This cattle egret was in full breeding plumage at the Ocean City Rookery.

My latest column for The Record and other USA Today newspapers in N.J. is on the Ocean City Rookery. What a place!

You can read it here:

Saw these late last month walking around town. The flowering plant was on the Franklin Turnpike south of the Fell House.

What are they?

On Monday, I asked:

What happened here? My neighbor's shutter appears t be the scene of a crime.

But what?

(I know the likely answer only because I once witnessed it happen...)

The likely answer, from Lisa Potash: "Something bat-related."

I think a raptor pinned a bat against this shutter as it returned from a night of foraging, and all that remained was a bat wing.

This weekend is the big silent auction to benefit The Raptor Trust.

Here is the package I donated -- the result of my book about the ornithologist and author James Bond, whose name was stolen by Ian Fleming for his 007:

Pete Branigan discovered a Killdeer nesting at Crestwood Lake yesterday and promptly marked off the area with yellow caution tape. (Great job, Pete!)

Killdeer nest every few years at the park, so please give them a wide berth. They are amaing birds.

Please let dog watchers know to keep their distance -- and to keep their dogs on a leash...

Here's a "Bird Watcher" column I wrote about these charming shorebirds six years ago when another Killdeer nested at  -- you guessed it --Crestwood Lake.