Thursday, May 16, 2019

Weekend Wanderings ... Birds Then Plants

Patty's birding buddy Terry is doing a Burlington County Big Year. So on the Big Day Weekend Terry signed up to help with the Ocean County Big Day efforts (wait, what?). And she asked Patty to help. So very early Saturday morning I was up and headed, along with Patty, (but not Terry?) to Cedar Bonnet Island.


Which is the island one crosses prior to arriving on Barnegat Island.


And is part of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, an area of the refuge which just recently opened to the public.


It is a small segment of the refuge, the trail throughout being but 1.4 miles total.


It is pretty though. And will be even nicer once the habit restoration efforts pay off.


The bird of the day was this Bobolink. It had been previously reported and we were on the look out for it. Patty spotted it as we were heading back. As it is a grassland bird thus we are not sure what it was doing here as this was clearly not grassland habitat. But it was and we saw it.

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Next up was a park Patty had scoped out, Cloverdale Farms County Park.


We were again on the lookout for birds and while we were still in Ocean county someone else was responsible for this site for the big day count. So no pressure.


We found evidence of birds. But not as many of our feathered friends as Patty was hoping.


It too was a pretty place.


And after another nice 1.4 mile stroll we were back at the car.

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After a quick lunch we headed south to our next destination.


Amasa Landing Road, a birding "hotspot" where Burlington County (almost) meets the ocean. Supposedly a spot to see shorebirds in Burlington County, we did not see any. Nor was it clear where one would. We did have nice looks at Marsh Wren though.

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And then it was off to buy some plants.


Clemenson Farms is a native plant nursery in south Jersey. Mostly wholesale, every year they have retail days for the general public. This however will be changing as the owners are retiring and the farm is for sale. So we stocked up on deer food.

After that we headed home, with one last stop at Bagliani's Market for some yummy homemade sausage. A very nice day.

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