Diet And Travel

 I am sharing an overnight visit to Cape May/Atlantic City, New Jersey earlier in July. It was a pretty day to visit Cape May and the beach, I think I even got a little sunburnt.

A mosaic of the Cape May wildlife: Top Row is the Purple Martin house, Halloween Pennant Dragonfly, Sarah Fogartya Wren. Second Row : Black Crowned Night Heron, Muskrat, Bunny, Third Row: Least Tern, Oystercatcher, Black Skimmers. Bottom Row: Blue Grosbeak, Mute Swan, possibly Forster's Terns.

For my Skywatch shot, the Cape May lighthouse and the Purple Martin birdhouse.

You have to look closely for this fence, just a white string tied to the area closed sign. This is to protect the birds nesting on the beach and dunes.

Another sky shot,  hubby and I sat on our beach chairs watching the waves. A few dolphins swimming by and the planes with their advertisements.

The Least Terns recognizable with the white spot on their foreheads. LOL, do birds even have foreheads? My birds posts are just for fun and I hope the serious birders do not find my post on the birds, their birdie parts and or how I type their names unacceptable. I guess they are skipping the part, that I admit I am blogging just for fun, I am an amateur photographer and I must admit sometimes I might miss a spelling error or put a dash on a bird's name when it does not belong.

Which leads me to bird slang, are you a birder or a birdwatcher? Maybe you are a twitcher or a dude.  Definition of a Dude: a low-keyed birdwatching hobbyist with a lack of devotion or enthusiasm.  A dude, really? Why bother birdwatching if you are not enthused with the birds? I love all the birds and wildlife, my favorite thing to do is go out and look for any species of wildlife. Maybe I am not understanding the definition of a Dude, could I be a dude-woman? I found this link with bird slang check it out Bird slang

A fence scene and a happy couple walking down the trail to the beach.  I hope you enjoyed our Cape May visit.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos. Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments.

Hubby and I enjoyed an ovenighter to the Jersey Shores.. We started out at Barnegat Lighthouse and beach and then worked our way back down to Atlantic City, New Jersey were we spent the night.

Barnegat Lighthouse and the beach are my go to spot to see the winter ducks..I was a little disappointed with the amount of Harlequin Ducks, usually we would see them all along the rock jetty. This visit we saw a few out in the ocean but nothing like the quantity we saw in past years.

When we checked the weather before leaving they were calling for sunny weather, I think someone goofed.. It was mostly cloudy at Barnegat..My sky and fence shots are of the Barnegat Lighthouse..

Another shot looking back at the lighthouse and a few Savannah Sparrows..also known as Ipswich Sparrow.. a lighter colored Savannah which is seen on the coast..The fences along the jetty wall are there to protect peeps from falling on the rocks and into the water..

Another distant shot of the lighthouse, a few male Harlequin Ducks and bottom right are some Common Eider..

Our cloudy sky at Barnegat Beach.. the wind picked up too. I think the weather arrived a day early.  At least it did not rain, I am looking on the positive side.. We missed seeing a lot of the usual ducks like the Long-tailed Duck and the Scoters.. We left Barnegat Beach and started our drive south again, we made a quick stop at Edwin Forsythe NWR which will be another post.. But, I have a sky shot from the wildlife refuge..

I hope you enjoyed the first part of our getaway and photos.. Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments..I hope you enjoyed your visit.

At the Barnegat Lighthouse beach  we saw the Common Loon, Long-tailed Ducks and Harlequin Ducks. Lots of Scoters, Brants and Sanderlings and gulls.

Two Long-tailed Ducks with a Harlequin duck in the middle.. This was one of the only Harlequins I sighted at Barnegat this visit. In past years I have seen higher counts.  I wonder if something is happening to them?

At Barnegat the Mergansers were plentiful..

Snowy Owl on the roof of the Edwin Forsythe NWR visitor center.

This is this third Snowy Owl I have seen since late November. The first sighting was in Delaware, second sighting was in Maryland and this last Snowy Owl was in New Jersey.. They seem to be everywhere  this winter..

 

Above is a view of the sunset from our room, a shot of the Taj Mahal Casino and the almost full moon.

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Thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your comments.

There is a boardwalk that meanders thru the Cape May park.  Cape May is a great place for birding. There are always great birds to see in Cape May. The sky was a beautiful blue and not a cloud in the sky.

I am linking up my travels with Scenic Sunday

Last Sunday and Monday hubby and I enjoyed an overnight at the Showboat Hotel and Casino. They offer great deals for their hotel rooms on the internet for Sundays- Thursdays. We had a room on the 20th floor with a slight view of the ocean and a great view looking toward the sunset and the bayside.

 

This was the part of the view from our room. The first evening it was a little foggy. Dinner was at the House of Blues restaurant. Nothing fancy I had a great salad and pizza and hubby had the ribs.

We also had a view of the wind farm , which is located on the bayside. Across from the wind farm is the Edwin Forsythe NWR.

 


We were out on the boardwalk early in the morning this is the Showboat Casino and the new casino-hotel called the Revel. We had a great breakfast at the Johnny Rockets restaurant in the Showboat. I enjoyed the little view we had of the beach and ocean while we were eating our breakfast.

 

Above is a view of the boardwalk and casinos it includes the Taj Mahal towers and the Showboat.

 This is Trump's Taj Mahal Hotels and casino. The Taj Mahal hotel has two towers. I really like the design of Trump's hotel& casino, but we were very happy with our room at the Showboat.



We were up early to watch the sunrise on Atlantic City's famous beach.

The new hotel-casino called the Revel has a ball on the top which turned colors in the shot above the ball is green. It reminded me of a large golf ball?

While we were there on the beach watching the sunrise the ball turned green, blue and red. It would be cool to stay a night in this beautiful new hotel. It seems to be the tallest hotel/casino in Atlantic City.

Before we checked out of the Showboat, I got some more shots of  Atlantic City's skyline and beach.

Another view from the Showboat was the lighthouse on the bayside.

Thanks for stopping by my post. 

In this mosaic I have the Purple Martin birdhouse and the Cape May Lighthouse, Swallowtail butterfly, one of the many bunnies we saw,  a few baby geese, and the beach.

I hope you enjoyed my Cape May photos.    I hope everyone has a great day.

These are some shots I took of last Saturday's sunrise while my hubby was driving. We were on the way to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park in New Jersey. LOL, it is not very easy to take clear photos while the car is moving 65 miles an hour. Oh, and I almost forgot my left hand is still in a splint. So I was trying to take these shots one handed with the car moving. They might not be the sharpest shots but I just love the colors.

Click on the photos for a larger image







To see more beautiful skies from around the world, check out Skywatch Friday. Thanks to the hosts: Sylvia, Wren, Sandy, Fishing Guy and Klaus. Thank you for stopping by my skywatch and I hope you have a great weekend.