bay days

[dragoncjo]

The desolate bay area is unreal. I spent basically every minute down there over the last 3 years and the amount of wildlife is unreal. If you've never been down there I suggest doing it sometime soon. It is in my opinion the best area in Jersey....I will take it over the pine barrens most of the time.

 

[whippoorbill]

Tyndall Island revisited

Whazit-all-about Alfie and yers truly returned to the bay tract west of Greenwich today and enjoyed the moderate effort required to access Tyndall Island. The distance traveled wasn't far, but the way there and back often required the usage of trails used by deers apparantly dieting upon Slim Fast and the like.

W-a-b Alfie was attacked by a reptile at one point. The fact that I discovered him with this specimen wrapped around his throat (my dear friend three shades of purple) has me believing this snake is in the constrictor family. "Boa, Alfie?" "Gurgle, garter, gurgle." "Oh, sorry. Let me save you first."

The beast below!

This fungus spoke three languages...

Land ho!

A rare whippoorbill sighting (a species generally shy and nocturnal), caught in a cattail swamp ...

We'll be back.

Thanks for looking,
Bill

 

[Teegate]

Al looks like he is stuck there and trying to get out using the pole. He winds up in water quite a bit

Great shots!

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

When we first crossed it was dead low tide and you can walk on some cedar logs thrown in the bottom without getting wet.on our return I was not expecting the tide to come in that fast and low and behold the water was at the very top of the hip waders.I did get a little water down my legs but not soaked because of the water pressure pushing in the waders kept out a lot.15 more minutes we woulda been soaked.the water at high tide is shoulder deep.Luckily there were no stones in the water for me to bang my knee on though we did find a new kind of geodetic marker near the crossing of a type I've never seen before and no i didn't trip over it though i did miss it and Whipoorbill seen it.
The snake was a constrictorus garterus.It started at my wrist and if not for bill's help would have surely swallowed my finger.
The pics I took of Bill crossing the stream must not have turned out because he did not post them.The look of fear and the cries of oh help me Alfie we're pitiful.I think he really believed me when I told him this was a hot gator spot.I am quite a noted liar in the event I can scare the poop out of someone
Alfie

 

[Frolickin]

Nice. One of the special places down this way. I love hiking out past the break. When tide is low one can walk out on the marsh a good ways. Beautiful views there.

 

[bobpbx]

Neat area. I want to do more coastal plant investigation here. Problem is that these areas can be brutal in the summer.

 

[whippoorbill]

Back to the beautiful road leading to Sea Breeze, planning on a late afternoon to dusk near-bayside bird recording. I only managed to set up the gear and take a few photos ...

... when Alfie called. I'd mentioned I was going to be wandering about and was planning on some frog recording. Sea Breeze was aborted and Alfie and I got together and headed to a favorite location in Belleplain State Forest. Right off, we had ranger problems, but managed to access the ponds. The peepers were out in full force. I'm enjoying their sounds as I write here, nothing like bringing it home, listening to the evening's storm front approach (again). We packed up the gear in the nick of time this evening, getting drenched and hail-bombed while running back to my truck. Alfie collapsed at one point during the sprint, but my CPR efforts revived him (then again, he might have been faking?). Whatever! I know his wife wudda fumed if I had brought him home dead.

First peeper photo of the spring ...

... these crooners are barely the size of a kid's thumb.

Whip

 

[glowordz]

Cute crooner!

Glo

 

[HawkinNative]

All posts have been deleted

 

[whippoorbill]

"Right off, we had ranger problems,"

What kind of "probems"? I plan on birding down there quite a bit this season and would like to be forewarned. I have not devoted as much time down there as I should in previous years, but if ranger hassles prevail I may not take the time.

You will be fine. There is one set of bogs (which happens to be the prime recording location in the entire state forest) that is technically off-limits; this has caused me to do some haggling with rangers the past couple of trips there. A problem with partying kids is to blame for the restricted access. When we were driving the road to the bogs last night, a ranger was pulling out. Al and I were in the process of reading a brand new "No Motor Vehicles" sign when the ranger caught us. He was cool about it, but made us back up to the main road and hike back to the bogs. That was fine (the gear's not too heavy), until the storm hit.

