Spring in Holmdel Park in New Jersey
The weeping cherry trees around the pond in Holmdel Park in New Jersey are in full bloom in Spring. Many
people come here in Spring to enjoy the beautiful cherry blossom.
A pair of mallards in the pond
Zoom in for a closer view of the colorful male mallard
Some people were fishing on this pond
Several fishing birds, cormorant (鸕鶿, 也叫 水老鸦, 黑魚郎、魚老鴉), were busily swimming and diving in
the pond to catch fish. (善潜水捕鱼)
Beautiful yellow forsythia is also in full bloom
A cormorant rose up to flap its wings
After emerging from a dive, this cormorant caught a big fish which appeared to be too big for the cormorant to
swallow.
The cormorant was struggling with this big fish for about 10 to 15 minutes trying various positions to swallow
the big fish as shown in this series of action photos.
After about 15 minutes of struggling, either the big fish escaped or the cormorant gave up
Then, the cormorant dived again and caught a smaller fish that it could swallow
A Guinea Hen in Longstreet Farm in Holmdel Park
Many children enjoy watching various farm animals in the Longstreet Farm in Holmdel Park
I took these photos in Holmdel Park on four dates in three different years: some were taken on April 14, and
May 26, 2011, some were on April 13, 2008 and some were on April 9, 2006.

My photos from Holmdel Park in late April of 2009 are in Part 2 at the following web page:

http://www.shltrip.com/More_on_Spring_in_Holmdel_Park.html

The autumn foliage in Holmdel Park is also very beautiful and they are shown on my Travelogue web page at:

http://www.shltrip.com/Autumn_Foliage.html
Flowering pear trees are also blooming in the spring along South Holland Road near Holmdel Park

Map: Click here to see Google Map showing location of South Holland Road
Location: Holmdel Park is at the intersection of Longstreet Road and Roberts Road in Holmdel, New Jersey.
The entrance gate is from Longstreet Road.

Direction to Holmdel Park:

From Garden State Parkway:

1.        Take Garden State Parkway (South) and take Exit # 114 for Holmdel
2.        At the end of Exit Ramp turn right into Red Hill Road (South) and go south for about 0.4 miles
3.        At corner of traffic light, turn right into Crawfords Corner Road (northwest)
4.        Go northwest for about 1 mile, at second traffic light turn left into Longstreet Road (south)
5.        Go south on Longstreet Road for about 0.5 mile, the entrance gate for Holmdel Park in on right side

From Highway 34:

1.        Go south on Highway 34 into Holmdel
2.        In Holmdel, turn left into Roberts Road (northeast)
3.        Go northeast on Roberts Road for about 0.5 mile
4.        At intersection of Roberts Road and Longstreet Road, turn left into Longstreet Road (north)
5.        In about 300 feet, the entrance gate of Holmdel Park in on left side

Map: Click here to see Google Map showing location of Holmdel Park

Map: Click here to see detailed Park Map of Holmdel Park
Cormorants are very skillful fishing birds to chase and to catch fish under water. In China, Japan, and
Macedonia, fishermen trained cormorants to catch many fish for the fishermen (中国南方多饲养来帮助捕
鱼). The following movie on the YouTube website at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjjJTyt6U-Y&feature=related

provides excellent demonstration on how fishermen use their trained cormorants to catch fish.

More photos and stories of such trained working cormorants catching fish for fishermen can be seen at the
following websites:

http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Tourism/Guilin-fishing.html

http://www.denniscox.com/guilin.htm

ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormorant
More photos of an osprey in action catching fish on this pond in late April, 2009 are in Part 2 at the following
web page:

http://www.shltrip.com/More_on_Spring_in_Holmdel_Park.html

I do not know if the osprey that I saw in 2011 is the same as that I saw in 2009 or not.

A friend of mine also got a couple pictures of a great blue heron catching fish at the edge of this pond in
Holmdel Park.
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Zoom in for a closer view of the two cormorants.
Look at the sideburns of the cormorant.
One of several large yellow colored carps in addition to many other smaller fish in this pond in Holmdel Park.

櫻花湖水鯉魚肥，湖深魚兒戲，
In addition to the fishing birds, cormorant, a fish hawk (魚鷹 ), osprey, also show up above the pond in Holmdel
Park on the afternoon of April 14, 2011 to look for fish to catch as shown in these 3 photos.
I guess that this cormorant probably is trying to dry its wings by keeping the two wings open and extended
above water in such posture.
Several turtles were on the tree trunk basking in the sun.
Two of many robins in Holmdel Park.
On April 14, 2011, I came to Holmdel Park in late afternoon for hiking exercise. It was a nice sunny spring
day with blue sky. So, I came with my camera to take pictures in the beautiful Holmdel Park in the spring
time. By about 4 to 5 PM, the moon also show up in the blue sky.
The weight of this fish lowered the body of the cormorant such that its back was almost flat with water surface
湖畔櫻花依依，風韻柔媚， 天光水色，幽深秀麗， 最富詩情畫意與神思遐想，夢幻人間
仙境， 像不像一張明信片？ 願能共享之.
I have also taken panoramic photos of blooming cherry blossom in Holmdel Park (in 2011) in New Jersey. I
have merged two sets of such adjacent photos into two panoramic views and uploaded them to my new web
page at:

http://www.shltrip.com/Pano_Cherry_Blossom_in_NJ.html

Please access this new web page, scroll horizontally to enjoy the panoramic view of the beautiful flowers and
scroll down to see two panoramic views from Holmdel Park.
Or is this the spring courtship posture of cormorant?
On the hot day of May 26, 2011, many sunfish in the pond are very busy in their spawning frenzy in shallow
water near the edge of the pond: some are excavating circular nests in the gravel under the water, some are in
pair in spawning courtship behavior, some are swimming very fast in circular motion guarding their circular
nests, and some are chasing intruders away from their nests, etc. I took a movie clip of many sunfish in such
spawning frenzy in the pond in Holmdel Park as shown in the following YouTube website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z030M2U9V3w
More views of the yellow carps in the pond.
One of many other fish in addition to the yellow carps in the pond.
I came to Holmdel Park again on the hot day of May 26, 2011 for walking exercise when the temperature was
above 80 degree Fahrenheit. The hot temperature and the increasing length of daylight time are stimulating
many sunfish in the pond in Holmdel Park into their spawning frenzy.
One of many red wing black birds in Holmdel Park.
Many circular nests at the bottom of the pond excavated by many spawning sunfish.