Barnegat Lighthouse State Park (17-Feb-2017)

After helping me sort the beach trash from Sandy Hook, Tyler Sacks said he wanted to help with a beach clean-up. He also suggested going to Barnegat because on a recent trip he had seen a really trashy beach in the bay. I liked the idea of Barnegat because I had never been there at this time of year and I was told the birding was awesome. So for this post, Tyler and I set out to Barnegat to do some birding and take out some trash. 

Our first stop was at the lighthouse for some birding.  Walking along the jetty one of the first species we came across were Long-tailed Ducks. Most were swimming just off of the jetty, but some like the male on the right were just sitting in the sun on the rocks. 

In this photo you can clearly see where the Long-tailed Duck got their name. This one was swimming around the end of the jetty.

One of the most magnificent birds of the day were Harlequin Ducks. This male swimming above jumped right out of the water in front of us and is the same duck as the one in the photo below. It spent a short time on the rock out of the water, then jumped right back in.

The male Harlequin is on the left, the female on the right. It was amazing how close we were and that these birds didn't mind us being there. 

This is a male Red-breasted Merganser. We saw a few of these, but they were not nearly as numerous as the Long-taileds or Harlequins.

Common Loons were diving and coming up with whole crabs. This one seemed to have a little trouble getting its catch down. 

A Red-throated Loon. This is the same species I found dead in netting at Presque Isle. It is much better finding them happy and healthy swimming around. 

There were a few Black Scoter swimming near the end of the jetty. This individual is a male. 

On the Jetty itself there were many shorebirds, including this Ruddy Turnstone. Most of the Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers were picking food off of the rocks. 

With such a close look I could see why this species is called a Purple Sandpiper. The feathers actually have a purple look to them. Every other time I have seen these they were too far away to see that. 

Several Rocks were coated in Dunlin with a few Purple Sandpipers mixed in. Sticking to the opposite side of the jetty while passing, most of the Dunlin didn't even raise their heads and not a single one flew as we passed!

This was a species I really wanted to see. It is a Common Eider and this was only the second time I had seen one. The first time up close. The Eiders were hanging out at the very end of the jetty. Recently a King Eider had been spotted at this location, but that was nowhere to be seen.  

I believe this is gull vomit. It definitely came out of something. I found it interesting because of the glass and plastic bits.

After the jetty we grabbed something to eat then it was off to the trashy beach. This beach in the bay was part of a park, but I can't recall the name of it. Barnegat Light was strait across the bay from it. 

Tyler and I started filling our packs picking through the debris pile right away. We knew we weren't going to get everything so we were a little selective on what we were picking up.

I was trying to find as many plastic utensils as possible. It always surprises me the amount of these and plastic bottle caps that make it into our waterways. 

No need to bring bags when you can find them. Tyler pulled this feed bag out of the sand. There were several others, but they were full of sand and even with the two of us weren't movable. 

Then we found places like this. Broken down styrofoam and small plastics about a foot deep. How does one even remove stuff like this? All of these items break down into smaller pieces, but never really degrade completely. We tried to pick up as many of the larger pieces as possible, so they don't add to these tiny piece piles. 

As we were walking down the beach this Ring-billed Gull caught a crab and was trying to break it open. It was just about the only bird on this section of beach. There were ducks out on the water, but nothing really close. 

This was our haul for the day. A bag, pack and two planting buckets full of trash. There was still much, much more on the beach that we didn't have time to get to.

We didn't fill the back of my car, but I think we did a decent job. On your next trip to the beach, take a bag or find a bag, fill it and properly dispose of it. We all need to do more to help keep our oceans clean for wildlife and ourselves!

Tundra Swans were on my list of bird species wanted to see this year. I had never seen them before and really until this past year I didn't even know they existed. On our way out to Barnegat we made a quick stop at a cranberry bog in the pine barrens to try to find some other birds and there they were. Tundra Swans! Tyler had just seen some on Green Lane Park a week prior, but for me they were a life bird! It wasn't just one or two either there were about fifty of them.

This group flew from one pond to another joining a larger group. They are just magnificent birds. It is amazing what you find when you aren't looking for it.  

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Beltzville Gamelands (16-Feb-2017)

Not that long ago I had checked out a problem spot at one of the gamelands accesses at Beltzville Lake. At the time it was too cold to do a clean-up, but there was enough trash for me to come back and remove. On this trip I did just that. Above is just a Canada Goose that was near the trailhead where I came out to the lake.

I walked a small portion of lakeside before getting to the problem area. Along it I did find a few items, not too much though. 

Then I got to the problem area and started removing the trash. This area was a little worse last year, still it is very annoying having to do it all again and knowing it will probably be a mess again at the end of the year.

This was the pile by the time I was done. I was happy I found some grocery bags because there definitely wasn't enough room in my pack for everything. 

On the way out I picked up the loose items. Because I already had one photo of the rest of the trash, I didn't do an end trash photo and just loaded everything up in the car. 

I made a stop at the Pine Run Boat Launch in the State Park and found this Muskrat hoping out of the water underneath the dock at the launch. It had something in its mouth and it looked as though it was putting whatever it had up into the dock. Maybe it has its own little food storage area under there. 

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Tuscarora and Locust Lake State Park (15-Feb-2017)

Went back to Tuscarora for a hike. With snow on the ground and more falling, I knew I wasn't going to find trash, but I did see this Northern Harrier Hunting over the fields. To me this was one of the greatest experiences of the winter. I ducked back into the tree line and just watched. There were a couple times when the Harrier flew by really close and either didn't know I was there or didn't feel I was a threat.  

