Our Day on the Beach

Barnegat Light (Margo D. Beller)

One of the advantages of being semi-retired is being able to travel someplace on a nice weekday when most others are at work. So last Wednesday MH and I traveled to Barnegat Lighthouse, at the northern end of New Jersey's Long Beach Island.

Rock jetty toward harbor light with the cormorant. (Margo D. Beller)

It is a very long drive for us, which is why we come down here only once a year in the winter offseason to find sea ducks and, with luck, some of the land birds that like the dunes such as horned larks, Ipswich sparrows and snow buntings. While we've seen all three in the past we did not see them this time.

Nor did we see the lovely harlequin ducks, to my mind one of the prettiest ducks in this part of the country, although others told us they were in the channel in good numbers. But to see them we'd have had to climb atop the rock jetty, which is uneven and dangerous, as I found out years ago. MH and I have gotten unsteady as we've gotten older.

Instead, we saw what we could from the paved seawall and then walked down to the beach and out as far as we could in the wind. Back home it was nearly 80 degrees this February day but here it felt much cooler and I was glad to be wearing gloves.

Purple Sandpipers (Margo D. Beller)

While I did not see the harlequins, there was compensation. This picture above is of purple sandpipers that decided, for some reason, to fly from where they were on the rock jetty into the air where I could see them from the beach and quickly take their picture. There was the great cormorant, a winter visitor, showing its distinctive white side patch as it perched on a harbor light.

Harbor seal (Margo D. Beller)

There was the harbor seal that bobbed up for a moment before diving. There were those birds I expected: long-tailed ducks, red-breasted mergansers, black scoters, myrtle warblers in the trees next to the parking lot.

Finally, as we were leaving for our car, there were boat-tailed grackles serenading us as the sun dipped to the western horizon. It was a good day and since then we've had nothing but cold rain, making us glad we could go when we did.

Male boat-tails are dark, females are brown (Margo D. Beller)

Summer in December

The birds come to the seed feeder - titmice, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches and the occasional cardinal. If I'm lucky, a hairy or downy woodpecker will appear at the suet feeder. My presence on the enclosed porch is keeping the house finches and the horde of house sparrows at bay - the way I like it.

Blackcapped chickadee (Margo D. Beller)

I am blaring Santana into my ears to block out the lawn service - on a Sunday! - blowing the bits of leaves it didn't get last week off a neighbor's lawn, and my next door neighbor, who is screaming as loudly with delight as her toddlers.

If it wasn't for the fact it's dark by 5 pm you'd think it was summer. As I write, in mid-December, it is over 70 degrees in my part of New Jersey.

If there is one word I've used in the past few years to describe the weather pattern, it is "unnatural." Last year at this time we had a Thanksgiving snow storm in New Hampshire and then came weeks of intense, unrelenting cold back home in New Jersey. We learned a new phrase - polar vortex.

Now we've gone in the other direction. It is still not natural. It should not be 70 degrees now. I admit, it is a relief to not be shivering under several quilts and wearing four layers of clothes, keeping myself to my south-facing office. However, I get the feeling Mother Nature will say, "That's enough now, time for reality to return" and hit us with nor'easters, snow 6 inches deep and high temperatures in the single digits.

On the plus side, I can keep water out overnight for the birds. I can turn the dry and dusty heat off and keep a window open at night. But the bears are still out there seemingly unaffected by the longer bear hunt that started this year. I don't have to put the feeders out every day, but when I do they must still come in at night. If I take a walk in the woods I know I won't be finding any warblers or other summer birds because they left weeks ago.

December as I remember it - cardinal (Margo D. Beller)

I know winter is coming. It always comes. After much delaying I forced myself to winterize my gardens - extra deer netting over the fencing in the front garden and burlap on the back fencing. At some point it will get "seasonably" cold and hungry deer will be desperate. I don't want them interested in my evergreen shrubs.

At this point I could say something about global warming or climate change, and the new agreement hammered out by over 100 countries in Paris that likely won't be ratified by a Republican U.S. Congress in bed with industry and against any agreement worked out by our current Democrat in the White House.

But why bother - that would just solidify my image as a grouch, a Cassandra, some old woman who should play outside, grill a steak and wear shorts and flip-flops like my (younger) neighbors instead of fleece and enclosed shoes. Lighten up! You only live once!

Yeah, man. Don't I know it.

So bring on the 5 pm darkness that will send me, the lawn services and the parents and toddlers inside. Bring on the cold already. I'm ready for winter, if winter ever gets ready for me.