south. While the north portrayed themselves as “liberators” coming to the south to free their brothers and sisters from the evil puppet regime that was holding them in its clutches, the South Vietnamese saw them as nothing other than an invading army whose only interest was to subjugate them, and not minding to kill hundreds of thousands of people in the process. The contrast became abundantly clear when the author let us follow North Vietnamese soldiers who entered An Loc expecting to be met by cheering masses of people greeting their liberators with flowers and praise, but found nothing but petrified people fleeing for their lives at the sight of them. Very well portrayed.

At the very end of the book (and this is not a spoiler for this story) I must admit I was very surprised by a sentence saying that the protagonists will face even greater hardships three years later… and then the book ended. This statement made me incredibly curious and made me to wonder if there is a sequel on the horizon.

Hawk

Tags

cooper's hawk, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, postaday

While I was photographing egrets at the refuge, a hawk flew down and landed no more than 20 ft (6 m) from me. I adjusted my camera and got the following shot.

Cooper’s Hawk.

It did not stay long and I only got three shots before it flew away. The other two shots don’t show the hawk’s face.

Cooper’s Hawk flying away.

Snowy Egret Fishing

Tags

postaday, snowy egret

By itself in the shadows, a Snowy Egret was quietly fishing and being very successful at it.

Snowy Egret looking for (or at) fish.

Snowy Egret jumping toward fish.

Snowy Egret catching fish.

“Got you, fish!”

New Jersey 2021 Cranberry Harvest

Tags

Capper-Volstead Act, cranberries, postaday, South Jersey

Following are some photos I took today of cranberries being harvested in southern New Jersey. The harvest starts in October and usually lasts until the beginning of November.

First the cranberry fields are flooded with water. Then the ripe cranberries are separated from their plants with the use of machines called “egg beaters”. The berries, which have four air sacks, inside float on the water and are corralled as shown below.

Ripe cranberries corralled.

Workers direct them toward a conveyor belt which transports the berries toward a machine separating them into good ones for further processing and bad ones to be discarded.

Ripe cranberries on the right are loaded into a truck that will take them to an Ocean Spray processing plant.

Cranberries falling into truck container.

While driving toward the town of Chatsworth, the center of New Jersey cranberry industry, I noticed some bright red colors beyond the pine trees lining the highway.

Red cranberries beyond the trees.

Coming closer to the red areas, I saw a lot of cranberries on the ground.

Cranberries on the ground.

Discarded cranberries?

Discarded cranberries?

They may be cranberries discarded by the Ocean Spray processing plant, but I have no way of confirming that. In past years, when a season brought in too many cranberries, growers are legally allowed by the Capper-Volstead Act to dump part of their crops to keep cranberry prices stable.

Scenes from a Refuge

Tags

boat-tailed grackle, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great egret, greater yellow legs, postaday, snow goose, song sparrow

Following are some scenes from the refuge that I photographed last Friday.

Boat-tailed Grackles.

Snow Geese. It was warm and the main migrating flock was nowhere in sight.

Song Sparrow: “How can I get rid on that feather that is sticking out?”

Greater Yellow Legs.

Greater Yellow Legs, one taking a noisy bath.

Great Egret graceful landing.

Silent Sunday

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, fall, postaday

Early Fall at EBF Refuge.

Early Fall at EBF Refuge.

Fishing at the Refuge

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great egret, postaday

Fishing by humans is not allowed at the refuge. But the birds are free to fish since it is sometimes their best way to obtain what they need to survive. The Great Egret shown below is an excellent practitioner of fishing. Yesterday, I watched from beginning to end as it plucked a fish out of the marshes.

Great Egret catching a fish.

Great Egret catching a fish.

Great Egret catching a fish.

Great Egret catching a fish.

Great Egret catching a fish.

Great Egret eating fish.

Butterflies, Egret

Tags

Big Eyes Butterfly., black swallowtail, Common Buckeye, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, postaday, snowy egret

Here are some not yet published photos of butterflies and a young Snowy Egret I took in September at the refuge.

Common Buckeye or Big Eyes butterfly.

Black Swallowtail.

Snowy Egret.

Late Summer Flowers

Tags

caladium, postaday, salvia, sayen Gardens

We have had a warm beginning for fall, and it feels more like late summer. Some flowers and foliage plants are enjoying it and are thriving beautifully.

Salvia and Caladium at Sayen Gardens.

Salvia and Caladium at Sayen Gardens.

Salvia and Caladium at Sayen Gardens.

https://ceenphotography.com/flower-of-the-day-fotd-challenge/

Sunday Sleep In

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

The French have a great expression for sleeping in: “faire la grasse matinée”, literally do a fat morning. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron, a night hunter and feeder, practiced it when I met him.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron sleeping in.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron: “On your way, photographer.”

Saturday Serenade

Tags

Dora Deliyska, Liszt, postaday, Schubert, Ständchen

Something different for this Saturday: a beautiful rendition of “Serenade”, a song by Schubert arranged by Liszt for piano. The pianist is Dora Deliyska, a Bulgarian concert pianist living in Vienna, Austria.

Friday Caller

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, grackle, postaday

A male Grackle led a noisy band of Grackles to a small island in the marshes. After they landed, he posted himself on the highest branch and called out to them.

Grackle.

Grackle: “Silence!”

Grackle: “You heard me!”

Wordless Wednesday

Tags

Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great egret, postaday

Great Egrets: the have and have-not.

Monochrome Monday

Tags

Forster's Tern, postaday, snowy egret

Some birds probably look more striking in monochrome.

Snowy Egret.

Forster’s Tern, non-breeding adult.

Forster’s Tern, non-breeding adult.