Jersey Shore: The Professor and Mary Ann

Here’s “the rest”: The vacation pictures that didn’t fit any of the past few days’ galleries.

After Hours (best viewed large by clicking the image)

Jersey Shore: Birds

I previously posted series on Snowy Egrets arguing over a mate and a Great Egret, but here’s the rest of the wingèd crew.

Northern Cardinal, preening

Jersey Shore: Figure Study

At Cape May Point State Park, a cooperative Great Egret posed for me on a pier. I think I may have interrupted his Tai Chi routines.

Jersey Shore: Egregious Behavior

This is the first of several posts showing photographs from our recent vacation to Wildwood and Cape May, New Jersey.

While looking for Red Knots at Cook’s Beach, on the bayshore north of Cape May, we observed the following scene involving a female Snowy Egret, a male who attempted to court her, and another male who objected to the first male’s advances. The dialogue is an interpretation by yours truly.

"Hey, baby, I like the way you wiggle your toes when you fish. You come here often?"

Slide show: Wildwood/Cape May 2010

OK, my Flickr album for this year’s vacation is done.  Or at least as done as I feel like doing right now.  I recommend the “full screen” button in the slide show.

Cape May: Sunset walk at the Meadows

This evening was the CMBO’s sunset walk at the Meadows.  Not a lot of great birds, although the Spousal Unit picked up a Sora just a few feet away, at the edge of darkness.  But the walk, as always, provided great photo opportunities of the lighthouse and ponds at sunset, with a bonus of a full moon rising.

Cape May: Photowalk

Went out this morning for a CMBO-sponsored photowalk at Cape May Point State Park.  It was another beautiful, clear morning without a cloud in the sky.

The park continues to be overrun by Monarch butterflies on every flower:

We spend a while at a brush pile along the dunes, working on some Palm Warblers:

Not much else to note from the walk.  The Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were not present at the state park while we were out.  They may have moved to the Meadows.

I heard back from Louise Zemaitis regarding the tagged Monarch we reported on Sunday.  It was a local tag, from Cape May Point on September 7.  Based on the date, she said that there’s a possibility that it was a breeding Monarch, rather than one that will migrate to Mexico.  But who knows—maybe it will be recovered down there this winter.

Cape May: Monarchpalooza, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

Cape May is in the midst of an epic Monarch butterfly migration.  This morning at Cape May Point SP, they were on every flower, and in huge numbers overhead. 

(Click any photograph to embiggen.)

Among the half-million Monarchs in the area today, the Spousal Unit and I came across one with a tag from the Kansas University Monarch Watch program, tag number NMW 190.  We reported the tag recovery by email.

Buckeye butterflies were also numerous:

We also saw lots of American Lady butterflies:

We didn’t participate in any organized bird walks today.  There were a few nice raptors overhead (immature eagle sp., Osprey with fish, Peregrine Falcon, Coops & Sharpies).  The stars of the day, though, were the 4 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in a pond near the hawk watch: