We've been spending the week with my son's family in Long Beach Island. While most of our time has been devoted to the beach and fishing with grandson Riley, Sharon and I decided to make our way to Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge this morning. The day promised heat and green flies and we were not shortchanged on either account. Nonetheless, we managed to be on site by 8:00 AM and were well rewarded for our efforts. We were pleased to be able to introduce "the Brig" to a new birder, Eugene, whom we met at a birding outing yesterday at Holgate refuge on the south end of LBI. As we entered the refuge, we immediately came upon three new "lifers" for our friend....the White-eyed vireo, a fine Clapper rail, and great looks at the normally elusive Marsh wren.
Shortly after our initial walk down the Eco-trail with little interference from our green-headed nemeses, we faced the harsh reality of the Brig in summer and found ourselves confined to our vehicle with the windows tightly closed and the AC pumping out at full blast.
I fortunately had taken several shots with my Nikon at ambient temperature (including the chance meeting of a Snowy egret and an immature Little blue heron seen above), for after riding around in the comfort of the air conditioned car, I found that the lens of my camera quickly fogged up each time I stuck it out into the hot humid outside air. All the same, we had a great day with a tally of 45 birds and a chance encounter with one of our Birding Club members along the way. It just would not be right to be in south Jersey and not visit Brigantine.
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