By Mike Busch

The Long Island Wildlife Photography group on Facebook passed another milestone yesterday, surpassing 9000 members.  What started as a late night goof in May  2014 has grown way beyond anything I envisioned.   With the help of a bunch of great administrators and dedicated members it has become many people’s favorite page on Facebook.  According the Group Insights, over the past month we have had over 2000 posts and 100,000 engagements!

Besides being a place to post wildlife photography, it has become a community,  connecting people from all over the Island with a love of the outdoors, the environment and the strip of sand we all call home.  If you aren’t a member, consider joining.  At a minimum you may get a new appreciation of our surroundings and you are likely to make some new friends as well.

With today being the first full day of Fall expect some big changes over the next several weeks, for now it still feels and looks like summer mode with a healthy dose of skimmers, egrets, herons and hummingbirds still hanging around.

If you have the time, check out all 5 pages of photos below and enjoy yet another summer like weekend!

This week’s cover goes to John Martello with a stunning image of a Black Skimmer colony that is worthy of National Geographic.

Fred Kopf | Immature Black Skimmer

Jimmy Johnny | Great Egret

Melinda Elizabeth | American Kestrel

Mike Babulak | Great Blue Heron

Mitchell Schlimer | Snowy Egret

Nancy Viscardi-Ricigliano | Mockingbird

Jennifer Russo | Squirrel

More images on pages 2,3,4, and 5