A day trip to Edwin B Forsythe NWR
I was the trip leader of a birding trip with QAS Audubon Sunday, Feb 21st...below is a link to QAS and a recap of the trip:
We met at my home at 8:00am and drove to the refuge arriving shortly after 10:30am to start our tour. We had six participants
on this all day visit (about five hours on site) to the Edwin B.
Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge by the coast of New Jersey. This
refuge of about 47,000 acres provides habitat for thousands of waterfowl
and other types of birds, in addition to muskrat and other wildlife.
View looking East along the tour road.
View looking West toward Atlantic City
As can been seen there is lots of habitat and there where thousands of ducks and waterfowl.
Looking out over the tour road from the VC platform- photo by F Heilman
On
our visit we observed fourty-four species of birds, including: brant,
hooded merganser, wigeon, canvasback, snow geese, black duck, and
bufflehead among others. Notable also were at least two female marsh
hawks (numerous observations of this species), a long close look of an
immature red-tailed hawk and one peregrine falcon. Near the end of our
tour route we finally found our only shore birds – two killdeer.
Great Blue Heron having a snack - photo by T Weaver
In
the woods adjacent to the marsh we observed among other birds,
yellow-rumped warblers, two male eastern towhees and heard the call of
the great-horned owl.
Finally
of note were many observations of herring gulls that have learned to
carry, via their beaks, clams to thirty feet high more or less then drop
the clam onto the road or other hard surface to break them open for
consumption. It seemed we could not see any herring gull in flight
without a clam!
photo by T Weaver
This is such a wonderful refuge for the observation of waterfowl species....here are a few more photo's showing the area along the tour road..plenty of area for viewing wildlife.
Looking west - note the large flock of snow geese
Here is a link to the NWR.
Excerpted from write-up by F Heilman
Not all that wander are lost
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