Another ....

New Jersey Road Trip!

To take advantage of the Spring bird migration we decided to return to Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  The weather forecast didn't sound too bad .... cloudy skies with a light breeze.  So we were pleasantly surprised that there was nothing but blue skies when we arrived. I was glad that I had on a t-shirt and had taken shorts to change into if needed as it warmed up quite nicely and the sun felt wonderful.

We arrived a little earlier than the last time we were there on Jan 6 and drove back toward the lighthouse again. But before heading to the lighthouse we stopped at the Fort Hancock ruins.  We were out in the middle of the field when we saw what appeared to be a rather large bird sitting on top of the house in the upper left of the linked collage.  As we were getting closer to the derelict house we could see that it was an Osprey and that there was a large nest right at the peak of the roof  ... or what used to be the roof.  We stayed in that location for quite a while snapping lots and lots of pictures.  I had a hard time deciding on my favorite osprey photo so I have added an extra.  I did notice in one of the other pictures that one of the osprey was tagged.  The wing span on these birds is amazing!

After leaving this location we went to the Lighthouse where we spoke with a volunteer .... he told us of a few places where we could find some of the migrating birds .... mostly warblers. 

We spent the next few hours driving through the park .... stopping along the way where we explored a little more.  We definitely got in our exercise and walking for the day!  Sadly, we didn't really see a lot of warblers but did see more osprey, gulls, grackles, catbirds and few species of butterfly ... including an American Copper.  

We ate dinner on the road coming home and then just chilled for the rest of the evening.   It was a great day!

I have backblipped my Squirrel Blip from yesterday if you'd like to have a look!