I did a “bucket list” hike to the summit of Slide Mountain today! I took the path up here and took the Curtis-Ormsbee Trail back. I haven’t done a mountain hike in years, so it was tough! It was a good encouragement to get back into peak (pun intended) hiking shape to explore more of this wilderness area, perhaps next summer.
Author: Jess
NJ Mapping
I had to make a leaflet map for a work project with sensitive data, and as the backdrop I used the following layers:
- https://njogis-newjersey.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/newjersey::municipal-boundaries-of-nj-hosted-3857/explore?location=40.130043%2C-74.749168%2C0.00
- https://njogis-newjersey.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/newjersey::county-boundaries-of-nj-hosted-3857
- I pulled this resource, which is just 1 polygon feature: https://services1.arcgis.com/QWdNfRs7lkPq4g4Q/arcgis/rest/services/ConservationZone/FeatureServer/0
- click “query” at the bottom
- put 1=1 in the “where” field
- I put GEOJSON as the format in the dropdown
- query (get)
- save the output as a geojson file (I copied into a text file and changed the extension)
- https://gisdata-njdep.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/njdep::watershed-management-areas-in-new-jersey/about
The Legacy of Changed Marshes: references
Thank you for reading my latest article in Cape May magazine! Here are my sources, along with some corrections…
Corrections
- I think I overstated the extent of filling in South Cape May; here’s a map of historic fill extent. The history of SCM is more thoroughly addressed in a previous article for the magazine anyway: https://capemaymag.com/feature/gone-with-the-waves/
- I cannot find my original reference for the Cape May County % area mosquito ditched, as I can’t find the doc where I was originally keeping these sources 🙁 I remember finding a reference that had some rough breakdowns in text for a few counties. All I can bring up though is the following reference for ditching in the back bays, which estimates 40% https://www.njcoastalresilience.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Ecological-Restoration-and-Beneficial-Use_NJRSMF-WhitePaper.pdf
This doesn’t incorporate Delaware Bay marshes, so I’m not sure how that would adjust the estimate barring re-finding the previous rough estimate. But, it’s possible that the extent of ditching is closer to 40%.
References
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0964569117307676
Female Bird Weekend
Happy Memorial Day! This weekend, the Galbatrosses celebrated Female Bird Day, and this galbatross in particular spent a good chunk of the weekend looking for female birds and posting short videos of them w/ID tips to my Instagram story. Species in which I was able to find the female:
- American robin: pair foraging together, female duller plumage
- common grackle: pair foraging together, female has shorter tail/duller plumage
- mourning dove: foraging together, female has plainer face
- northern cardinal
- house sparrow
- ruby-throated hummingbird
- gray catbird: female building nest
- osprey: female has breast band, in this case was bringing fish back to the nest while the male was standing sentry nearby
- barn swallow: female cream/white underneath, in contrast to the male’s orange underbelly
Some reflections…
- running female bird weekend this late makes it hard to find the females of some common/resident species…
- Carolina chickadees have already fledged young, and the female can only be reliably identified by carrying nesting material by the time there are fledglings
- chipping sparrows are tending fledglings, and the female could only be identified if they are attempting a 2nd nest (which they don’t always do) and she’s carrying nest material while the male is tending young
- red-winged blackbird females seemed to be all on nests, didn’t see any
- next year’s goal sighting: while it seems female chimney swifts often lead the trio flights, they don’t always…look for aerial copulation?
