Saturday, February 19, 2011

Birding the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR

After leaving Barnegat Lighthouse last Saturday Hubby and I headed for the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. We were able to do some birding at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge Saturday afternoon and early Sunday morning. It is located just across from Atlantic City.  The refuge has 47,000 acres of coastal habitat and a fantastic wildlife drive. I have been going to Atlantic City since a child and this was my first visit to the refuge, I did not even know it was there. It is a great place for birding and I will definitely be making another trip to the refuge later in the spring 

During this visit we saw a lot of ducks, mostly the American Black Duck, Northern Pintails, Gadwalls, Northern Shoveler, Mallards, Hooded Mergansers, Common Mergansers, Bufflehead, Great Blue Heron, a large flock of Dunlin, Canada Geese, a Northern Harrier, Tundra Swans, Mute Swan, a large flock of Brant,  a Bald Eagle,  Killdeer and an unknown raptor.


Click on photos for a larger image


Northern Pintail... I just love their cute tail feathers


A closer look at the Northern Pintail

I assume this is the American Black Duck.


A large flock of Dunlins

Cute Killdeer



Pintails, Shoveler and Mallards

Great Blue Heron



Common Merganser



Hooded Merganser and a Bufflehead

Large flock of Brant



Any know what my unknown raptor is?



Atlantic City in the distance, I hope the Turbines do not hurt these birds as they are migrating.



This is my Camera Critters  post, I hope you enjoy my visit to the refuge and all the ducks and birds. Thanks to Misty Dawn for hosting and as usual I appreciate your visits to my blog.  Have a great weekend!

33 comments:

  1. Great bunch of water bird shots and the hawk!

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  2. Hi there. Thanks for finding my blog so I could see yours! I love birds and wildlife so am looking forward to sharing your sights. :)

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  3. A great selection of birds Eileen. Wildfowl are so underestimated, for example Pintail are so slim and elegant, yet fast in flight - magnificent creatures.

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  4. You always find the most bird species in one place. :)
    Great set of shots Eileen!

    Carletta@Round The Bend

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  5. oh gorgeous! didi you take this while you were on your walk? =)

    my entry here
    http://alwaysfilipina.blogspot.com/2011/02/european-bison.html

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  6. What a great trip you're having. Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  7. Wow, lots of different birds. I love the name "bufflehead"! And you're right, the killdeer is cute!
    -- K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  8. I love all the ducks you have seen this winter!

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  9. Those turbines are amazing!

    And what a lot of birds you saw.. lovely shots.

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  10. Wow..I love seeing all of these critters! They are so fun to watch, and I think the raptor is a hawk!

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  11. This place should attract lots of water fowl later in the year.Great images.

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  12. Beautiful birds and place. Your photos are amazing.

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  13. Wow, there is a names for all them, but I don't know what they are in America. Still, you take wonderful pictures.

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  14. How great that you found another refuge to visit! It certainly has a nice variety of birds. I really like the Pintails too. I should be seeing some here in April as they migrate north.

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  15. The shot of the turbines is gorgeous..

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  16. You found a nice variety of water birds. This place definitely is worth another visit!

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  17. Hi Eileen, Wonderful pictures of all of those birds and ducks. I love the photograph of the Kildeer! We had Kildeer here at a small area of gravel near a supermarket parking lot. I have not seen any Kildeer in several months. I looked this afternoon in fact. Keep up the excellent blog! I so enjoy it! Have a wonderful day tomorrow!

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  18. that merganser is practically walking on the water - fun photos, Eileen! Great birds!

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  19. great photos! And, I had no idea there was a wind farm in Atlantic City! They must be cranking up the megawats today with the wind!

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  20. Glad to hear of such a large refuge. I have to wonder if they took it's proximity into consideration when they considered putting the windmills in there.You got some great shots on this day out! Well worth the trip. ~karen

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  21. Thanks for taking us along on your trip to the coastal wetland. Great shots!

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  22. I love birds, as you already know...this was such a wonderful walk; taking us along and all!!!

    My Shadow Shot Dolphin Art

    Thanks for visiting with me.

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  23. You got so many of them. :)
    Some kind of eagle I guess.

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  24. very nice Eileen - the raptor looks like a Red-Tail Hawk (the white v on the back and shorter tail).

    dan

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  25. You got a great collection of photos from the trip. It is good that winter is winding down and more waterfowl will be arriving in the area.

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  26. OK, so this place is now on my list of places to go! I love the Pintails and the Bufflehead is my favorite duck so I love seeing it posted. I would I.D. your raptor as a Red-tailed Hawk.

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  27. What a wonderful trip. I really enjoy seeing all your bird shots!

    Thanks for dropping by...

    http://thehappyfamilies.blogspot.com

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  28. What a wonderful place for wildlife. Really neat photos Eileen.

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  29. Wonderful photos! I always enjoy seeing the different birds (and other animals) on the CC meme -- I apologize for being late this week to come by and visit, I was sick last night which threw my schedule all off :-)

    Marie
    bonkersinbarnhart.com

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  30. Wonderful birding weekend -- great pictures. I have read that the wind turbines have been made safer for birds -- I can't say where I've read that, but I hope it's true. There are a lot of them out West.

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