Well, my birthday was last week and I admit I took the opportunity to play the birthday card more than once. 🙂 We spend the holiday weekend back in my old stomping grounds of northern NJ. I ate several servings of dessert Friday night, went birding Sat morning and had a chance to visit with dear family and friends all weekend. What fun!
A visit to Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary was at the top of the list. It’s one of New Jersey Audubon’s Centers, just minutes from my childhood home. They happened to be hosting a family nature walk Sat morn, so I dragged my boys and hubby to join me. We had a great time (see pics below) and since I hadn’t been north of my Maryland home since last year, I added black-capped chickadee to my Mom’s Big Year list. Yay!
Scherman Hoffman is a special place to me. I clearly recall visiting when I was a high schooler, enjoying chats with the long-time director, Rich Kane, and asking Pete Dunne for advice on how to go about saving the last tract of woods in my hometown of Parsippany. In the late ’80’s, I took my first warbler ID course there. Great memories for sure.
Indeed, there’s no place like home.
Mom's Big Year 
Love connecting birds and birthdays. You had a great company to add to the joy of celebrating…family, birds, and some great birders! Very Nice!! What a great history you have in the world of nature. There is no better way to celebrate than to be in God’s wonderful creation with family to see His wonders together!!. My birthday was this month, and we may have started a new tradition. We birded the number of my birthday for the weekend. It was a blast!
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