Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey

If you ever find yourself in New Jersey, don’t you dare to think no good birding is available, ’cause not far from downtown, you can visit the Great Swamp… a sweet birding area with cool drives, trails and lots of birds!

I visited guided by the experienced Jane Kendall, who kindly took me around after I wrote requesting some information. I had landed from Bangkok the night -more like morning- before and even when I was pretty tired and cold, Jane’s friendly way and the fine birding warmed up to a great day

Canada Goose by Alex Vargas, USA 2008

The Swamps consists of 7,768 acres of varied habitats and it has a bird list of 245 species. There are some very well kept 15 km+ of trails around – including 2.5Km of cool boardwalks- and the local group of “Friends of the Great Swamp” guides and guards them pretty well as I noticed that day in April 2008… They organize all kind of activities -including an annual photo contest-  and run a visitor center that has a nice shop to give you the chance of helping and enjoying

Great Swamp NWR by Alex Vargas, USA 2008

There are many nesting boxes around that are used by Bluebirds, Swallows and Finches… By the way, the video of the Blue Birds nesting on a box, it’s displayed on the Refuge’s website.

Tree Swalow by Alex Vargas, USA 2008

If you are in the area, I surely recommend a visit to this cool site and try to support the many efforts of “The Friends“… It offers real good photographic chances and it is only 26 miles west of Manhattan’s Times Square

Here a few images I got that day…

Broad-winged Hawk by Alex Vargas, USA 2008

House Finch by Alex Vargas, USA 2008

Great Blue Heron 2 by Alex Vargas, USA 2008

White-breasted Nuthatch by Alex Vargas, USA 2008

Black-capped Chicadee by Alex Vargas, USA 2008

Wood Duck by Alex Vargas, USA 2008

Please excuse the low quality of the photos… besides the fact of not been much of a photographer at the time, I had no tripod and it was super cold for me after 2 years in the humid heat of Bangkok…

A few interesting links:

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatswamp/

http://www.friendsofgreatswamp.org/

http://www.njwildlifetrails.org/

http://www.njaudubon.org/SectionIBBA/IBBASiteGuide.aspx?sk=3157

I apologize for posting so late this week, but I guess we all can agree, this is the craziest of all weeks!
Special thanks to Jane Kendall… I hope to visit again soon and be better prepared to get the most of this birding hotspot

Happy Bird-Photo Adventures

HAPPY NEW YEAR!… might 2012 be a year of peace, prosperity and great birding adventures for all of us!

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Tagged as: Alex Vargas, bird-photo, Birding, Don Gato, Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey, Photography, USA