Silent Sunday

Tags

Forster's Tern, laughing gull, lesser yellow legs, photography, postaday, silent dunday

Laughing Gull.

Lesser Yellow Legs.

Forster’s Tern.

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Horseshoe Crabs 2018 – 2

Tags

dunlin, horseshoe crab, laughing gull, photography, postaday, red knot, sanderling

Here are some more photos to give you an idea of what the annual Horseshoe Crab egg feast is like on the South Jersey shoreline.

Sanderlings and other birds near an upside down Horseshoe Crab.

Shore birds, including Red Knots to the left of image, waiting for Horseshoe Crabs eggs being spawned on the right.

Shore birds flying up as a Bald Eagle passed by.

Red Knots, Dunlins, Sanderlings eating eggs by upturned Horseshoe Crab.

A couple of Laughing Gulls had needs other than food to be met.

Laughing Gulls temporarily did not care for Horseshoe Crab eggs.

Horseshoe Crabs 2018

Tags

fortescue, horseshoe crab, laughing gull, photography, postaday, red knot, sandpiper

This year I had to go twice to the South Jersey shore at Fortescue, NJ to photograph Horseshoe Crabs as they come ashore to mate. It rained heavily last weekend, and I had to shoot from the car quickly before the camera got wet.

Upturned Horseshoe Crab, still alive.

Red-winged Blackbird eating Horseshoe Crab eggs.

The second time was yesterday, with plenty of sunshine. There were tens of thousands of birds of all kinds on a stretch of the beach no more than a quarter of a mile (0.4 km) long.

Sandpipers, Laughing Gulls at the mouth of Oyster Creek. The rocks in the water are Horseshoe Crabs.

Red Knots depend on Horseshoe Crab eggs to replenish their energy during their long migration flight of 9,300 miles (15,000 km) from the tip of South America to the Artic. This year there were many of them, and they appeared well fed and in good shape.

Red Knots (orange breasts) on beach at Fortescue, NJ.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Pairs

Tags

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, laughing gull, photography, postaday

For this challenge, http://ceenphotography.com/2015/05/19/cees-fun-foto-challenge-pairs/, today I witnessed a pair of Laughing Gulls in breeding plumage standing apart from all the thousands of other birds at the narrow beach in Heislerville, NJ on Delaware Bay. The two only paid attention to each other and did not join the other birds in their annual feast of horseshoe crab eggs at this time of the year.

Laughing Gulls: their heads are black when they are breeding; otherwise they would be gray.

Laughing Gulls: she nuzzled against him.

Laughing Gulls: what did she whisper to him?

Lauhing Gulls: they kept looking for food together, away from the crowd.

Stamp, then Eat

Tags

laughing gull, photography, postaday

Yesterday I noticed a strange animal behavior as I scanned Reeds Beach through my camera viewfinder. A group of laughing gulls was bobbing up and down from time to time. I thought it was due to camera shake, but I had the camera on a tripod, so that had to be ruled out.

Finally I remembered reading about that particular behavior. As you know, the gulls and other birds eat the eggs freshly spawned and buried in sand by female horseshoe crabs. The gulls have learned that they can get at the deeply buried eggs by stamping on the sand as the waves come in. Then as the waves recede, the disturbed sand is carried out to sea, revealing and leaving the eggs behind. Those smart gulls are laughing all the way to the bank.

The following photo shows the gulls stamping. Note that the water was coming in and the gulls had their heads up in the air. That long pointed thing sticking out in the middle of the picture was the tail of one overturned crab.

Laughing gulls stamping

Six seconds later, the water had receded and all the gulls had their heads back down, eating crab eggs. Note the overturned crab tail was still there among the gulls.

Laughing gulls eating

Sandpipers, Red-Winged Blackbird and Others

Tags

common tern, laughing gull, photography, postaday, ring-billed gull, sandpipers, wed-winged blackbird

Today a friend and I went to the southernmost part of New Jersey on the Delaware Bay. It was too early for the annual coming ashore of the horseshoe crab, which will happen in about two weeks. So we walked on the beach and I was able to take my first best shot of the red-winged blackbird, which some say is the most common bird in North America.

Red-winged Blackbird

There were also other birds of course, such as sandpipers, gulls, and terns.

Sandpipers

Sandpipers are small birds, not much bigger than sparrows, but the terns and gulls were larger.

Common Tern

The common tern is noticeable by its short feet.

Ring-Billed Gulls

Laughing Gull