Saturday, May 17, 2025

More Birds at Cape May.

5-17-25 SHORT HILLS: It’s been a few days, but I will finish Cape May, days two and three. The first thing on Wednesday was the morning cruise on The Osprey, a pontoon boat that can get very close to the mud flats in the wetlands. Some shore birds and coastal birds live and nest in the wetlands, while others are resting on their way to Arctic nesting areas. The crew are very up on the birds, and very good at spotting them.


We saw—sandpipers, oystercatchers, dowitchers, plovers, brants, rails, skimmers, scoters, terns, dunlins, gulls, turnstones, red knots, loons, egrets, ibises, herons and more. I have lots of pix.


After lunch, the weather cleared up and we went to see the beach. Happily there was an ice cream stand nearby. There was moderate surf, a sea breeze, and a couple of guys trying to surf, but the waves were breaking on the shore. Then it was naps or walks until dinner at the Washington Inn.


It's important to note that Cape May was originally a black settlement, Harriet Tubman lived there, and it was a stop on the underground railroad.


The next morning after another elaborate breakfast at the Mason Cottage, we took a bus tour of the town, emphasising history and architecture—be warned—more pix. Then lunch and the GSP home. 

Male Surf Scoter, one of a group of three frequently diving.
The Osprey before our three hour cruise.
One of several Osprey nests, all with chicks. We also saw an eagle nest with two eaglets.
One of many Terns we saw, this one has a small fish in its beak, many perched like this one around marinas.
Loon looking for lunch.
Cormorant drying off, notice how foggy it was.
A sandy beach in the fog with sandpipers.
Judy's favorite, a Tern coming in for a landing.
Brants, a kind of goose, on the water and lots of Laughing Gulls nesting on the land, the one in front is carrying nesting material.
Plovers, Dowitchers, Red Knots, Dunlins in the marsh.
Clapper Rail.
American Oystercatcher.
An island with trees and Egrets and Ibises nesting, there was also a Black-Crowned Night Heron nest and an RWB.
Black Skimmer cruising the beach.
Dunlin, Semipalmated Plovers.
More Surf Scoters.
Black Scoter.
On to the town, atypical B + B.
An early Hotel with lots of gingerbread.
The Harriet Tubman Museum.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Birds at Cape May.

5-13-25 CAPE MAY, NJ: Lynn drove south this morning from Short Hills to Cape May, Exit 0, of the Garden State Parkway. The four of us are here for the bird migrations. We got here in time for lunch in downtown Cape May. Its all quaint seaside resorty with lots of Victorian houses. 


After lunch we hit Sunset Boulevard and stopped to see birds on the waterways in the wetlands—including swans, egrets, geese, yellowlegs, ducks, and smaller waders—at Higbee beach and the lighthouse. From the  grape vine we heard that Cook’s beach was loaded with birds.


It seems that the horseshoe crabs come up on the beach after the first full moon in May to lay eggs. The birds arrive to eat the eggs, including 10,000 red knots, gulls, cormorants, ruddy turnstones and more. Parts of the beach were covered with birds as well as the sandbars. It was raining pretty hard with a steady wind from the east.


We got back to Cape May and our B & B, Mason Cottage, in time to check in and for a nap before dinner at the Lobster House.


Tomorrow a harbor cruise on the Osprey.   

Egret at the first stop.
Rainy day in the wetlands.
Yellowlegs.
Geese, Swans, Ducks.
Osprey, the bird, not the boat.
Mixed palette of birds at Cook's beach for the crab eggs.
Birds crowding the little bars at Cook's.
At Cook's, the reddish ones are Red Knots and the darker ones are Ruddy Turnstones.
Horseshoe crabs in the sand. Not sure if they're dead of alive.

Friday, May 09, 2025

Be Careful What You Wish For.

5-9-25 SHORT HILLS: Rain has fallen for the last week of so, 0.9 inches, and last night another 0.5 inches with more on the way. Our wishes for rain have been granted and then some. I guess now I should wish for my hair to re-grow, or to be forty again.


I have been doing more trimming and pruning and very slowly catching up with the work to be done. Socially we had dinner with Bette and Lonnie at Lorena’s and then bunch with Sarah and Jon at Bar Boulud in Lincoln Square. We stopped by what used to be Avery Fisher Hall and is now David Geffen Hall. The lobby has been totally re-done, but I managed to find the Mens Room, which is now unisex.


Two of the three treated ash trees now look pretty good, the third has some foliage.


The birds have been voracious. I have to fill the feeders almost daily. The catbirds are back with their complex and varied songs. 


New blooms: deutzia, honey suckle bush, chestnut, bridal wreath spirea, sweet woodruff, choke cherry, lilac. 

Azalea colors are the most vivid.
Lincoln Center fountain has some new tricks...
Including some very tall jets.
Chestnut blossoms last a long time. These were very droopy before the rain but are now upright.
Ajuga growing on a brick step.
Robin posing on a branch. I think this is a male--dark head and back.