In this shot the Harrier is preparing to dive for prey. There were several times it did go below the grasses, but I never saw it come up with anything. Eventually it landed in the field and I lost sight of it. It may have caught something and stayed on the ground feeding. 

Made a quick stop at a nearby gamelands where this Black-capped Chickadee was feeding on Staghorn Sumac. 

Passing back by the field the Harrier was in on my way to Locust Lake, I spotted this Red-tailed Hawk on a line. I wonder which bird of prey is better at hunting these fields.

The snow was still coming down at Locust Lake State Park. There wasn't as much snow cover as Tuscarora and that allowed me to find some trash. 

I took the easy path around the lake and stoped at several of the lake accesses. 

This was something new. 

Didn't pick up all that much, but I have been to Locust several times in the past couple months. 

Picked up a couple more items after taking the photo above this one. 

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Beltzville State Park (14-Feb-2017)

Most of the area surrounding my house was still covered in snow. I did a hike earlier in the day at Tuscarora State Park and there was still a couple inches on the ground. I found in the past couple years that Beltzville State Park is one of the first places where the snow melts, so for the afternoon I headed over there for a short clean-up.

With the water levels still down I was able to walk the edges of the lake that normally wouldn't be accessible. It was the normal items cans, a diaper, etc. 

On the way back I cut through the picnic area and found this. These containers are for hot ashes, not trash. There are plenty of trash receptacles around the picnic area and leaving your trash in one of these is just lazy. I took out all of the non-biodegradable items and left paper plates and food waste.

This was the haul for this short walk. I find it unbelievable how much trash is left around Beltzville. Why do so many find it acceptable just to leave their stuff behind? 

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker from a hike at Tuscarora State Park earlier in the day. Sapsuckers drill out holes, which form horizontal lines on a tree. They then return to these lines of holes to lap up sap that slowly drains out of them. 

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Presque Isle State Park (11-Feb-2017)

Eastern Pennsylvania was covered in snow, so I decided to take a trip with some friends, Joe Greco and Rick Wiltraut, to Presque Isle State Park. Presque Isle is in Lake Erie and there had recently been sightings of a Slaty-backed Gull there, a species which rarely shows up in Pennsylvania. I have to say I was more excited to see a new part of the state than to see a rare gull. As soon as we arrived after the five hour drive, we parked and Joe and Rick got out their scopes and started looking through the gulls. I honestly didn't expect to see so many, thousands of Ring-billed Gulls with a few Greater Black-backed Gulls. Joe and Rick seemed content looking for the one gull that may or may not be there, but I got bored quickly. I snapped a few photos of the Ring-bills then I started walking to see what was around the park.  

The Ring-billed Gull on the left was flying away with a freshly caught fish. The one on the right looked as though it was viewing its reflection on the ice. 

It didn't take me long to start finding trash. These were just a few items I picked up near the parking lot and dropped off at the truck before continuing on.

This gives you an idea of what the other two were looking at. This is at a location further into the park, but was about the same as the first stop. A Slaty-backed Gull doesn't look that much different from a Greater Black-backed Gull so they had to scan and find those first and look at them closely to make sure of what they were. In this photos there are at least two Greater Black-backed Gulls.

Walking up the road I found a place where I could access the Lake Erie side of the isle. I have to say I was surprised to find beaches. I thought it might just be a rocky shoreline. As I started to walk through the sand I found that there was plenty of trash to be picked up. I didn't even have my back pack on me so I found a planting container and started to fill that. 

Then I came across this. I don't know if it was a fishing net or just a volleyball net that somehow made it into the lake. Whatever this netting was originally, as trash floating in the lake it managed to catch and kill a Red-throated Loon. I hand never seen one this close before and I was saddened that this is how I had to see it. I had nothing to cut the netting off of the dead loon so I had to take the whole thing with me. There was no way I was going to leave this netting on the beach to potentially find its way back into the lake and catch something else. I would have preferred to leave the bird, but it was really entangled. 

The non-recyclables and sadly the loon too were thrown away and I took the recyclable items with me. We then left the park to try to find another vantage point for Joe and Rick to look for the Slaty-backed Gull. 

After no success we returned to the park and I hit the beach again as they set up in the same spot as before and continued looking through the gulls. I got this handful before they were ready to move on again. 

We then drove to the very last parking lot and hiked the trail to Gull Point. If we were going to find this gull it would be on Gull Point right? The trail was icy in places, like in the photo above. It was a nice hike out though. 

All of the edges facing Lake Erie had a coating of ice. I thought this was the coolest looking tree and isle edge.

Out on the point we did see gulls and more Greater Black-backeds than before, but still no Slaty-backed. At this point I was sure we were not going to see the gull on this trip. 

When I think lakes, I don't think lighthouses, but there were several that we passed like this one that can be seen from Gull Point. 

It was time to call it a day so we started to head back. Earlier in the year in this area a Snowy Owl was reported, I really was hoping we would see one of those more than a gull. We did not see either. 

Got to the end of the trail just as the sun was starting its departure out of sight. 

I filled my pockets on the way out to Gull Point. I would have had more had I thought to bring a pack along. We had planned to go back out looking for the gull the next day, but a storm was on its way in and in the morning we decided to head back home.

We did make a couple stops on the way back. This Red-tailed Hawk was in Bald Eagle State Park. We stopped there in hopes of seeing a Northern Shrike. We missed every bird we were chasing on this trip. Just no luck at all. 

We did see two Bald Eagles in Bald Eagle State Park. They are the darker spots in the trees. In all it was a good trip. We didn't see the birds we wanted, but I got to explore a new area and was able to remove at least some trash. I would do the trip again, probably not for a Slaty-backed Gull though.

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