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Outings & Trips

 

 

The Montclair Bird Club conducts a full program of field excursions, including both trips with a designated leader and "meet-up" outings arranged to take advantage of seasonal happenings at local hotspots. All of our activities are open to all members, friends, and visitors. For further information, please make contact with the listed leader or write to Beni at MBCOutings@gmail.com.

All participants are required to read and abide by our

Field Trips Policy.  

For more information about any of our trips and outings, email mbcoutings@gmail.com.

 

Garret Mountain birders.jpeg

Garret Mountain Reservation

Join Fred Pfeifer each Wednesday morning at 8:00 for a walk around Garret Mountain Reservation or another nearby park to enjoy the avian treasures of the season. Text or call Fred at 973 809-7674 to register and to find out the meeting location.

A birder’s meet-up, in conjunction with Leaderless Walks.


Meet at 10:30 am in the Barnegat Lighthouse State Park parking lot. Some of us may want to go earlier; contact Beni for more information.


Barnegat Lighthouse State Park is located at the northernmost tip of Long Beach Island in Ocean County, New Jersey. We will walk the jetty and beach looking for wintering waterfowl such as brant, harlequin duck, common eider, and long-tailed duck, as well as some less common gulls and wintering purple sandpipers and ruddy turnstones. Scanning the water, we hope to find grebes and loons and, if we’re lucky, an alcid or two. Passerines to be on the lookout for include Savannah sparrows and horned larks. Once we’ve had our fill of the jetty and beach, if time allows, we can drive around the bay area to check some additional locations.


Dress warm! Bring binoculars, a scope if you have one, snacks, a warm drink, and a packed lunch.


Directions: Take the Garden State Parkway south to Exit 63 and proceed east on Route 72 for 7 miles. After crossing the bridge to Long Beach Island, make a left onto Long Beach Blvd. Follow this road for about 8 miles to the state park, at the northern end of the island.


Writ mbcoutings@gmail.com for more information.



A birder's meet-up.


The precise date depends on the woodcock's calendar. The address in Oldwick will be provided on registration. To register, send your contact information to MBCOutings@gmail.com. Attendance is limited to twelve people.


Every spring, male American woodcock put on an amazing courtship display, which we can witness here in New Jersey.  At dawn and at dusk, the males give a loud peent call from the ground, then spring up into the air, flying in a wide spiral with their wings twittering. Once they reach a height of 200 or 250 feet, they zigzag back to the ground, chirping as they go. 


The MBC member Deb DeSalvo has generously offered to host a meet-up to view the woodcock courtship dance at her farm in Oldwick, New Jersey. Woodcock courtship at Deb's place usually starts sometime between March 7 and March 14. Once the woodcocks have begun to display, Deb will let us know, and the meet-up will be held a day or two later. Once we arrive at the site, we will walk around Deb’s property for a short time, birding as we go.  At sunset, we will walk to a wetland area where we are likely to hear and, with luck, see the birds.

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