Nice Catch
06 Tuesday Oct 2020
Posted Photography
in06 Tuesday Oct 2020
Posted Photography
in20 Sunday Sep 2020
Posted Photography
inTags
double-crested cormorant, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, laughing gull, photography, postaday
Yesterday, when I arrived at the Brigantine unit of the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge the tide was high and ocean water was pouring into the salt marshes, bringing with it fish and other sea creatures to feed the Egrets, Double-crested Cormorants, Seagulls, and various smaller birds. Some juvenile Cormorants were having a feast and kept diving into the churning water and coming up with fish in their hooked bills.
Another Cormorant was so happy to have caught a fish that it danced around in the water.
Suddenly, it dropped the fish and dove in the water to retrieve it. However, many Laughing Gulls were hovering in the air, and one quickly swooped down.
The Laughing Gull snatched the fish and left the young Cormorant clamoring for its lost meal.
18 Sunday Nov 2018
Posted EBF Refuge, Photography
in27 Sunday May 2018
Posted Photography
inHere are some more photos to give you an idea of what the annual Horseshoe Crab egg feast is like on the South Jersey shoreline.
Shore birds, including Red Knots to the left of image, waiting for Horseshoe Crabs eggs being spawned on the right.
A couple of Laughing Gulls had needs other than food to be met.
25 Friday May 2018
Posted Photography
inThis 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.
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.
24 Sunday May 2015
Posted Photography, Weekly Photo Challenge
inFor 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.
26 Monday May 2014
Posted Photography
inTags
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.
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.
26 Saturday Apr 2014
Posted Photography
inTags
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.
There were also other birds of course, such as sandpipers, gulls, and terns.
Sandpipers are small birds, not much bigger than sparrows, but the terns and gulls were larger.
The common tern is noticeable by its short feet.