Thursday, May 01, 2025

The Merrie Month of May.

5-1-24 SHORT HILLS: May is possibly the nicest month—lots of flowers, warm but not too hot, not too buggy. I have been doing chores, pruning mostly. I need to do spring fertilizing. PT and medical visits cut into my gardening time. 


Lily and Danna were here on Saturday for lunch in Millburn. Sunday we were in the city to visit Emmett and Anna and Gardner. Big plans are underway for Mom’s Day at Val’s in Brooklyn.


The sprinklers were started during the week, but Zone 2 isn’t working in spite of several attempts to start it. It may need new wiring. We did get a nice rain, 0.25 inches, a few days ago, but we need more.


New blooms: Carolina allspice, dogwood, red bud, ajuga, azalea, early rhodo, Korean spice viburnum, Siebold viburnum, nannyberry viburnum, double file viburnum, burning bush, wood hyacinth. 

Dogwood, the white 'petals' are actually bracts, bud covers, and the flower is just the center nodule.
Dogwood, different flavor.
Early Rhododendrum with a lot of pink.
Early rhodo, fully open, pink almost gone, not as dramatic.
Wood Hyacinth also available in white and pink.
Korean spice viburnum, a white ball, the format for many viburnums, lots of little white flowers with five petals and five stamens. It has a lovely aroma.
Double file viburnum is one of the exceptions to the white ball format. The outer, white petals are to attract pollinators to the small, inner parts of the flowers where fertilization happens.

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Spring in Full Swing.

4-23-25 SHORT HILLS: Our trip south was a little slow, but we shared the driving. I need to amend the last post to add blooms, yellow primrose and hellebore. There, conscience clear, no flowers should feel slighted. Also I saw two turtles sunning themselves, a school of fish in the big pond and lots of frogs in the upper pond—the frog opera has opened and is heard nightly.


From VT we traveled into the future in our Subaru time machine and ended up in NJ. It’s shirt sleeves and shorts weather here with lots of new blooms. I have been doing more trimming and pruning. The lawn guys have been here a few times to mow. One of the sick ash tree seems to have responded to the tree feeding we did, but two others not so much.  


Here we are both very impressed by the quince, which is loaded with flowers. The blooms open white, and after the bugs come by and pollinate the flower, it turns pink. Probably a signal to the other bugs that this flower has been taken care of. 


It’s very dry here, and the ground is dried out and cracks are forming. We need rain, and it’s predicted for Saturday. The sprinklers get opened next week. 


New blooms: saucer magnolia, barberry, blueberry, apple, Kwansan cherry,  Chinese snowball viburnum, yellow lamium, clatonia. 

The quince by the back door, covered in flowers.
Pulmonaria is doing a big show this year.
We have two saucer magnolias this one is densly packed in purple and whte.
Here's the yellow primrose. There will be lots more, but they will be done by the time we're back in VT in mid May.
While working in the driveway in front of the house I saw a big bird on the top of the dawn redwood, which is in back of the house, but the top is visible over the roof. I took pix with max zoom and got a decent one before the bird left. Red-tailed hawk.

Sunday, April 20, 2025

April in Vermont.

4-20-25 VERMONT: We’re here for what is basically a long weekend. We did get a lot done. Hiliary and Matt were here to do the clean up, clearing tons of dead fall. The exterminators were here the same day and sprayed the outside perimeter of the house. 


We have had cold weather and snow, warm days and windy days providing  a gamut of weather experiences. Speaking of snow, there are still piles of snow under the eaves on both sides of the house.


There is a wash out of the upper pond dam and waterfall, about 18 inches deep and a foot wide that will need a big repair. 


I did some apple tree pruning to remove part of the tree that grew over the blueberry bushes, and parts of other tree that grew into the pasture fence. I did some fence repair to leaning posts. There is always more stuff to be done, but we go back to NJ tomorrow. 


I forgot to mention in the last post—we loved “Pirates”. The show has emigrated from Penzance to New Orleans, which means that jazz has a place in the new production. The Major General is still a Model of Modernity.


The snowdrops are out all over the yard. I originally brought a hand full from our yard in NJ and planted them here, but now they are everywhere in the yard. The Rose-of-Sharon I transplanted here from NJ seem to have survived the winter.


New blooms: crocus, snowdrops, maple tree, elm tree. 

Song sparrow welcomed us back.
Crocus and snowdrops remind us that spring is on the way, even in VT.
Game cam from January. A fox crossing the upper pond in the snow.
Game cam from a week later in January, three deer crossing the upper pond dam. The fox tracks are still visible.
Game cam from this April with ice still on the lower pond in a snow storm.
Snow piles in front of the house.
Snow pile on the deck duriong snow flurry.
Snow piles still present.