Wesley Lake 6/11-- Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow

I probably wouldn't have made a special trip up to Wesley Lake in Ocean Grove this year to see the Cliff Swallows that nest there under one of the arched concrete bridges, but since a dental appointment in Sea Girt had me only 13 minutes away (excluding the wrong turn I always make of Rte 71), I drove up there late this morning. At first I saw no swallows, but after figuring out the parking payment machine a swallow flew right over my head. Looked good and I followed it as it swooped over the the grassy area across the street and then when it landed on a chain blocking access to a path. Was I having the good fortune of actually see a Cliff Swallow in non-motion? All the times I have gone there I have been lucky if I got a blurry shot of one zipping over the water. And, disappointingly, this bird turned out to be a Barn Swallow as it had no "headlight" on the crown. 

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

In fact, all the swallows swooping over the water and lawns looked like Barn Swallows to me--even the ones without the deep swallow-tails were obviously juveniles since I could see white spots on their tails. But finally, as I stood on the bridge I saw one with an obvious white spot and then later I could see swallows flying up into the recesses of the arches where they presumably nest. So, no pictures of Cliff Swallows. But I did get the best pictures of Northern Rough-winged Swallows I've ever taken, so that was a little bonus. The other entertainment there was watching an Osprey pick a huge fish right out of the lake by just letting its talons graze the surface of the water. 

Least Tern

My next stop was a few miles south at the Shark River, another annual visit where I like to look at the Least Tern colony. They were there, in good numbers, though this year I must have been a little early for the nestlings to have arrived since all I saw were adults courting each other with one feeding the other a small fish. I listed 40 terns, which broke the eBird filter. Forty Least Tern probably would be alot anywhere else in Monmouth County, but the filter doesn't allow for the one nesting site in the vicinity. A couple of American Oystercatchers were present, one sitting on a nest too. There are sometimes Black Skimmers there, to round out the nesting colony, but not this time. 

American Oystercatcher

On nest