I spent a second day at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ observing and photographing all the many different kinds of birds and other creatures that reside there. I wanted to go back on Sunday to work on some techniques that after reviewing Saturday’s photos, I felt needed to be worked on. These are some shots from my Sunday trip.
I decided to take a second lap around the 8 mile wildlife drive loop because the light was just perfect by then. The very first thing I saw when I rounded the first turn and headed down the first part of the drive was this Black-crowned Night Heron sitting in one of the pools on the left. It wasn’t moving at all. He just stood there and posed for me. For more information on Black-Crowned Night Hersons visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.
On my second lap of the 8 mile wildlife drive loop, the sun was in the late afternoon magic hour and the light was golden and perfect. I pulled up along side this Snowy Egret in one of the inner fresh water pools near the end of the first leg of the 8 mile loop. I watched him watching the fish. We both waited. And waited. I had the Arca Swiss plate attached to the lenses tripod collar resting on my car window opening like a improvised tripod and we waited some more. Finally he lunged for his prize and came up with a tasty fish about four inches long. He quickly gulped it down and continued on fishing. For more information on Snowy Egrets, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.
Male Osprey returns to the nest with additional nesting material comprised of grass to help soften the nest for the female and her Osprey Chicks. For more information on Osprey, visit the Cornell Lab Of Ornithology.
saw several of these Diamondback terrapins crossing over the dike that forms the barrier between the fresh water pools and the brackish salt water marshes at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday 6-7-2009. They cross over the dike during June to find suitable nesting grounds for their eggs. They eat mollusks, fiddler crabs and occasionally small fish.
Common Tern hovers over an area where fresh water is allowed to flow through the dike out into the brackish salt water marsh. Fish are often carried through this flow of water and the Terns hover over the area waiting for sight of a fish and when then see one, they dive violently downward into the water to grab their prey. For more information on Common Terns visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.
A Great Egret flies across my path, illuminated by the late afternoon sun.
Earlier in the day, I had overheard a conversation that a woman was having with another photographer friend of hers and she mentioned that she had just seen a Stilt on the opening leg of the 8 mile wildlife drive loop and she described to him where she saw the bird. I decided that on my second lap on the loop I would try and find this bird since I had never seen one in the wild before.
Sure enough, this bird was amongst some Mallards that were foraging in the shallow fresh water pool on the left side of the drive not far from where I spotted the Black-crowned Night Heron. For more information on Black-necked Stilts visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.
For more information on the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at www.fws.gov/northeast/forsythe/.
