Sunrise Mountain and Sandy Hook

All of my birding places are closed now, due to the hurricane Sandy impact. Not just "my favorite" places, but all of the places I used to go to. A few weeks before the storm, we visited Sandy Hook and Sunrise Mountain in NJ, neither of which now look like anything they looked like back then. I wish I had taken more wider landscape photos to remember what was there, but I only have these to share.

This is a view from Sandy Hook towards mainland New Jersey:

In Sandy Hook, there are a lot of WWII-era bunkers and other concrete defense structures. Most of them are closed to human visitors due to "hazardous materials". But birds can't read, so they have no problems colonizing them or roosting there. On a recent visit, I got close enough to a cormorant colony to flush them, and shortly after that, a gull colony hiding around the corner followed suit.





Where is your snake? Mine is here:


This is a timber rattlesnake, one of only two venomous snakes found in the New Jersey. Bet you didn't even know there were rattlesnakes in New Jersey! To be honest, I didn't either, until I came across this guy. (BTW, the other NJ venomous snake is a copperhead.)



Some assorted fall migrant birds from both sites: