Spicebush Swallowtail

 It's that time of year when I switch from photographing birds to butterflies and flowers. The weather has been more like Florida than Pennsylvania. Very hot in the morning then afternoon and evening thunderstorms. This evening is no exception, torrential rain, lots of flash bangs which is just going to make the humidity even worse. Yuck. Anyway, here's a Spicebush Swallowtail from this morning on Orange Milkweed.

Spicebush Swallowtail

Spicebush Swallowtail

Monday, in reverse order

 Monday I left early, very early to drive down to Bombay Hook in Delaware. It didn't work out exactly as I planned/imagined. https://mike17042.blogspot.com/2025/06/plan-b-worked-out-pretty-good.html

In a nutshell as they say, on Monday I went South to Delaware then SE in Delaware then North across Delaware Bay on the ferry to Cape May, from there North to Brigantine (Edwin B Forsythe NWR) then NW to Philly, then West to Home along the PA Turnpike.Brigantine even though the lighting was not ideal was pretty damn good and I wanted more. 

Yesterday (Thursday) I again left super early at 3AM to arrive at Brigantine for sunrise. To get to Brig you really have no better route than to go through downtown Philly. This wasn't bad at all on Monday, but yesterday, Southbound on the Surekill Expressway was rather hectic even at that early hour, the loonies were out in force. Not only Kamikaze Philly commuters, poorly signed roadworks and 3 lanes into 1 made me super grateful I wasn't a later Philly commuter as the Surekill is mayhem in the morning at the best of times. I had Siri to guide me in the reverse of the route on Monday. This was the start of Siri's brain fart meltdown. Philly is on the Delaware River and to get to New Jersey you usually go over the Walt Whitman Bridge or the Ben Franklin Bridge. Siri seemed determined to screw me up and took me over a bridge I never knew existed, the Betsy Ross Bridge. This route went for twenty miles or so of stop go traffic lights before eventually joining up with the Atlantic City Parkway. Needless to say I never made it for the sunrise, thank you Siri.

It wasn't bad at all driving round the Brigantine 8 mile Wildlife Loop twice. The light was nice in the golden hour and  although not quite as many species as Monday I was satisfied and got lots of shots  Then I had a brain wave, I wasn't looking forward to going back home through Philly so I decided I was going to do the reverse of Monday. While I know the simple route down to the Ferry Terminal in Cape May I wasn't sure of how long it was going to take. I nicely asked Siri to plan a route to the Cape May Ferry Terminal. This is where Siri and I had a major fall out. Normally the command to wake Siri up is "Hey Siri" then the command, "Play such and such a track or artist or in this case get directions to the Cape May Ferry Terminal".  My iPhone is plugged into the Outback and running Apple Car Play. For some unknown reason she was having a particularly bad day for no matter how I phrased the command to take me to the Cape May Ferry Terminal she always gave me a route to the Ferry Terminal in Lewes Delaware. Now obviously to get to the ferry terminal in Lewes Delaware you either have to drive a hell of a long way around the entire Delaware Bay or you take the ferry from, wait for it, yes you got it, the Cape May Ferry Terminal. After several minutes I gave up and told her as I have on a couple of other occasions to go and do something extremely unnatural with the rough end of a pineapple. 

I booked online a one way sailing for the 9:30 ferry and got there in plenty of time. I have to mention it was getting exceedingly warm by this time which was part of my reasoning as I knew the 80 minute crossing over the bay would be nice and cooling. The 9:30 ferry had an issue of some sort and sitting in the car waiting to board was not fun. I'm pretty sure they don't rely on Siri for navigation or anything. The incoming ferry from Lewes for the return 10:30 sailing docked before we were allowed to board the delayed 9:30 sailing. They did a good job getting all the vehicles onboard and off we went. About halfway across the bay the 10:30 ferry overtook our boat and docked about 10 minutes before we did!  Once off the ferry I headed NW to Bombay Hook in the 94F (34.4C) temperatures. Bombay Hook was hot, buggy and being high tide pretty devoid of anything to photograph not to mention the harsh early afternoon sunlight. The only photo I took was of a young Raccoon. 

After a very early start in the mornings I like to rely on Siri to get me home so I don't have to think. To get home from Bombay Hook is pretty straight forward except that Siri always wants me to take a route that I don't like. I always ask her to plan a route to Gap in Pennsylvania. This my preferred route both coming and going. Normally it works out just fine. I did mention that Siri and I had falling out didn't I. Siri's revenge was to take me through the backroads of what I suppose was Delaware County then into the deepest darkest Amish country of Lancaster County. I have no idea of how many stop signs along these twisty, windy lanes there were but the convoys of Amish Horse and Buggies were even worse. Trying to safely overtake a horse and buggy on the said twisty winding backroads was difficult and time consuming to say the least. Siri can be difficult at times. 

