Silver Lake Nature Center

On March 27, 2010, nine people joined Naturalist, Bob Mercer, on a Silver Lake Nature Center sponsored field trip.

The first stop, ostensibly a rest stop, was at the Warren E. Fox Nature Center in Estelle Manor County Park near May’s Landing, NJ. The nature center is a small old style center with lots of cool stuffed animals and home-made exhibits. The staff was warm and friendly and encouraged us to visit the snakes and other creatures on display in the back sun porch. As we got out of the car, an Eastern Phoebe sang the glories of spring announcing one of the earliest spring migrants was already home and setting up its territory.

Leaving Estelle Manor, we headed down Rt. 50 to the L. G. McNamara Wildlife Management Area. The two mile of rutted dirt road brought us to the first of several impoundments overlooking the tidal marshes of the Little Egg harbor Bay. At the first impoundment, one chocked with weeds, the Wood Frogs where deafening. R. Mercer brought out his newest toy, a parabolic microphone system and tape recorder and captures several minutes of the noise.

Getting to the impoundments, we found a smattering of ducks, but nowhere near what we have in the past. The warm weather had moved the waterfowl out already. The first Osprey of the year did give us a great view as we recorded birds like Northern Pintail, Common Merganser, Hooded Merganser, Green-winged Teal, and Northern Shoveler.

The McNamara Wildlife Management Area has two distinct units, each with a series of waterfowl impoundments. We visited all of them, though skipping past several which were essentially empty of birds. Each area did provide something of interest, including a Hermit Thrush and later a Brown Thrasher seen along the side of the road.

After eating lunching along the impoundments, we made a dash for Belleplain State Forest a convenient rest stop on the way to the Delaware Bay shore. We stopped at a number of the observation towers and lookouts slowly adding species to our list.

Before heading to the primary and final destination, we swung out to the Delaware Bay at East Point Lighthouse where the still water didn’t have a single bird on it no matter which direction one looked. Discouraged and about the leave, I took one last look to the north and a white splotch way off in the distance caught my attention. On the far shore, certainly too far to really enjoy, there was a flock of about 2,000 Snow Geese, a new species for the day.

The heavy rains of this spring has the Heislerville Impoundment full, so there were few shorebirds, not like other years when it has been packed. The only shorebirds were a pair of Killdeer, a bird that nest on the Heislerville parking lot many years and a lone Greater Yellowlegs. We did add Double Crested Cormorant, Black-crowned Night Heron and some Tree Swallows to our list.

Most of the group stayed together and had a nice meal at a nearby restaurant before making the trek home. While it was not a red-letter day, any time we can get out and enjoy nature with some wonderful people is a great day. We ended the day with just 60 species, but we were still happy and sunburned by the end.

Our more serious photographers were unable to come on this trip, so there are only a few pictures to tell the tale.