LINK LIZARD SATURDAYS

LINK LIZARD- wHaT I fOuNd iNtErEsTiNg tHis wEeK

http://tinyurl.com/goldeneagle-kill

http://tinyurl.com/pic-of-a-marvelous-spatuletail

http://tinyurl.com/northern-gannet-release-story

http://preview.tinyurl.com/Last-Birder-in-the-Woods

A horse is a horse, of course, of course, unless it’s a horseshoe crab!

I apologize for not posting these past few weeks.  My family and I have been under the weather for a portion of that time.  I refused to go to the doctor after a 4 day fight with a flu bug.  I know that was me being a bird brain.  But I did it out of fear of being accused of fraternizing with pigs and birds of notorious nature.  In addition to all of those accuses for not posting I also was away on business for a week in Lancaster.

After being kept inside for so long my wife insisted that we get outside.  She really wanted to see the horseshoe crab and Red Knot phenomenon on the shores of New Jersey.  So we took a weekend and headed down to Heislerville in southeastern Cumberland County.

It was a beautiful day and we scored tons of shorebirds. 

At East Point the horseshoe crab mania was a delight for the wife and kids.

Kids will gravitate towards nature if you give them an opportunity to experience it.

We did our part and turned over the many stranded head over heals crabs on the shore.

This little guy was a surprise delight.

I picked up a really great and inspirational book on Saturday.  The title of the book is Discovery by John K. Terres.  I’m not sure if it is even in print anymore.  I picked it up at a one of my favorite book stores, the Book Garden in Cream Ridge, N.J. I want to share a quote from one of the many great Naturalist stories contained in the book.  Dr. Clarence Cottam said, “Nature is, itself, a great story book, continuously open for all to read and learn from, to discover and enjoy.”  That my friends is the inspirational quote for the week.  Remember to allow the time for your children to check out the the book of Nature, which inspires curiosity and healthy respect for the world. 

LINK LIZARD SATURDAYS

LINK LIZARD- wHaT I fOuNd iNtErEsTiNg tHis wEeK

http://blogs.courierpostonline.com/wingedwonders/

http://www.nps.gov/findapark/index.htm

http://tinyurl.com/inspiring-6th-grader-s-words

http://tinyurl.com/shadecoffee

http://tinyurl.com/folgers1

http://tinyurl.com/folgers2

LINK LIZARD SATURDAYS

LINK LIZARD- wHaT I fOuNd iNtErEsTiNg tHis wEeK

http://tinyurl.com/memorial-day-notes

http://tinyurl.com/May-18-1929-the-day-the-birds

http://tinyurl.com/duck-pad-in-DE

http://tinyurl.com/to-tree-or-not-to-tree

http://tinyurl.com/Feds-managing-migratory-birds

http://tinyurl.com/fledging-birders-challenge

http://tinyurl.com/environmental-gen-amnesia

http://tinyurl.com/BoyScouts-Bird-Study-Badge

http://tinyurl.com/I-feel-smaller-than-a-red-knot

New Egypt Day Festival and friends

We here at Vagrants, Vagabonds, and migrant Visitor birds met and greeted hundreds of people at our Bluebird awareness table this past Saturday, May 16th, in Plumsted township.  It was a beautiful day and we met some beautiful people of the community. 

What was surprising or not too surprising was the amount of people that showed such great interest in our town’s Eastern Bluebird population and the bewilderment on the faces of some when we told them of the existence of these bright balls of blue in our area.  One of our driving passions is to reach people, children in particular, and encourage that curiosity and new found interest in bird watching.  At the festival we raffled off 2 copies of Kenn Kauffman’s bird field guides( English and Spanish versions) and a Bluebird basket containing a Bluebird book by the Stokes.

After the close of the festival we determined the winners and contacted one of the families that had won the Bluebird basket.  Their daughter Lawron had won the basket and my wife had asked them, “If they wanted to see a Bluebird at Colliers Mills WMA?”  We gained so much inspiration and satisfaction from the experience of sharing the afternoon bird walk with this family of 4. 

 The Bluebirds weren’t hard to find and neither were the smiles on the two young girls’ faces as they got up close views of nature and built lifetime memories of first ever sightings of our Avian friends.  One of my favorite quotes is from author Richard Louv, “We only value what we know and what we love.”  That’s plain common sense.  But seeing how much a brief walk in the woods can do for a family is inspirational; shared experiences, learned passions and respect, and lifetime memories.  The lesson of the day is to go birding, and take a friend or in our case a whole new family of friends.  A brief list of our highlight birds are below.

Location: Colliers Mills WMA

Observation date: 5/16

Notes: Sunny late afternoon.

Life birds for new found friends: 6

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Kingbird

Eastern Phoebe

Great Blue Heron

Baltimore Oriole

Life bird for me even: 1

Common Nighthawk-flying in a clear sunny sky over the lake

LINK LIZARD SATURDAYS

LINK LIZARD SATURDAYS- wHaT I fOuNd iNtErEsTiNg tHis wEeK

http://tinyurl.com/piping-plovers-video

http://tinyurl.com/Why-Hunting-isn-t-all-Bad

http://tinyurl.com/No-Child-Left-Inside

I and the Bird #100: The NBN Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence

If you have been reading my blog most likely your interests are bird related.  But I bet that you read more than one bird blog and that you also enjoy all things outdoors . 

Well I have took the plunge and participated in the latest craze of bird blog carnivals.  Which is basically a fun place in the World Wide Web that holds a carnival and all of us Bird bloggers submit posts to be viewed by all who attend the carnival site. 

Lately my timing has been great and joining this year’s I and the Bird blog carnival is no exception.  It is the 100th edition of the carnival. 

“I and the Bird is the blog carnival devoted to wild birds and birding. This biweekly showcase of the best bird writing on the web celebrates the interaction of human and avian. I and the Bird also happens to be, now that Tanged Bank has run its course, the oldest active nature-related blog carnival.”

So sit back and click to new fields of vision.  The carnival is a place to discover new like minded individuals who share your passion for our avian creatures and the culture that surrounds them.  Take the plunge and visit: 

http://natureblognetwork.com/blog/i-and-the-bird-100-the-nbn-award-for-outstanding-achievement-in-the-field-of-excellence/