BOS Photo Albums

Photo albums submitted by BOS members are below. These albums feature BOS field trips, events, and special bird sightings that our members have seen. We hope you enjoy them!     (BOS Members: you'll need to LOGIN, then find the link on your member homepage to add your photos.)


Cape May-zing 2019

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Alec Humann led a BOS trip to Cape May, New Jersey in search of shorebirds, rails and other exciting birds!

A group of us met at Wildwood Crest, New Jersey on 8/11 (Sunday) in the evening to board the Atlantic Star for our pelagic trip in search of shearwaters and storm-petrels! Our boat left at 10 pm and made its way out to reach deep waters by the early morning. We could not have asked for better sea conditions: calm and blue waters with little wind. This did make finding some birds a bit difficult since they were not flying, but the marine wildlife we saw was still specatular! Every BOS member had great looks at most of the wildlife we encountered on the boat. Marine species spotted included:
BIRDS - Wilson's Storm-petrels, Leach's Storm-petrels, Band-rumped Storm-petrel, White-faced Storm-petrel (perhaps one of my new favorite birds because of the way they hop on the water - definitely ask one of us to show you a video or watch one on youtube!), Cory's Shearwaters, Audubon's Shearwaters, Great Shearwater, Bridled Tern, Red-necked Phalaropes, and a Brown-headed Cowbird (yes a cowbird way out at sea!)
MAMMALS - Cuvier's Beaked Whale (an exciting cetacean typically found in deeper waters), Atlantic Spotted Dolphins, Short-finned Pilot Whales (we happened on many pods logging at the surface!), Risso's Dolphins, and Humpback Whales
OTHER MARINE SPECIES - Loggerhead Sea Turtles, Ocean Sunfishes (Mola mola!), Flying Fish, Common Dolphinfish, Portuguese Man o' War, Blue Dragon Nudibranch, and several sharks!

The following day, we were joined by a few more BOS members as we explored the Stone Harbor area in the morning. Our first stop was the Wetlands Institute where we were immediately greeted with many shorebirds (Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers), herons (Yellow-crowned Night-herons and Tricolored Herons), and gulls (Laughing and Herring Gulls)! We also got great looks at several Clapper Rails, including a juvenile out in the open (little did we know that we would see even more of them)! The beach at Stone Harbor Point is where we saw hundreds of shorebirds just foraging alongside beachgoers. Piping Plovers, Red Knots, and Western Sandpipers were just a few of the species we saw. After a lunch break, we went to South Cape May Meadows to see what sort of birds were dropping into the two ponds at the site. Exploring the beach nearby yielded even more shorebirds and even Least Terns!

Wednesday morning started off early at Higbee Beach WMA for migrating passerines, and it was here that we got our first look at a Blue Grosbeak! We spent the majority of our morning in the area until it was time to explore the salt marshes aboard the Osprey. It was here that we saw more shorebirds that we had not seen in larger numbers on our previous spots (Willets, Whimbrels, Black-bellied Plovers). We were also treated to numerous sightings of Clapper Rails, including a trio that was only about 10 feet away from the boat! We probably saw enough Clapper Rails to last us a lifetime! Our afternoon birding took us to Cape May SP where saw a Black Tern mixed in with many other terns. A well-timed WWAD (What Would Alec Do) moment also got us great looks at a Blue Grosbeak singing right along the trail!
The majority of Thursday was spent exploring the legendary Brigantine area (aka Edwin B Forsythe NWR) via driving along the wildlife drive. Our first time through yielded a Gull-billed Tern, a Marbled Godwit, and a Saltmarsh Sparrow that was sitting up long enough for many great scoped views of the bird. Our second drive through coincided with a lower tide. 4 Marbled Godwits were spotted in the area we saw the first Marbled Godwit, and further down the road is where we saw several Western Sandpipers mixed in with Semipalmated Sandpipers!

The final day of Cape May-zing was spent at Higbee Beach WMA and South Cape May Meadows. It was an amazing trip with many lifers for a good majority of us! Someone had 37 lifers just from this trip. Many thanks to the infinite wisdom and knowledge provided by Alec Humann!

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