Barnegat Lighthouse and Jetty

How perfect can weather be in February?  Today was as good as it gets in New Jersey.  It was a balmy 61 degrees and partly cloudy when we arrived at Ole Barney.  There was a light warm breeze blowing and the skies were clearing.  Being the beginning of the President's Day weekend there was a gathering crowd as people were glad to shake off their cabin fever and take to the outdoors.  Most people were there just looking for a bit of sun but we had objectives.  We were looking for a peek at the harlequin ducks and hopefully a look at some common eiders.  We have even been so lucky to see ruddy turnstones, scooter, dunlin and oyster catchers in previous years. 

Entering the jetty walkway, we saw our first duck of the day .  She was a red breasted merganzer and she posed for the camera and I think you can even see her smile.

We did not pause for long before heading on down the jetty. Gulls were plentiful.  

Still on a quest for the elusive harlequins we saw lots of brant.

Finally as the tide reached low tide and began to change the harlequins came close enough for me to capture them.  Please forgive us if we over indulged with the camera but they are so amazing and so cute that there were plenty of good opportunities to get a good picture.

It was such a beautiful day that we sat in the sun and just let the world go by for quite a while.  On the horizon we saw some large white birds flying over the water.  It is a gull?  No they were eiders.  Please forgive the out of focus shot but we did see eiders today as the photo shows!

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