After another so-so sunrise, I went to Terrapin, which was a bit livelier than yesterday. There were 19 Egrets, several Ospreys and at least four Green Herons. Only one Tern showed up, but a couple of Butterflies and Dragonflies were around as well.

I decided to give CBEC a try as well. The heat and humidity have greatly diminished for the moment. Although there were some good birds there, they stayed quite distant, and I didn’t get much. The Kingfisher was a nice find, as they have been missing in most of the places I usually find them.

Sunrise at Sandy Point.

Forster’s Terns are becoming more common.

I found this Goldfinch at CBEC.

I’m seeing fewer Great Blue Herons than usual.

This is a young Laughing Gull.

A single Osprey was fishing in the big pond.

There were 25 Snowy Egrets present today.

This Snowy Egret was trying to intimidate a rival.

This Green Heron landed right behind me.

Today’s bugs.

This is a Common Buckeye.

The sunrise was kind of blah again, but Terrapin was more interesting.

I thought I saw a Mallard hanging out with Egrets, but a closer look  showed it be a Shoveler. It looked like a hen to me, but apparently it’s a male in eclipse plumage.

A young Eagle also put on a show, and there were more Terns than usual.

A new butterfly and a bullfrog rounded out the morning.

Sunrise at Sandy Point.

Cell phone image of the Marsh Pond.

Green Herons are still plentiful.

Snowy Egrets at dawn.

There’s still only one Great Egret hanging around.

Ospreys will be with us well into October.

Sometimes an Osprey seems to be looking right at you.

This immature Bald Eagle was checking out the scene.

This is a Forster’s Tern.

Caspian Terns were fishing alongside the Forster’s.

Snowy Egrets will be plentiful for a while.

This Northern Shoveler is probably an early migrant.

This is a Skipper.

This is a Red Spotted Purple, a butterfly I haven’t seen before.

This Bullfrog is always in the same spot.

The Sandy Point sunrise was good enough, if not as spectacular as I prefer.

Terrapin was much slower than yesterday, but Sandpipers are finally starting to appear. The weather continues to suck-hot and humid even at 5:00 AM.

Sunrise at Sandy Point.

The Wild Turkey has long been a nemesis bird for me, so I was glad to get even these poor low light images.

Two Caspian Terns showed up again.

There’s still only one Great Egret hanging around.

There were fewer Snowy Egrets than yesterday.

This Snapping Turtle is a shot I forgot to post yesterday.

Today’s bugs.

Sandy Point coughed up a decent sunrise this morning, and it must have been a message to the birds, because I had my best day in a while.

There weren’t a lot of birds at Terrapin, but the ones that were there put on a good show, and that’s what a nature photographer needs. You can only take so many shots of a bird at rest before you want something more.

Sunrise at Sandy Point.

Snowy Egrets are dominating the marsh ponds.

Green Herons seem more plentiful than in past years.

A few Caspian Terns always fish in the pond for a short while.

This Bald Eagle was looking for an Egret breakfast.

Yet another hot and very humid day, even at 5:00 AM. I’ll be glad to see the end of this heat wave.

I decided to give Greenbury Point a try, as it’s close and I knew I wouldn’t be out long. It was actually very birdy compared to recent visits, and I saw some birds I haven’t seen in a while.

I chased bugs and butterflies for a while also. All in all, a decent morning.

There are many Goldfinches at Greenbury.

I saw at least two Ruby Throated Hummingbirds.

Greenbury Point always has a resident Indigo Bunting.

Brown Thrashers haven’t been very common recently.

I haven’t seen an Eastern Kingbird for a while.

Orchard Orioles seem to nest at Greenbury.

Today’s bug.

Today’s flowers.

I think I haven’t mentioned how hot and humid it’s been lately. It was pushing 80/80 by the time I got to Sandy Point at 5:15 am, and it was near 90 by 9:00.

This is making for short days.We dealt with this crap daily in Vietnam, but someone recently reminded me that was nearly 50 years ago, and I’m a bit older now.

Anyway, it was the usual suspects today, with no real surprises, but I did spend a little time looking for bugs.

Sunrise at Sandy Point.

Caspian Terns were fishing in the marsh pond.

A single Great Egret was fishing.

Only one Great Egret was present this morning.

There were 9 Snowy Egrets foraging this morning.

It’s odd to see Turkey Vultures on a Wood Duck box.

Two Barn Swallows successfully drove this Turkey Vulture out of the area.

Today’s bugs.

Sunrise was kind of blah this morning. I stuck around for a while, but nothing materialized, so I got to Terrapin early. A couple of eagles flew off as I arrived, and egrets continue in large numbers.

CBEC was not as good as it should have been.

This Osprey has done well.

CBEC is the place to find Brown Headed Nuthatches.

It was tough to get a good image of this Green Heron in the morning light.

This Laughing Gull is molting.

This Ring Billed Gull was at CBEC.

I just barely caught this Bald Eagle as he was flying away.

I saw about 15 Snowy Egrets at Terrapin.

This probably a Greater Yellowlegs.

This Caspian Tern was fishing at Terrapin.

Today’s bugs.

I had to work this morning, so I planned an abbreviated day-Sandy Point and Greenbury Point. I was hoping to find some butterflies and was only partly successful. We’re still in the birding doldrums.

I made a brief stop at Jonas Green on the way home, but it was pretty dead there as well.

Sunrise at Sandy Point.

A couple of cell phone images.

These Snowy Egrets were fishing from the rocks at Sandy Point.

This Indigo Bunting is molting.

You don’t often see an Osprey photo with trees in the background.

This Great Blue Heron was unusually cooperative

Skippers at Greenbury Point.

I got started too late to catch the sunrise this morning, and went directly to Terrapin. The weather was good, cooler than usual and reasonable humidity, but there wasn’t much variety on the birding front.

I did see 19 Egrets, which is a lot, and a few Terns and Gulls. but it was otherwise ordinary. Fall migration starts soon, so things will improve.

The marsh pond.

This Great Blue Heron flew the length of the pond.

This Caspian Tern stayed at the far end of the pond.

This is a Laughing Gull.

Another successful Osprey.

The Snowy Egrets were very curious about this turtle,

I saw two Green Herons.

I’ve seen only a few Monarch Butterflies so far.

Dragonflies are still plentiful.

I heard about an Ibis at Schoolhouse Pond yesterday, so Graeme and I took a chance and met there early this morning. We found them after about an hour, with the help of a fellow birder. It’s rare to find this bird so far from the coast in our area.

A few other birds cooperated, so it was quite a successful outing.

Schoolhouse Pond.

This Great Blue Heron greeted us.

These Mallards were probably all born this year.

This Red Winged Blackbird seemed to be observing us.

We saw 2-3 Spotted Sandpipers.

This Great Egret found a fishing spot and stayed there for several hours.

We saw three Ospreys fishing.

Two Glossy Ibis were foraging in the pond.

These Turtles were enjoying the sunshine.