Lightning Bugs

Last night I was wandering about in the Bass River State Forest, listening for calling amphibians as part of CAMP. And I heard carpenter frogs, fowlers toads, pine barrens tree frogs, and green frogs making quite a racket.

I also saw a phenomenal lightning bug display. Being new moon and being in the forest made it quite dark (quite dark for New Jersey anyway). It looked like a Christmas display with blinking lights everywhere, extending far out of my field of view in both direcitons. As I watched in awe I wondered how I might possibly photograph this display. Alas, I had with me but a point and shoot camera, which was not up to the task.

For those keeping score at home, I participated in grassland bird surveys in the morning, as decribed in my previous post, waking at 4:00 AM. And then the calling amphibian survey at night, getting home after midnight. So maybe sleep depravation had something to do with what I saw. And my inability to photograph it.

(Click to Bigafy)

Flash forward to this evening. I was visiting my sister Jeanine for dinner, as my older sister Amalie and her two kids were in town from Spokane. Dad was visiting as well.

They are on their way to Spain, three days in Barcelona, and then on a cruise to Italy. Except for my niece that is. She is staying with Jeanine and family because, and I quote, "I'm not really interested in old buildings and would probably just ruin the trip for everybody else." (My brother in law Steve will meet them en-route in n London.)

My nephew is into old buildings and can't wait to see the Coliseum in Rome and the Cathedral in Barcelona.

As we were sitting on the porch after dinner the lightning bugs came out. And there were hundreds of them. My brother in law Dano noted that he had never seen so many there. And they had participated in a project Firefly Watch to track them last year.

(Click to Bigafy)

I had my DSLR with me and decided to try again. As I was setting up I remarked, "I'm gonna try to photograph the lightning bugs. I do not expect to be successful." To which my sister Amalie retorted, "Whoa, don't be setting the bar too high now."

I didn't have my whole kit with me, and resorted to using a 100 mm macro lens, as it was the fastest lens, at f/2.8, I had with me. (I really could have used my 50 mm f/1.4.) I shot 10 second exposures at ISO 3200 at f/2.8. I got a lot of dark frames. But I also got the two shown here.

Unfortunately they do not begin to capture the spectacle we witnessed. And I'm still not sure how to best go about photographing these creatures. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

This Morning ...

I woke up way to early.

Saw eerie lights in the pre-dawn fog.

Had coffee with friends.

Discovered my waterproof boots weren't.

(And squished about all morning.)

Saw a red-winged blackbird riding a red-tailed hawk.
In flight.
While its mate tried to pluck feathers from the red-wing's tail.

(And my camera was a hundred meters away in my car!)

Saw and heard half a dozen eastern meadowlarks all at once,
none to happy with my walking through their field.

Saw singing grasshopper sparrows.

Saw toads and frogs and turtles.

Had breakfast with friends.

Saw more Pine Barrens flowers.

Saw a tundra swan in New Jersey in June.
Sadly, it is only here because of an injured wing.

Watched as a green heron stalked, caught, and
swallowed (in one gulp!)
an almost fully mature bullfrog tadpole.

(Where's that camera?)

Had my first wild blueberries of the year.

(Yummy!)

Got checked out by a great crested fly catcher and a tree swallow. At the same time.

(And again I wasn't ready with the camera! D'oh!)

Saw chimney swifts fly into a chimney. 

Took a bunch of crappy pictures (some of which I've shared here!).

Pretty much in that order. And I was home in time for lunch.

How was your morning?

April Showers Bring ...

Perfoliate Bellwort

May Apple

Showy Orchis

Cinquefoil

Virginia Spring Beauty

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Wild Strawberry

Wild Pink

(click any image to bigafy)

*****

All found one May morning in at the Crosswicks Creek Greenway in New Jersey, which is also known as The Garden State.

See why?

Not Just Herps

We also saw ...

Herping in the Pines

herpetology |ˌhərpəˈtäləjē|nounthe branch of zoology concerned with reptiles and amphibians.

Meet Matt (and his Northern Pine Snake). Matt is a budding herpetologist.

I was the last car in the caravan driving into the Franklin Parker Preserve in the New Jersey Pine Barrens last weekend. As such I was responsible for closing the gate. So I missed Matt jumping out of his car, sans shoes, to catch this snake before it could slither away into the pines.

Not only was this the first Northern Pine Snake Matt had ever caught, it was the first he had ever seen.

Up to this point I'd seen three (the other two can be seen here and here). So far I've caught zero. Matt would locate a second snake a little bit later this trip. I didn't catch that one either.

Matt's mom told me he's been catching things since he was about four, he's eleven now.

