BCDC photo trip to Ocean City Welcome Center Rookery, NJ on June 29, 2024 – led by Adrian Binns, with Jim Joyce, Andy and Mariana Pesthy.
This famed wader colony hosted hundreds of egrets, herons, and ibis, creating a wonderful spectacle of nesting bird activity. The trip was timed for the latter part of the breedingseason with many offspring now 3-5 weeks old. They have fledged their nest but are still begging incessantly to be fed.
White Ibis were the most numerous with many juveniles following adults to forage, or waiting in the cedar trees for parents to return and regurgitate food. A few adult White Ibis were still in full breeding colour, showing vivid rare bare parts, while most others were starting to pale as the season progresses.
We enjoyed watching many family groups of Snowy Egrets with a handful of Great Egrets, Black-crowned Night-Herons, Little Blue Herons and Tricolored Herons. All were busy tending young, looking for food, or flying back and forth from the colony to the surrounding salt marsh.
Most of the young waders were approaching adult-size, though we saw one Black-crowned Night-Heron on a nest with a small, newborn chick. We observed Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and Great Egret bringing in sticks to a nest, perhaps starting their second broods of the season.
This wondrous wader colony provides excellent viewing and photography, due to close proximity and ample activity. It was a great BCDC trip!
Check out the eBird checklist.
