There are some things that can be said for rainy day birding. There are also somethings that could be seen as a major drawback. From my experience this morning at Garret Mountain, I would suggest not going out in driving rain in early April. It’s just setting you up for a really damp bit of disappointment. On the other hand, … Read More
Fortunate series of chases
I had an excellent Easter. I saw 2 of the 3 birds I chased, missing only Yellow-headed Blackbird. That miss is not too big of a deal because between Scott’s Oriole (1st PA record), Lazuli Bunting (3rd PA record) and Y-h Blackbird, the blackbird is the most likely to turn up in PA again in the near future. Both the … Read More
Inquisitive Birds
Some days at the hawk watch the weather is less than ideal and the the hawks are not flying. These are the times when it is particularly fun to watch the other local birds behavior. Since I am stationary most of the day, the birds become used to my presence and settle down to enjoy the bird seed I put … Read More
Turkeys at Garret
This morning at Garret Mountain Reservation in New Jersey I came across a group of Wild Turkeys and managed this shot of one of the fine looking toms. There was not anything else new at the park that I didn’t see yesterday but Chipping Sparrows were more numerous. I heard rumors of several Pine Warblers but didn’t come across any … Read More
Big Flight of the Kestrels
American Kestrel, photo by copeg. Today was the day of the American Kestrel. It started at 10 am and by the time I finished counting at 6 pm, 28 of these light weight, Microtus–killing machines had flown past. That was counting 10 in the last hour, and four birds in the last few minutes of that hour. This is a … Read More
Hungry Accipiters
I really wish I had a picture for this post. I guess that will have to wait until I manage to get a dSLR camera with a nice 300mm fixed lens. Anyways… Standing in one spot for a whole day gives me quite a chance to observe things that I don’t ordinarily get to see. I was up at the … Read More
The Watch is about to begin, what’s up with this weather
Tomorrow marks day one of the Montclair Spring Hawk Watch, weather permitting. After reaching about 75°F today the thunderclouds are rolling in and we might get a good storm tonight. Thats all good but what about this…snow on Friday? That could make things really interesting. Well, hopefully I will have some reports soon and some pictures to go along with … Read More
Smith’s Longspur
Well, I didn’t miss this one. Seems like everyone else got to see the Smith’s Longspur in the blogosphere- City Birder, Mike from 10000birds.com, Jersey Birder, etc. I was pretty sure that I was going to come up short again after searching for over an hour and only seeing Snow Buntings and Horned Larks. I had also wanted to see … Read More
The Ballet of the Shorties
Short-eared Owls have been on my want list for Pennsylvania for quite some time. I had several opportunities to see them while in college in northern Indiana and greatly enjoyed that. Then I got a tip on where they might be in my own county. My own county! Now some people might not understand that thrill, but having just recently … Read More
The Croissant-shaped bird
I got out today and did some of my first birding in Maryland, but was sorely disappointed. The weather had turned bloody cold but there are still no ducks around. Maybe they don’t get ducks out here? I guess that is a possibility. I did manage to pick up some year birds including a Pileated Woodpecker for #72. That is … Read More