npr, All Things Considered, July 12, 2009

On May 19th, I blogged about a Ruddy Turnstone and a Red Knot feeding on horse crab eggs on the Jersey side of the Delaware Bay. I was aware that the Red Knot populations have been decreasing since 1990; however I wasn't aware it's now a candidate species under the Endangered Species Act. Click here to read the story.

Feisty Fella

The migration North, to the breeding grounds in the Arctic, brings a variety of shore birds to the Delaware Bay. It serves as a stopover to feed on an important food resource, horseshoe crab eggs. This fella, a Ruddy Turnstone, wasn’t too pleased to have this Red Knot searching for eggs so close. Red scurried away after Ruddy tried to look for eggs on its head.

Simple Shoot

I headed down to Cape May point again, to shoot the light house at first light. I later made my way down the beach when I came across this American Oystercatcher who was more than willing to pose for the camera.

Hatchlings

I visited Cape May Point to scope out some locations for upcoming shoots. While I was at the Cape May Light House I had an opportunity to capture some images of this Mute Swan and her young. The little guy on the right was obviously looking for some attention.

Like Plucking Fish from a Barrel

As most of you know the weather hasn't been cooperating, heavy rains were making it nearly impossible to shoot wildlife. Wednesday was a little better, with overcast skies. I was itching to shoot, but I only had an hour before I had to be on the road. So I headed into the tidal ponds.

At first it seemed like the wildlife was still hunkered down from the storm the night before. But then a Great Egret flew right over my head and into the pond behind me. This was definitely the hot spot and this Egret made it look easy, like plucking fish from a barrel. I shoot for a solid hour before the sky opened up and it started to rain. Guess my hour was up anyway.

Imaged captured with Nikon D3, 500AFS