Day 239: August 26th – Celery Farm

A most pleasant sunny, warm day

       

       As we headed back north from our two day stint with friends down in southern Jersey, we decided upon a short detour off the Garden State Parkway, onto Route 17 North, and into Allendale.  One of our favorite birding spots in Jersey has to be the Celery Farm which we have covered earlier in this blog.  We’re still waiting for the fall migration to begin in earnest.  Reports from some locations like the Bashakill have the migration moving along quite nicely, but today at the Celery Farm, it was pretty darn quiet.

       When we first entered the park, we did have some activity in the form of several chickadees bouncing around from limb to limb in dark shade.  It was hard enough following them, but trying to get them in the frame long enough to allow the Nikon to focus upon them was another thing.  I decided upon the built in flash to help brighten them up given the subdued lighting.  Finally, I did get a couple of shots, but it was a lot of work for a bird I see regularly outside my windows at the feeders.

       Gray catbirds and a faintly singing Eastern wood pewee joined in and gave us a false sense of optimism re the birding conditions at the farm today.  As we hiked around the pond, things just seemed to grow more and more silent.  Granted we were entering the hottest part of the day and the temps were working up into the high 80s, so we might have done better earlier or later in the day.  But….it is what it is, and we had to move on.

       We did have some other critters to observe and to photograph.  This Green darner is always a pleasure to see even if it is one of the more common dragonflies in these parts. 

       Another colorful addition to the portfolio of the day was the Painted Lady which adorned these beautiful purple blossoms.  Many birders turn to dragonflies and butterflies to occupy their time in the heat of August, and it certainly is a pastime well worth the time and effort expended.

       Finally, on the way home, we drove through Harriman State Park along the newly paved (thank God and Governor Cuomo) Seven Lakes Drive.  A short stop at Silvermine recreation area yielded little in the way of birds but gave us a nice landscape shot to round out the day.