Recent Posts Tagged With 'winter'

• Grebes in Winter Wear

  Posted on Thursday March 5th, 2009 at 06:41 in photos, winter, differences, grebes, local schmocal

  Grebes are similar looking in winter.  Can you tell the difference?  Which one is the Eared and which is the Horned?  tick. tick. tick… Leave the answer in the comments and tell me why.  You may use your book.  You may begin now.  (I alwa...

• Odd Yellow Pine Siskin

  Posted on Sunday March 1st, 2009 at 17:04 in winter, migration, nj, yellow, rare, pine siskin, carduelis pinus, green morph

  While chatting on the phone and idly looking out the window, I noticed an odd Siskin with a small flock pecking around on the ground under the feeders.  It looked positively lemony compared to the other hundred or so swirling around the yard.  Peop...

• Birding Liberty State Park

  Posted on Saturday February 28th, 2009 at 21:08 in winter, birding, nj, birdwatching, local schmocal, liberty state park

  Loads of toursits visit the Statue of Liberty when they come to New York City for the first time.  Few of them realize that Liberty State Park,  located smack-dab on the Hudson River amidst the crush of humanity in Jersey City, is a local birding ...

• Downy Woodpecker

  Posted on Sunday February 15th, 2009 at 03:57 in photo, winter, backyard, suet cage, downy woodpecker, picoides pubescens, carpintero velloso menor

  Have you ever seen this before?  Look at those 2, count them, 2, red patches.  When I first saw him, I thought maybe he was something else, but no, look at that small bill.  He is definitely a Downy; but a bird with a different sense of style. If ...

• Great Backyard Bird Count 2009

  Posted on Saturday February 14th, 2009 at 10:05 in winter, backyard, nj, february, great backyard bird count, gbbc, pine siskin, irruption, siskinagogo, winter finch

  I wasn’t going to participate in the GBBC this year since I am leaving for Texas on Sunday morning and won’t be able to finish the weekend.  I half-heartedly noticed 2 Black-capped Chickadee, 1 White-breasted Nuthatch and 1 Downy Woodpec...

• Short-eared Owls at sunset

  Posted on Sunday February 8th, 2009 at 18:05 in winter, birding, marsh, owls, local schmocal, wallkill nwr, asio flammeus, liberty loop, short-eared owl

  As the sun sank lower, cars started to arrive at the Liberty Loop parking lot.  They pulled in by ones and twos.  I had been standing there for hours with my feet ice cold in the snow jawing with some bird photographers.  We watched Harriers, Red...

• Harlequin Duck Soap Opera

  Posted on Tuesday February 3rd, 2009 at 06:08 in travel, photos, stories, winter, migration, ducks, fighting, birds, nj, water birds, harlequin ducks, histrionicus histrionicus

  Mrs. H. was going about her business but keeping close to the Mister after such a hard migration.  The usual rigg-raff was in the neighborhood of course, but that was to be expected in NJ.  What she had not expected, afer all off this time, was a b...

• Bird Photography Weekly

  Posted on Monday February 2nd, 2009 at 05:57 in photos, winter, nj, water birds, shorebirds, ruddy turnstone, arenaria interpres, vuelvepiedras rojizo

  I am having a uber-weird iphoto crisis with my IMAC, so let me offer you a Ruddy Turnstone that I happened to have stashed on my desktop.  I took this a few weeks ago while I was walking on the jetty at Barnegat Light.  Even in their winter plumage...

• Ratty dines out

  Posted on Saturday January 31st, 2009 at 20:58 in food, winter, grass, snow, marsh, muskrat, local schmocal, ondatra zibethicus

  I just learned the answer to the burning question.  How do muskrats eat in winter?  It is the question that is keeping you up nights, I know.  While I was at the Liberty Loop of the Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge today, I saw a muskrat trot acr...

• SkyWatch

  Posted on Friday January 30th, 2009 at 03:49 in photos, winter, backyard, tree, nj, skywatch, red-bellied woodpecker

  I am not sure if he is the bruiser or the bruisee, but either way, I have a Red-bellied Woodpecker hanging around the yard again.   It seems to me that the sky always looks bluer (when it’s not gray, cloudy, snowing) in winter.  ...

• Myrtle Warblers really eat Myrtle

  Posted on Wednesday January 28th, 2009 at 04:24 in travel, photos, winter, migration, nj, shrub, yellow-rumped warbler, jersey shore, bayberry, wax myrtle, dendroica coronata, chipe de mirtillo

  While I was down at the beach last weekend, I saw loads of Yellow-rumped Warblers flitting amidst the low shrubs on the walk back from the jetty.  The wind was blowing pretty fierce, so they would fly up but settle back down quickly.  Mostly they w...

• Bird Photography Weekly

  Posted on Monday January 26th, 2009 at 07:29 in photos, winter, nj, shore, long-tailed duck, barnegat light, clangula yemalis, oldsquaw, pato de cola larga

  There were loads and loads of Long-tailed Ducks on the water at Barnegat Light.  A walk out onto the jetty produced close views of them in various stages of molt, a sure sign that spring is on the way, thank goodness.  This duck looks completely di...

