Today I met up with a friend to do some birding around Lake Ontelaunee and Blue Marsh Lake. It is the beginning of January so the expectation is that there should be ducks and geese in large flocks. Unfortunately this was not the case. Only 5 species of duck made an appearance and two of those species (Bufflehead, Gadwall) were represented by lone birds. Gulls were in good numbers but too far away so we took a small hike where we saw some dickey birds. The highlight was 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler which pushed my yearlist up to 39 birds. That is not so hot of a start by I feel that I have been thwarted by the rainy weather on New Years Day and today was lacking because its been so nice and balmy here rather than freezing.
I will leave you with a photo I took last week at Barnegat Light of a Common Loon. I was surprised it came out so clear because all my other pictures of birds in water have resulted in pictures where the water is perfectly in focus and the bird is a shimmery blur. Enjoy!
