April 12 - Delaware Bayshore

A trip to southern New Jersey's Delaware Bayshore was on tap for today, with the first stop being the Heislerville impoundments. Here I saw my first Barn Swallows, Black-Crowned Night Herons and Glossy Ibis of the spring. Clapper Rails and Black-Bellied Plovers were also seen, along with Pectoral Sandpipers, Short-Billed Dowitchers and Dunlin.


Some pretty breeding plumaged Bonaparte's Gulls were nice, any my first Laughing Gulls of the year were seen here also.

Afterwards we went to Belleplain State Forest where we located Black-and-White Warbler, Ovenbird, and Pine Warbler. Of course the specialty here at Belleplain is the beautiful Yellow-Throated Warbler.
credit: JOHN SCHWARZ