Southern NJ birds

Some pictures from a trip I took at the end of April to a southern NJ state park with a group from NJ Audubon. The weather was really good - the first truly warm and sunny day of spring - and the guides were really knowledgeable. They could recognize a bird by its song while driving by in a car! If they heard anything interesting, the whole caravan of cars (there were at least 7 or 8) would stop, people would pile out of them, and try to spot the bird. We traveled back and forth across the park this way for several hours. Here are some good shots I was able to take along the way:

Blue-grey gnatcatcher (how would you like to be called a gnatcacther?):


Eastern bluebird:


Eastern towhee:


White-eyed vireo:


Black-and-white warbler:


Song sparrow:


Another black-and-white warbler:

These two shots are from a trip to Jamaica Bay wildlife refuge:

This is a great black-backed gull, but this is 1st-year gull, so it doesn't have its black back yet (won't have it for two more years, actually). This is the largest gull in the world, and it while a lot of its food comes from scavenging, it actually hunts as a raptor does. It hunts for small land animals, but also for birds - both on the nest and on the wing.


Everyone's favorite tree swallow!