Godwit Days
Today my mom and I are headed to this fest in CA! I’m writing this post after the fact as a reminder for what I packed and could have used, since I may well do this festival again 🙂
- visor
- winter hat
- hair ties (and sleeping hair tie)
- cotton gloves
- sunglasses
- Eddie Bauer 2-in-1 hip length coat (650 down puff layer under waterproof shell)
- hoodie
- 2 long sleeved tees
- t-shirt
- Carhartt force utility leggings
- a pair of fleece lined leggings (could have used another pair and meant to pack them)
- 3 pairs of leggings/yoga pants
- joggers
- sweatpants
- kneehigh compression socks (for the flight there/back)
- anklet compression socks (could use ones with more compression…)
- novelty socks (could have used warmer boot socks)
- hiking boots
- hiking shoes
- Shade & Shore Neida sandals
- Keen waterproof Chelsea boots
- sunscreen (didn’t pack after sun care and needed it)
- a nice dinner outfit for 60’s °F
Honestly this festival was pretty easy to pack for, as the weather was about the same as we have in Cape May right now. We kept it simple, didn’t go anywhere overly fancy for dinner (although would have on hand a decent outfit for going out if desired). Arcata was pretty laid back though, and for the most part we unapologetically went from the field to food. Humboldt Co. was captivating, the festival was great, and I would consider a return, full day of travel both ways and all!
Best Birds of 2026 – running list
I’m kicking off my annual best birds list, to be fleshed out at the end of the year!
- Virginia’s warbler – 4/3 Good Friday
- 4/17 – western gull, elegant tern, spotted owl
- 4/18 – (singing OCWA, MAMU) California quail, wrentit, California condor
- 4/19 – California scrub-jay
A Rich Local History of Palynology: References
Thank you for reading my article: https://capemaymag.com/this-is-cape-may/nature/the-rich-local-history-of-palynology
In keeping with the format of articles for the nature column of Cape May Magazine, we don’t have room for in-text citations or a reference section. So, for those who would like to consult the sources or enjoy further reading, here is the material I referenced for writing the article:
Christie, M.A.; Bernhardt, C.E.; Parnell, A.C.; Shaw, T.A.; Khan, N.S.; Corbett, D.R.; García-Artola, A.; Clear, J.; Walker, J.S.; Donnelly, J.P.; et al. Pollen geochronology from the Atlantic coast of the United States during the last 500 years https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/3/362
Donnelly, Jeffrey P., et al. “Sedimentary evidence of intense hurricane strikes from New Jersey.” Geology 29.7 (2001): 615-618. https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/29/7/615/188804/Sedimentary-evidence-of-intense-hurricane-strikes
MEYERSON, ARTHUR LEE. Pollen and paleosalinity analyses from a Holocene tidal marsh sequence, Cape May County, New Jersey. 1971 https://preserve.lehigh.edu/system/files/derivatives/coverpage/426668.pdf
Potzger, J. E. “What Can Be Inferred from Pollen Profiles of Bogs in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.” Bartonia, no. 26, 1952, pp. 20–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41610336. Accessed 22 Dec. 2025. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41610336?read-now=1&seq=5
New Jersey (USA) Wetlands Past, Present and Future: Using Sediment Archives to Inform and Guide Wetland Protection, Restoration and Resilience. https://dspace.njstatelib.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/9ee6a9a0-fa3d-4226-993e-1342454a1934/content
Best Birds of 2025
Here were my best birds of the year! I haven’t yet fleshed out the stories here; check back later.
- Audubon’s oriole and northern beardless-tyrannulet (3/28)
- zone-tailed hawk, mottled owl, McCall’s screech owl (12/6)
Creating A Vector Layer By Hand
I had been given some PDF maps with outlines to digitize, but with enough land features in the map to be able to geo-reference them. I screen-grabbed the maps from the PDFs and saved the screenshots as TIFF. Then, opened QGIS, added the Open Street Maps base layer and zoomed into my area of interest. From there, I used the QGIS georeferencer tool on the first image: https://docs.qgis.org/3.40/en/docs/user_manual/managing_data_source/georeferencer.html
Once I had the image georeferenced onto the map as a layer, I increased the transparency to be able to see through to see how well it lined up with the features on the base map. I then selected “New GeoPackage Layer…” and entered names for the file, layer, field(s) and defined the type (polygon). From there, I traced the boundaries I needed to create polygons that corresponded with the PDF map. In my case, I was going to need to clean up the outer edges with waterway and state boundaries in the end, so I made the edges of my polygons wide past where they would eventually be differenced out.
