{"id":653,"date":"2013-08-10T07:45:37","date_gmt":"2013-08-10T07:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/?page_id=653"},"modified":"2013-08-10T07:45:37","modified_gmt":"2013-08-10T07:45:37","slug":"the-surprising-sanctuary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/sample-page\/morgan-critters\/the-surprising-sanctuary\/","title":{"rendered":"The Surprising Sanctuary"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Morgan Bird Life \u2013 The Surprising Sanctuary<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_652\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/contentdir\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Egret-in-Raritan-Bay2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-652\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-652 \" alt=\"Great Egret Resting on a Log in Raritan Bay Waterfront Park.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/contentdir\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Egret-in-Raritan-Bay2.jpg\" width=\"550\" height=\"497\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/contentdir\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Egret-in-Raritan-Bay2.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/contentdir\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Egret-in-Raritan-Bay2-300x271.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-652\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Great Egret Resting on a Log in Raritan Bay Waterfront Park.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">I was astounded on one trip back home to Morgan a few years ago when I wandered onto the beach in the southern most part of what is now Raritan Bay Waterfront Park.\u00a0 There were two birds which looked very much like Canadian Geese.\u00a0 When I lived there as a kid, I never recalled seeing this type of bird.\u00a0 I remember the Ducks, Robins, what were probably Sparrows, the occasional Cardinal and Blue Jay but mostly I remember Sea Gulls flying across the bay\u2019s shoreline.\u00a0 However, when I was a kid, I never crossed the tracks and went onto the jut of landfill making up what is now Raritan Bay Waterfront Park as my parents told me to never cross the railroad tracks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>On this particular day on the shoreline, I was fortunate enough to run into a gentleman who was looking into a huge monocular which I was to find out was a special piece of optical equipment used specifically for \u201cbirdwatching\u201d or \u201cbirding\u201d.\u00a0 Not only that, but the gentleman went on to tell me that this part of Morgan was very well known in Birding circles for its large variety of bird species.\u00a0 For Sea Gulls there are, I think he said, three (or five) different species which have their habitat on Raritan Bay.\u00a0 Yes, those were Canadian Geese and yes that was an Egret. Unfortunately I had no way to take notes at the time.\u00a0 This encounter was before I had the notion of creating this web site and unfortunately I was not able to fully absorb all the amazing information he was providing to me.\u00a0 He really knew quite a lot about the subject.\u00a0 I was also dumbfounded (a common theme in this web site) that all these different species were present in the area.<\/p>\n<p>There are also birding opportunities in Cheesequake State Park which is further inland from Raritan Bay near the headwaters of Cheesequake Creek. Cheesequake State Park has been a park since it opened on June 22, 1940.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_651\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/contentdir\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Sea-Gulls-on-Pilings.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-651\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-651 \" alt=\"Sea Gulls Resting in Raritan Bay on the Old Pipeline Pilings from the Sewage Treatment Plant.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/contentdir\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Sea-Gulls-on-Pilings.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/contentdir\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Sea-Gulls-on-Pilings.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/contentdir\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Sea-Gulls-on-Pilings-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-651\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sea Gulls Resting in Raritan Bay on the Old Pipeline Pilings from the Sewage Treatment Plant.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">Here are a few links which discuss Birdwatching in Morgan, South Amboy or Raritan Bay.\u00a0 The most amazing statistic is presented on the New Jersey Audubon web site &#8211; there are over 210 species of birds able to be observed from the Morgan area including 12 types of gulls!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Guide to Birding Along Raritan Bay\" href=\"http:\/\/www.njaudubon.org\/SectionCenters\/SectionSHBO\/GuidetoBirdingAlongRaritanBay.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to see NJ Audubon\u2019s Guide to Birding along Raritan Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\" title=\"How to get to the Good Briding Places\" href=\"http:\/\/www.njaudubon.org\/SectionCenters\/SectionSHBO\/SouthAmboy.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to see NJ Audubon\u2019s directions on how to get to good observation sites in Morgan &amp; South Amboy and the Bird List<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Nice Photos of Birds on Raritan Bay\" href=\"http:\/\/shltrip.com\/Raritan_Bay_Waterfront.html\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to see lots of nice photographs of Winter Bird Watching in Raritan Bay Waterfront Park and a little further south in Old Bridge Waterfront Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\" title=\"Cheesequake State Park Information\" href=\"http:\/\/www.state.nj.us\/dep\/parksandforests\/parks\/cheesequake.html\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to see information about Cheesequake State Park<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\" title=\"Information about Birding in Middlesex County\" href=\"http:\/\/www.leoraw.com\/hpenv\/data\/BirdsofMiddlesexCounty.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to see a PDF file with tons of information regarding birding in Middlesex County<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\"> (the county Morgan, Sayreville &amp; South Amboy are in).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Originally posted on March 7, 2010.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Morgan Bird Life \u2013 The Surprising Sanctuary I was astounded on one trip back home to Morgan a few years ago when I wandered onto the beach in the southern most part of what is now Raritan Bay Waterfront Park.\u00a0 There were two birds which looked very much like Canadian Geese.\u00a0 When I lived there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":511,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-653","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":656,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/653\/revisions\/656"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}