We had a heck of a nor'easter in the form of Jonas two weeks ago. People talk about hurricanes, but it is the fall and winter northeast storms that do the most work on the south Jersey coastline. North Wildwood had record high tides during Jonas, higher than superstorm Sandy and higher than the great storm of 1962.
[Trying to be sensible, I holed up with the dog during Jonas. . .for a while. My many feeders were getting pounded; later in the week even a female Yellow-headed Blackbird appeared for a brief visit (she's not in this photo). Click to enlarge all photos. Del Haven, NJ, January 23, 2016.]
Of course, one must see what's going on outside when the winds are topping 60 mph and we're getting hit with 3 consecutive full moon high tides, right?
[Northern Harrier over the flooded marshes of Nummy Island during the northeaster. The harriers concentrated on the causeway for hunting, because that's where the rodents had to go.]
[This American Oystercatcher seemed quite shell-shocked from the storm. Nummy Island the Saturday of the storm.]
[After the storm passed, this male Long-tailed Duck bizarrely appeared on tiny "Lake Champlain," a detention pond in the Villas. He was stuck there for a day, because the pond was 90% frozen and there was no room for diving ducks to patter across the surface to take off. He made for a strange trio of species, with American Coot and Mallard. . .]
[In the aftermath of Jonas, hundreds of knobbed whelk shells were found deposited on Cape May beaches, like this scene at Two Mile Beach, where the video at the start of this blog was taken.]
[Two Red Knots and one of the 10's of thousands of Knobbed Whelk shells, Two Mile Beach.]
[Two weeks later, today, we had another big tide, this one associated with the morning's new moon. This scene is at Nummy Island at high tide. I did find 3 Saltmarsh Sparrows and 1 Seaside Sparrow along the causeway.]
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