As I referenced more images, some did not line up great on the first try, so given that this exercise is a bit “interpretive” anyway with hand digitizing (and can be edited) I tried my best to trace a line where it should be. Each time I did that, I was glad my next image lined up with it, or I adjusted the boundary between the zones as needed. Thus, I had a polygon layer with edge boundaries that needed to be clipped down.
For my purpose, I needed…
- the Delaware River: https://www.nj.gov/drbc/basin/map/GIS.html
- the Delaware land boundary: https://www.dgs.udel.edu/datasets/delaware-state-and-county-boundaries
- the NJ counties (to get the land only where I needed it): https://nj.gov/njgin/edata/boundaries/index.html
I used those layers to either clip (DE river) or difference (DE, NJ land shapefiles) to keep only the areas of interest. From there, I had to do some cleanup…
- delete holes from a feature I merged
- split polygons and delete parts to do some finer manual work on getting rid of areas not in the map
- vertex tool to change the shape of a polygon to include a water body that was clipped out
Weekend Fishing
Cut & Retie podcast episode this week: https://sites.libsyn.com/441516/ep-164-the-unsinkable-speckled-urine-bag
“We get the gray trout/weakfish (whatever) rarely do you get any size. Normally they’re in a massive school on top of, you know, a wreck or a rock pile or something, kind of early fall/late summer, and rarely do they get > 10 in. Last year I caught a couple that were like in that 20 in. range and that was awesome, that was like a nice bonus there, but I’ve always seen those photos of the massive ones and I’m really jealous, especially now that I’m so into the speckled trout thing. Seeing a weakfish that’s that big makes me like…I’ve gotta do that.” – Kevin Patrick Hughes (13:09)
Joe Cermele talking about a fish he took in Atlantic City
“The weakfish tended to be northern and yea dude back before stripers came back as a kid, that is what I targeted all summer long and it’s the same tactics as used for speckled seatrout: finesse fish, flukes, rattle traps and all that stuff…but yeah that was my jam for years…the biggest weakfish I ever caught in my life was 32.5 in. just a dinosaur on a white Mister Twister grub on monofilament at the end of the dock where my dad kept his boat when I was a kid.” (14:17)
“But at the time I was like, ‘there are so many of these big weakfish around, it’s OK, I’ll catch another one.’ And then they just went away to the point where like they’re not factored in as one of the common fish: everybody listening to this knows what a flounder is, knows what a tuna is, knows what a striped bass is; weakfish fell off so hard that now you say that to some people and they’re like ‘a what?’ like they don’t even know what that is, but it was such a standard thing throughout the northeast for so long.” (16:46)
“All of this to say that like now I joke about catching them off the end of the dock at noon you know, sunny day no idea what the tide was, boat traffic and jet skis whizzing around all over…but now, if you really want to catch a weakfish that big, that is like a vision quest, you have to be all in and as hardcore as possible…I grew up with those fish and have always loved them…” (17:31)
Kevin’s reflections on weakfish
“The thing that draws you to them is the inability to ever truly dial them in that way, that’s like, with trout….the guys who really are good at getting the big ones, there are so many factors, yes the lures are fun, and it’s cool…but ultimately the thing that matters is being in the right spot at the right time when they want to eat, where the right fish are…”(15:30)
“Yeah I mean in fairness I didn’t really understand, I knew of them but I had no clue about the size or fishery that was there; seeing the photos of big ones from the past is like sorta the first time I ever knew about them.” (17:14)
Joe on weakfish…
“We talked about weakfish, same kinda deal…stripers, for the most part, we love to glorify those fish…weakfish always took a lot more calculation. Like, as an example, moon phase I think matters more than it does with flounder. They’re a lot more finnicky, mysterious, they light switch more…I’ve never had a weakfish bite that was like all day; it’s always ‘this time for a half hour’ and then not again until that same tide cycle occurs.” (54:10)