Trish & Anne RV Adventures

Our first order of business in this area was to drive out to Long Beach Island on Wednesday, May 7. Our friend Susan spends two weeks each summer on the island – she and her sister rent several houses and a bunch of the family gets together. We were able to drive the entire north end of the island with out stopping at a light, they were all blinking yellow – something that never occurs in the heat of the summer – and we had a gorgeous day!

Our first stop was the state park at Barnegat Light. We did not walk to the top – or even partway up. I did walk in and look-up – that was enough.

We did walk along the beach on the causeway, but besides some fishermen who weren’t catching anything, we mostly just enjoyed the scenery, which was beautiful.

There was a walk that was behind the dunes which we took. We saw beach heather and the largest holly tree we have ever seen – the sign said some of these were over 100 years old. There were also remnants of the structure that was built to build the jetty that now protects the light. It was done in 1939, because the land was eroding around the lighthouse. You can read more about it below – if you stretch your screen.

We got some lunch at Kubel’s – I had to take a picture of these two parts of the menu, as there were both pierogies and kielbasa available. If weren’t already planning a meal with both of these, I might have indulged – though shrimp scampi over pierogies sounds a little iffy – I guess it depends on the type of pierogi.

After lunch we took a walk on the beach and then drove to the south end of the island, enjoying looking at some of the houses along the way,

At the south end of the island we got a glimpse of Atlantic City, a flock of cormorants and these sanderlings enjoying the shore. They were in the blocked off area for the piping plovers, but these are not piping plovers – their beaks are too long.

We also enjoyed watching the waves roll in, and as we were leaving this guy was suited up to try his hand at surfing.

We didn’t have to leave our camp ground for birding – from sitting in our site I saw this gold finch, the egret, there were actually 2 families of Canada geese around and there were more catbirds than I could count.

And before we left the campground on Thursday, we walked out a trail to the marsh, where we saw this flock of glossy ibis.

Our goal for the day was to drive the 8-mile wildlife drive at the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge – which we did. I took 200 pictures, which I have distilled down to these for your viewing pleasure.

That’s an osprey on the nest with its partner standing watch.

Hermit crabs and glosy ibis

Some great egrets (yellow bills) and snowy egrets (black bills) and a red winged black bird (as we say – the bird whose name actually says what it looks like.)

The bigger black birds were hiding their bills, and we couldn’t figure out what they were – we had to look it up once they were flying and we decided they are black skimmers.

Shorebirds and osprey with Atlantic City in the background.

More shorebirds (you need an expert to tell what they are when you are so far away) and a whimbrel.

This gull was just sitting in the road – it didn’t bother to move as we drove by – and 50 more shorebirds.

At the very end of the drive we saw some great blue heron.

And back at the nature center, we saw some purple martins in the houses, and of course a sparrow who wanted to take over one of the houses.

By the way, on the way back to our campground, we did find a place to stop for some ice cream – it was Scoops, in Smithfield – a weird village full of “shoppes” built around an old inn – we don’t need to go back there.

We started Friday by driving back out to Long Beach Island and getting donuts from Ferrara’s, on the recommendation of our friend Susan. They were good!

When we drove the loop at the Edwin B. Forsythe Refuge I had picked up a brochure showing some of their other birding spots. We stopped at a couple of them but we didn’t see much – that’s a house finch, some shorebirds – probably some willets and pipers, and a great egret. We drove by this Tiki Bar, but didn’t stop in.

We got some pizza slices and then headed to Double Trouble State Park. It is in the pine barrens and supported an extensive lumber industry from the 1700s to the 1900s. As timber was cut, the cleared swampland created bog habitat ideal for growing cranberries, which began at Double Trouble Village in the 1860s. By the 20th century, the Double Trouble Company was one of the largest cranberry operations in the state. The cranberry industry ended at Double Trouble Village in the early 21st century. The park preserves many of the buildings. That’s the cranberry sorting and packing house (built in 1909 & 1916), the general store (built 1900), the bunk house (also 1900) and the school house (built in 1893 and used until 1914, then used to house seasonal workers.)

Here is the area that used to be the cranberry bog – I didn’t see anything that looked like the picture of the cranberry plants, although the placard did say there were still some growing there.

We walked a trail out to a small pond – saw this lady slipper and a gnatcatcher on the way. This little dam was there to control the irrigation and flooding of the bogs, and before that the water to run the sawmill.

We hit a little rain on the ride back to the RV and when we got there one of the set of goslings were all huddled together. May 9th was the fifth anniversary of my mother’s passing and in her honor we had pierogies and kielbasa for dinner. That was the end of our time north of Atlantic City.

Next up, NJ Shore – South of Atlantic City.

Til then, Safe Travels!