Wednesday
morning on June 20 started out like any other, ordinary day. My alarm
clock buzzed at 5 a.m., and I jumped out of bed chipper as a bird,
ready to greet the day.
Well,
most of that is true. I did wake up at 5 a.m., though that’s a very
rare occurrence for me, and I was giddy about the day’s upcoming
events. But I wasn't really feeling as peppy as a fowl. I
was, however, gearing up for a two-hour “Early Bird” ornithology
boat tour at Cattus
Island County Park in
Toms River.
After
guzzling down some coffee, putting on my best nature touring clothes:
shorts and a light-colored T-shirt to deflect the sun’s hot rays
(the forecast predicted over 90-degree weather), I drove up the
Garden State Parkway to Toms River.
 |
| Photo by Kelley Anne In search of food, an osprey takes flight from its south tower nest. |
Upon entering the park grounds with
time to spare, the worry of missing the 7 o’clock boat melted away.
Surrounded by beautiful, lush vegetation and sparkling bay water, I
couldn’t think of anything more soul soothing than spending the
morning with nature.
Betty
“C,” a
six-passenger pontoon boat, pulled away from its Silver Bay dock just
after 7 a.m. with exactly six passengers on it, including naturalist
Pat Korotky, who has been working at the county park for the past 20
years, and Captain Mike Marotta, who’s better known for manning the
park department’s Bay
Cruiser tour
boat.
“I
used to drive the boat, but that was before the county tightened up
the rules. Now we have licensed captains,” said Korotky, motioning to
Marotta. “It used to be whoever could drive the boat, drove
the boat,” she added with a chuckle.
“I’ve
been working with the county for about 10 years,” remembered Marotta.
“I drove the boat we rented out to the park before the park even
bought it... It’s a nice job,” he added placidly.
Binoculars were handed out
immediately to those who hadn’t brought their own pair – a
necessity for bird watching. After spending the first fifteen minutes
trying to adjust the focus of the viewfinder, Korotky kindly informed me
that I was wearing the binoculars backwards. (I thought those birds
seemed rather far away!)
Slowly
motoring past the marsh, where the county park recently received
permission from the state to maintain a no-wake zone in the effort to
minimize erosion of the bank caused by fast-moving boats, Korotky pointed
out a number of birds. Belted kingfishers were spotted zipping about,
and swallows were seen nesting on the sides of the eroded cliffs of
the marshland. Pat supplemented the tour with her copy of The
Sibley Guide to Birds so
we could all see pictures of the different species and better
understand what we were looking at.
 | ||
Naturalist Pat Korotky fishes out trash from the surrounding marsh. |
As we rounded a corner of the marsh,
making our way into Barnegat Bay, a great egret was seen strutting
along the water’s edge, fishing for breakfast. Korotky informed us that
the egret’s breeding plumes were picked for lady’s hats in the
Victorian era, which started the Audubon Movement, nicknamed after
bird artist John James Audubon whose work inspired the campaign for
an end to the unhampered slaughter of birds.
A few minutes later, a fellow
passenger sighted an osprey perched on one of the park’s manmade
nesting platforms, built by park members or local volunteer clubs. It
had been dressed up with large sticks, plastic, string and whatever
else the birds had found suitable for a home. Both the mother and the
father of the species take turns guarding the nest, though the mother
is usually there 70 percent of the time.
Ospreys were nearly extinct in the
1960s when New Jersey only had 16 pairs. Pat said the birds had been
killed after the use of a DDT insecticide to rid mosquitoes. The
insecticide seemed to have created a disturbance in the metabolism of
calcium, and many ospreys couldn’t produce eggs. DDT insecticides
were banned in 1973, and the increase of ospreys has since then grown
to 498 pairs – just a couple pairs short of the 500-pair historical
level. An excited Pat even said she was going to learn how to band
the birds, a technique used to aid in the study of avian wildlife.
In the distance, a pair of tangled
balloons was spotted struggling in the estuary, which everyone was
pretty upset to see. After detangling the deflated party balloons
from the grass, Korotky explained her dismay for the litter.
“Marsh
is a good filter, but it also filters out debris into the bay, and
birds and fish get tangled in it and can die,” she said.
The tour moved on to happier
thoughts, and images of bubbly-sounding wrens, great black-backed
gulls (the world’s largest gull species), blue herons and terns.
Beautiful swans were also spotted, but Korotky explained that this
non-native species takes habitat away from many of the native species
that have been here since colonial times. Luckily, the swan
population is not out of control. But according to Korotky, population of
the Canada geese is out of control. She said they’re a nuisance,
which is unfortunate because no one really knew they would reproduce
so much.
Another species especially
over-populated is the sea nettle jellyfish, which of course isn’t a
bird at all. But Pat said it’s an important issue and people are
trying to figure out why there are so many of them in Barnegat Bay.
Some researchers happen to think they’re showing up due to an
increase of nitrogen in Barnegat Bay from people pollution such as
pesticides, dog waste and fertilizers. According to Korotky, regulations
for slow-release fertilizers are a future possibility.
Although we heard and saw some
disheartening news along the trip, all of the passengers were able to
put that aside and enjoy the beauty of the tour. Luckily, everyone
stayed nice and cool – a perk of being on the water.
 |
| Photo by Kelley Anne A closer look at a bird guide helps passenger Ann Bogdon gain a better sense of her surroundings. |
“I
liked it,” said Judith Lichon, a Bergen County resident who enjoyed
her first bird watching tour. “I loved seeing all the birds and
just looking at the marsh. It’s so peaceful, and the boat ride was
so nice. I’m surprised more people didn’t come out today. I’m
just glad I did,” she added.
“I’ve
been going on these tours whenever I can for the past 10 years,”
said local resident Ann Bogdon. “My children are in the Junior
Naturalists program here, and they get up-close and personal with
nature. It’s great.”
Ornithology
boat tours at Cattus Island County Park will take place on Wednesday,
July 11; Monday, July 23; Thursday, Aug. 9; Wednesday, Aug. 29;
Thursday, Sept. 13; and Thursday, Sept. 27. Tours run from 7 to 9
a.m. and 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Registration is $7 in advance. For more
information, visit the Ocean
County Department of Parks and Recreation online,
or call 1-877-OC-PARKS.
This article was published in The Beachcomber.
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