I haven’t blogged much about birds lately, partly because most of my attempts at photos to accompany an idea for a post don’t turn out well. So, for your amusement, I’ll share some – from bad to worse to really terrible.

Chickadee with young red maple leaves; too dark

Fledgling house wren, too dark again

Great egrets. Lovely birds, busy photo

Just yuck.

Close-up (!) view of a Chestnut-sided warbler butt

Is there even a bird in this pic? Kudos to you if you find it!

Horrible pic of a nice marsh bird. Any guesses? The lores will give it away, I’m sure!

Hal Borland says the bumblebee is “an exponent of the easy life and an example of moderation in most matters” – they are somewhat social, occasionally will collect honey to store in waxen jugs, and are generally even-tempered and not likely to sting. Being long-tongued bees they are able to pollinate clover and alfalfa and will often nest nearby or in old field-mouse dens. In my yard they favor the swamp milkweed (pictured above), bee balm, and later in the season the Joe Pye Weed. Last summer a bumblebee colony was very active beneath one of the pieces of slate near the entrance to the pond – I often sat nearby and watched their comings and goings. On very hot days, groups of bumblebees were found at the various entrance tunnels fanning their wings to keep the colony below cool. Early in the evening today many were napping. Hanging upside down beneath a milkweed blossom or under the big leaves of a pokeweed plant.

Red Bank has one of the biggest fireworks displays in NJ and it draws nearly 200,000 people to this one-mile square town. Traffic and parking are hellish, but the last few years we’ve been lucky enough to be invited to a party on the river to enjoy the show. The masses of people are centered in two parks on the river, boats come from everywhere for a close-up view, and the people who live in nearby towns (like us) hope to know someone or come up with a creative solution to seeing the fireworks while avoiding the crowds. We’ve seen them from just about every vantage point along the river, but this house has a terrific view and an even nicer party, plus at least 200 or so others to mingle with.

I brought along my camera hoping to get a few pics of the show, but discovered how difficult it would be without a tripod. I have one, but wasn’t about to lug it along. Anyway, the sunset pics turned out okay for my first attempt.

We spent today trying to stay cool and decided to try some crabbing from one of the bridges over the river. Neither my husband or I really like to eat crab, but my mother-in-law loves it, so we go for her. It was fun and there was a nice breeze by the water most of the afternoon. For every nice-sized crab we caught, we must have thrown back at least 20 little ones. We also caught a Spider Crab, which neither of us had ever seen before – according to what I found online, they’re pretty common “walking-crabs” who are cousins of the Alaskan King Crab. Ugly things, but very docile compared to the blue claws! We were caught in a terrific thunderstorm which made me glad I didn’t bring along my camera.

There were a lot of birds distracting me from the crab traps – laughing gulls, egrets, terns, cormorants, and even a few black-crowned night herons along the banks of the river. Surprised to have not seen any Osprey, but for some reason there aren’t any nesting platforms along this stretch of river. As we were leaving with the tide going out, chimney swifts were chattering overhead and thunderclouds were threatening again. A nice way to spend the 4th!