Bill

 

[manumuskin]

You guessed it Billy.I was fakin.You really need to trim that moustache.
Alfie

 

[davensj]

That tavern your talking about was last open in the mid to late 70`s as Disco Bar. The guys name was Griner, George Griner I think. Anyway the Disco / Bar didn’t do to well and he closed it, sometime after it burn down. Back in the time (1950-60`s) when things were booming for the area shore towns is was a Hotel. The little shack in the picture was on the other side of the bar. If you look center left in the picture you can see steam from the Salem Nuke plant. I don’t know when the barge disappear, in the early 70`s it was safe to walk out on. We use to cut school hang out on it all day and fish.
Great pictures

 

[kayakmac]

Real nice pic of a spring peeper! I had a hard time getting a couple of people to believe a small critter like that could make that much noise! Then, later, I showed them Cicadias!

 

[manumuskin]

Real nice pic of a spring peeper! I had a hard time getting a couple of people to believe a small critter like that could make that much noise! Then, later, I showed them Cicadias!

I once captured a cicada at work and put it in a coffee can and set it on the table.it stayed quiet for awhile and my boss walked in and started talking to me,all the sudden the critter went off and in that small room in the can it was deafening.My boss jumped and grabbed his heart like fred sanford.I think he did a dirrty in his drawers too.He upon finding out what it was ordered it released at oncet.I think he was not pleased with my bent over belly laugh.I was only 23 so quite immature.I would never do anything like that now
Alfie

 

[whippoorbill]

Call it escapism; it seems like Sunday evening rides to the bay are becoming a habit. A couple of hours before sunset, the truck gets loaded with the audio gear, the camera, a pizza from the pizzeria downtown, a quart of iced tea and some reading material.

Home sweet home; a secluded sanctuary; a tree (or three) to lean the back upon ...

The dusk transition is magical ... aurally, visually. Before last light, the book goes down and the camera comes out, quietly taking only a few...

There's a rush hour at dusk as wildlife repositions itself for night. Birds whisk loudly overhead. Mammals rush through reeds and brush.

Intuition always tells me when the last birdsong is sung. I pack and go. But first ...

 

[Teegate]

Always enjoy your photo's Bill!


Guy

 

[whippoorbill]

sunset

I usually stop before I reach the bay-side village, or what's left of it. Once the cold front cleared town toward evening, I headed back down the south side of the Cohansey. I passed by my reclining trees, along the road overly often posted on this thread, where I usually wander, relax, photograph, record. This would be the first time I'd be in Sea Breeze proper since the photos were taken on the first page of this thread. How surprising to see the decline. One senses there isn't much time before the bay poignantly claims this slowly vanishing community.

 

[Mts83]

Great shots Bill, as always! I was down there tonight too, though a bit to your east on a Thompsons Beach-Heislerville-Bivalve-Fortescue region. It was a great sunset tonight, after a rainy day. There were some great views from the nature/bike path.

 

[glowordz]

As you said, a poignant story told in pictures. I like the boarded-up brown-weathered house; it would have tales to tell! In the fourth and sixth photos, the darkened sea resembles an expanse of lava I've seen on the Big Island. Not the better-known rough, jumbled chunks, but what the Hawaiians call pahoehoe lava--smooth, fast-flowing, and lethal.

Glo

 

[whippoorbill]

In prep for a planned Tuesday-with-Alfie bay gig scheduled for tomorrow, I headed to the access to Sea Breeze this evening to take a bug biting tally. Verdict: We'll be eaten alive.

"Slap! Slap! Slap!"

There was a nice clapper rail/marsh wren symphony in progress. Out came the recorder. Oh, dear. A nice sunset? A plethora of clouds? Out came the camera.

"Slap! Snap! Slap!"

All the blood's been sucked out, so Alfie will be the feast come tomorrow.

Whipsnapslap