Birds

These are some birds you are likely to see around the water.


Osprey

Osprey - note the under-wing patterning, see Bald Eagle below

Ospreys, or "Fish Hawks", are surprisingly common, and can be found just about anywhere. You'll typically see them flying high over the water from a tree on one side to a tree on the other, occasionally diving down on some unlucky fish. Ospreys are usually seen alone, but mating pairs stay together, and I think young siblings stay together for a while as well. Ospreys are one of the biggest birds that you are likely to see. A single species has an almost worldwide distribution - pretty much everywhere except Australia.


drying its feathers

This is a bird that you are almost guaranteed to see on any kayaking excursion. This is because they are very common, and not very waterproof. After diving underwater, they need to dry their sodden feathers in the sun, as the one above is doing. You can often get pretty close to them at these times.


These birds are all associated with marine environments, but the truth is, they don't care. You'll find them wherever there is food. Since no place in New Jersey is really very far from the ocean, you can find most of these almost anywhere.

Herring Gull

Adult

Mallard Duck

Female above, male below

There are many kinds of wild ducks, and even more types of domesticated ducks, but the Mallard is a good representative of all. Ducks are harmless. Bring some bread along, I never met a duck that didn't expect to be fed.


Paddlin' in the Pines
( 39.70208, -74.42738 )

  1. Batsto Lake - Batsto ( 39.64682, -74.65327 )
  2. Batsto River - Wharton State Forest ( 39.71014, -74.66747 )
  3. Cedar Creek - Berkeley ( 39.90248, -74.24513 )
  4. Cedar Creek - Lanoka Harbor ( 39.86936, -74.17065 )
  5. Great Egg Harbor River - Penny Pot ( 39.57547, -74.82239 )
  6. Great Egg Harbor River - Weymouth ( 39.51339, -74.77889 )

This map shows the three trips described in this article

by Andrée Jannette

New Jersey Outdoors
Spring 1998
$4.25

If you don't know how to turn your canoe on a dime when you put in at your first Pinelands river, you will by the time you finish. These are narrow, winding rivers, full of sweeping curves and sharply angled switchbacks. Yet these twists and turns are very much a part of the mystique and the delight of paddling in New Jersey's Pinelands.