Ocean City Birds

We had another great New Jersey day today.  The temperature was in the mid-80's so time to head to the beach.  Our daughter has talked for years about the amazing bird rookery on the island which also houses the Ocean City welcome center.

 

Once I list the birds we saw, you will think we went to Florida.  Great Egret doing a mating display.

Yellow-crowned night heron

Black-crowned night heron

Tricolor heron

White ibis, along with some more yellow-crowned night herons.  And there were lots of glossy ibis but they were deep in the trees or flying around so it was hard to get a photo.

And we saw two families of Canada Geese with their very cute goslings

After getting very warm watching the birds we drove down to Corson's Inlet and took the short walk to the beach.

Hiking in Clayton Park

We explored another Monmouth County park today; one we had never been to before.  Clayton Park is about a half hour drive south of here.  I had read it is a good spot for wildflowers and we weren't disappointed.

The Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia in the Ranunculaceae)

and the Rue Anemone (Anemonella thalictroides in the Ranunculaceae) were new to me.

There were LOTS of Spring Beauties (Clayton virginica in the Portulacaceae)

and Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema atrorubens in the Araceae)

and Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus in the Araceae).

The trout lilies were just starting to bloom.

At the Jersey Shore

We had to go to a store in Point Pleasant today to look at patio furniture.  We are going to have to order furniture for our new deck at camp and wanted to see some examples.  So while we were there we of course had to go to the boardwalk for a walk, some boardwalk fries, Kohr's ice cream,

and a game of mini-golf.

Holland Ridge Farms

 We had a good New Jersey day today.  This afternoon we drove to Holland Ridge Farms in Cream Ridge to ogle and pick tulips.

Then since we were out anyway, we drove all the way to Neptune to get pizza at Pete & Elda's.  We drove to nearby Memorial Park on the Shark River to eat it.