How cool is that?

Fortunately, this snake was rather docile, allowing itself to be handled by several people (the blue eyes indicate that it is preparing to shed its skin).

Even so, it sped away when finally released, and I could only get shots from behind.

While this snake was certainly the star of the day, Matt wasn't finished. Here he is showing off a Northern Fence Lizard.

He was also first to spot this Eastern Ribbon Snake (the second such snake we saw that day).

We also spotted several species of frogs and toads including this Fowler's Toad.

These Southern Leopard Frogs.

And this Green Frog.

Which Matt attempted, but alas was unsuccessful, at capturing.

Finally on the drive home I spotted this Common Musk Turtle crossing the road. Not a good place for a Turtle.

So I stopped and helped it along to a better place.

Doesn't it look happier?

:-)

*****

I again went wandering about in the Pines this weekend, although this time I was by myself. And although I went to some of the same places I didn't see a single snake. I saw no frogs. And no lizards. I did see one turtle, again in the road (and again I stopped).

Where was Matt when I needed him?

*****

This trip was sponsored by the New Jersey Audubon Society. If you are in NJ you should check out their schedule and join them on an excursion or two. Have fun!

City Lights

Some of my earliest memories are of city lights. Blinking green and red lights out the window of my Coney Island Ave apartment in Brooklyn, New York sometime prior to my second birthday (we moved to Jersey when I was two).

As a boy I remember my older cousins, still living in Manhattan (my dad's home town) taking me to see Santa at Macy's each Christmas. Plenty of lights at that time of year. And taking me to the Empire State Building (I remember the building, but not going in).

I do remember my only trip to the World Trade Center towers. 

We went for drinks at Windows on the World, the bar on the top floor. 

And we got trapped in an elevator that thought it was a yo-yo, 

repeatedly going from top to bottom without letting us out!

Growing up the city was often a destination. Visiting my grandmother (dad's mom) in her nursing home was a Sunday ritual. (She was wheelchair bound, today she'd be given a new hip.)

Or going to see the Mets, Knicks, Cosmos (the first year on Randall's Island, before the move to the Meadowlands in New Jersey), Rangers (and having my car towed!), Yankees, Giants, Jets, (the prior two at Yankee and Shea stadium respectively) and the occasional college basketball games at Madison Square Garden.

Or going to see Broadway plays (Christmas presents or high school trips).

Despite living outside of Philadelphia these days, New York is still The City to me. But trips to The City have become rare. This was my first visit in some three years I reckon. Now I've travelled at bit, visiting a number of big cities, and except for Tokyo, none have the crowds on the weekend that Manhattan does. There are always people about, regardless of the time.

This trip was a bit of a wild goose chase, as we were trying to see Manhattenhenge. Somehow, despite being in the right place at the right time, we missed it. Bummer.

Whither the Sun?

But is was still great fun.

(More about the trip can be found here and here. Enjoy!)

Central Park

This past Sunday my bestest birding buddy Laura and I headed into New York City.

Given the traffic heading out we half expected 

to have the place to ourselves. We didn't.

The quintessential NYC bird, the Pigeon

After enjoying a dirty water hotdog (umm ... hotdogs) and finding apparently the only Dunkin Donuts (for iced coffee, it was hot!) in Manhattan (Starbucks dominated) we hopped on the subway and headed uptown.

The extremely rare Mourning Dove
(for "rare" read "common")

Our destination was the Mecca of urban birding. That oasis of (pseudo) wilderness in the center of the city that never sleeps: Central Park.

While the city never sleeps, the park does, closing at 1:00 am.

Turtle
(Not a Bird)

There we were, in the hunting grounds of Pale Male, looking for good birds.

"Excuse me, which building is Pale Male's nest on."

"Well, it's on the other side of the park."

"How do we get there?"

"Without getting lost you mean?"

We never did get there.

Lonely Mallard

But as you can see from the images we saw plenty of great birds as we wandered about. Our day list included canada goose, starling, rock dove, mourning dove, northern cardinal, house sparrow, catbird, mallard, and the bird of the day, a hunting great egret!

Great Egret

I heartily recommend a visit to this premier birding destination in NYC.

And if you want to see good birds, then you'll probably 
want to arrive a bit earlier then three in the afternoon. 
And you'll probably want to time your trip during migration, 
not a couple of weeks after.


You may find binoculars useful as well (I doubt they would have helped us).

:-)

But if a trip to NYC is not on your upcoming travel schedule, you can visit vicariously through Marie Winn's Red-Tails in Love and Central Park in the Dark.

Have fun!

Northern Cardinal

We surely did.