Great Swamp
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Great Swamp
It’s already been two five weeks since we visited Great Swamp NWR. So these pictures are really out of date in the rapid advance of spring.For instance, whatever was holed in here may have emerged by now.
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Two Turtles
How wonderful to be away from the tyranny of the Eastern Red-eared-slider! Great Swamp NWR management in fact urges you to report sightings of these invasive creatures. Meanwhile, the Swamp offers up several native species of turtles. On our recent trip, we saw a lot of Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta).Not unknown in NYC waters, the…
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Snakes on Monday
Two variations on Northern Water Snakes (Nerodia sipedon). The first was warming up ashore on a cool spring morning. The second was swimming between the sedge tussocks.New Jersey has 22 species of snakes, according to a NJ Fish & Wildlife pamphlet we picked up at Great Swamp NWR. Historically, there was at least one more,…
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May Day
Amidst clusters of purple Viola in Green-Wood, a lone blue. Variation? Different species? A Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon): the azure is on the inside.Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) paints the sky blue. A Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) in the Great Swamp brings us back to the pinkish.
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Poison Ivy
The bright shiny new leaves of Toxicodendron radicans in its tree-climbing vine form.
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Raptor Wednesday
A field trip to Great Swamp NWR was a field day for raptors. There were several road-side Red-tailed along the way as well as inside the NWR’s bounds. A pair of soaring birds turned out to be a Sharp-shinned and a Broad-winged. We saw a Merlin and a Kestrel. Two birds that were probably a…
Backyard and Beyond 