Family Photos from the Great Swamp NWR

July is a month of transition. Bird song will diminish as the month progresses and south bound migration will start heating up. Right now is a great time to get out and view all of the growing avian families. This morning, a drive on Pleasant Plains Road in the Great Swamp NWR from the Fenske Visitor’s center to the overlook displayed a family of 5 Orchard Orioles, 4 Eastern Kingbirds on a wire, 4 Brown Thrashers on the gravel road near the overlook, a parent Yellow Warbler feeding a newly fledged but still downy feathered HY (Hatchling Year) individual by Great Brook and freshly fledged members of every species everywhere one looked.

Brown Thrashers, Great Swamp NWR, July 1 ,2014 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

Eastern Kingbirds, Great Swamp NWR, July 1 ,2014 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

The Night-Herons of Parsippany

Photos by Chuck Hantis.

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron eating a crayfish at Jefferson Road Pond.

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Parsippany, NJ, July 1, 2014 (photo by Chuck Hantis)

One of the Black-crowned Night-Herons present at Jefferson Road Pond all spring and into the summer.

Black-crowned Night-Heron, Parsippany, NJ, July 1, 2014 (photo by Chuck Hantis)