Here's some photographs. 

Shortly after Sunrise 

Looking across to Atlantic City

Forsters Tern

Forsters Tern

Snowy Egrets

Look Boys, Arthur's got a fish!

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Great Blue Heron and Breakfast

Common Yellowthroat

Forsters Tern

Forsters Tern

Forsters Tern

Snowy Egret

Greater Yellowlegs

Snowy Egret

Purple Martin

Snowy Egret

Osprey

Black Skimmer

Least Tern

Least Tern

Least Tern

I think this is a Fowler's Toad

10:30 Ferry overtaking the 9:30 Ferry

Shy Raccoon at Bombay Hook

Gulls

When practicing Bird in Flight shots when you're haven't been waving a dirty great lens around for a while  Gulls can help. These were following the Cape Henlopen ferry from Lewes in Delaware to Cape May in New Jersey yesterday. The lighting was awful but with a bit of jiggery pokery they're not too bad.

American Herring Gull

Laughing Gull

American Herring Gull

American Herring Gull

American Herring Gull

Laughing Gull

Laughing Gull

Plan B worked out pretty good.

With Monday being my time off for good behavior and a forecast for Delaware being cloudy but otherwise dry Plan A was to head down to Bombay Hook. I set my alarm for 2:30 and after feeding the beasties and making Kelly a cup of tea for when she got up I was out the door for 3AM so I would arrive in time for the sunrise. It was persisting it down with rain for the majority of the 2 and a bit hour drive but any possibility of sunrise pictures was less than zero as it was rather drizzly and misty when I arrived. Not only was it misty and drizzly it was still quite dark with the heavy cloud cover. It was very humid and the mozzies were out in force. I did come across a sleepy fox cub/pup/kit in the middle of the drive beside Sheerness Pool. 

Red Fox

Red Fox

As it didn't look promising for photography being so dark and dismal and I didn't want to donate any blood to the nasty mozzies I decided to head to Port Mahon which has got to be the nastiest, scummyist eBird Hotspot in existance. Apparently it was once a thriving port but now it's mostly a dirt road with deep pot holes and black sludgy waves that wash over the road in the highest tides. The birds seem to like it though but not today. I did take a shot of an Osprey eating breakfast on a post from what was probably a pier of some sort way back when.

Osprey

I decided to put Plan B into effect. I didn't have a Plan B when I decided to enact Plan B, I just thought I'd head down to Lewes and get the ferry over to Cape May as I thought New Jersey might be a bit better for photographs later in the day. I managed to get on the 8:45 ferry to Cape May and on the misty crossing I practiced my Bird In Flight technique on the gulls following the boat. Normally the gulls follow the boat all the way over the Delaware Bay in the 85 minute crossing, today there was hardly a bird to be seen once we were past the Lewes breakwater.

Misty Delaware Bay

I did take over 3000 shots of the gulls while leaving Lewes and arriving at Cape May. I narrowed it down to about 100 shots but 90% of them were pretty good apart from the crappy lighting.

Laughing Gull

American Herring Gull

I've got loads of good ones to edit but I'll do them maybe tomorrow as I dont want to bore both of you avid readers with a shit load of gulls.

Although New Jersey was nowhere near as misty as Delaware I decided to head North to  Brigantine a.k.a Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. I did the 8 mile loop road and it was pretty damn good.

Red-winged Blackbird

Canada Goslings

Forsters Tern

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

Forsters Tern

American Herring Gull

Forsters Tern

American Oystercatcher

Black Skimmer

Black Skimmer

Black Skimmer

After the BIF practice with the Gulls I had a go at the Purple Martins, not too shabby considering the crappy lighting conditions.

Purple Martin

Purple Martin

Purple Martin

On my drive round the 8 mile Wildlife Loop I came across this Diamondback Terrapin that was in danger of being squished so I picked him and saw him safely across the roadway.

Diamondback Terrapin

A bit further round I came across a rather large Snapping Turtle, after my recent encounter with a very mean Snapper I stayed well clear in case it went for my throat, it doesn’t need my help I thought. 

 I decided to let Siri do the navigating and let her take me home via central Philadelphia. It wasn't bad at all, even the Surekill Expressway (Schuylkill) was without the usual carnage and madness so a pretty relaxing drive home in time to make Kelly a mid afternoon cup of tea.

Downtown Philly