• Sparrows in Winter

  Posted on Thursday January 22nd, 2009 at 03:38 in winter, birds, sparrows, grit, roadside, gorriones, local schmocal

  Drive along any back road in winter and you will flush birds up from the sides of the road where they are eating grit.  Most often they are Juncos and Sparrows, but I always stop and look if I can, ever hopeful that there be something else in those ...

• Awash in Rough-legged Hawks

  Posted on Monday January 19th, 2009 at 07:28 in winter, ny, orange county, birding, raptors, local schmocal, agulilla Ártica, buteo lagopus, rough-legged hawks

  I was surprised to see 4 different Rough-legged Hawks at the Great Swamp (in the measly 1/2 hour I had to spend there) on Saturday.  Curious to see if there were any at the Wallkill; I decided to take a run through the farm country in lower Orange c...

• ♫ Found a peanut ♫

  Posted on Saturday January 17th, 2009 at 09:23 in photos, winter, song, squirrel, backyard, peanuts, blue jay, birdfeeding

  ♪ Found a peanut… ♪ ♪ Found a peanut… ♪ ♪ Found a peanut, just now… ♫ ♪ I just now, found a peanut… ♫ ♪ Found a peanut, just now. ♪ Heh, heh,   ♪ Me too…. ♪ Hey!  No fair.  They are mine...

• My World - snow spot

  Posted on Tuesday January 13th, 2009 at 03:05 in winter, backyard, bath, snow, wallow, bird behavior, black-capped chickadee

  Can you guess what this is? Not a footprint. Nothing fell from the trees. Not a squirrel butt mark. I’ll give you a hint…. Think small, really small…. Give up? It is a chickadee snow bath wallow. I looked out my window to see a Blac...

• Siskin Visit during an Ice Storm

  Posted on Thursday January 8th, 2009 at 07:14 in photos, winter, migration, backyard, Finch, nj, ice storm, pine siskin, carduelis pinus, dominico pinero, irruption

  I woke up to a world turned to glass.  Every paved surface was as smooth as a skating rink and icicles dripped from the trees.  The rain that everyone else had down below was freezing rain on the mountain.  The backyard was a flurry of activity as...

• Sorting through Flocks of Canada Geese

  Posted on Friday January 2nd, 2009 at 16:18 in photos, winter, migration, birding, flocks, canada goose, lifer, 610, local schmocal, barnacle goose, branta leucopsis

  One of the joys and sorrows of winter birding in the Northeast is all of the odd geese (Greater White-fronted, Pink-footed, Ross’s, Cackling) that show up with the migratory flocks of Canada Geese.  But searching for an odd goose in a sea of C...

• First bird of 2009

  Posted on Thursday January 1st, 2009 at 20:32 in photos, winter, birds, backyard, january, american tree sparrow, spizella arborea

  Ooooo, lookee.  It’s an American Tree Sparrow.  What a great first bird of 2009.  It is not a rariety by any means but I only see them in the depths of winter.  One showed up at the nyger feeder during the first big storm (remember that 17 ...

• Winter Chickadee accomodations

  Posted on Thursday December 18th, 2008 at 08:20 in Help, gift, winter, christmas, backyard, box, chickadee, backyard birds, roosting

  For years now, I have been feeling the loss of my Chickadees (possessive aren’t I?) from the winter temps.  Up here on the mountain, it gets wicked cold and stays that way for days on end.  (One year it was below zeroF for 3 solid weeks.)  I...

• Birding at Sandia Crest

  Posted on Saturday December 13th, 2008 at 16:01 in travel, video, photos, winter, festival, new mexico, Carnival, sandia crest, finches, black rosy-finch, brown-capped rosy-finch, gray-crowned rosy-finch

  Every time I mentioned that I needed to see Rosy-Finches, I was told I had to go to Sandia Crest.  The first time, I had no idea what or where Sandia Crest was.  From mid-November through March the 3 species of Rosy-finches are supposedly there at ...

• Red Crossbill in NJ

  Posted on Saturday December 6th, 2008 at 10:56 in photos, winter, migration, female, Finch, nj, vagrant, local schmocal, red crossbill, picotuerto rojo, loxia curvirostra

  On the 3rd try I finally got a really good look at the female Red Crossbill that I have been stalking since last weekend.  She is a late riser, so I didn’t kill myself getting there super early only to find out that she had been spotted at 7:3...

• Carolina Wren in winter

  Posted on Sunday November 30th, 2008 at 07:55 in photos, winter, backyard, carolina wren, saltapared de carolina, thryothorus ludovicianus

  Tea-kettle, Tea-kettle, Tea-kettle…I hear the resident Carolina Wren throughout the Spring, Summer and Fall, however, until this year, I had never heard a peep in Winter.  When I tidied the yard for the colder months, I neglected to bring in t...

• Fox Sparrow visitor

  Posted on Saturday November 22nd, 2008 at 09:03 in photos, winter, migration, bird, backyard, big, rusty, sparrow, migrant, fox sparrow, passerella iliaca, gorrión rascador

  I stood at the kitchen sink talking to my sister on the phone.  The wind was howling around the house and the thermometer read 6F.  The neglected rusty brown oak leaves in the backyard were swirling and dancing in the gale.  I squinted; one of tho...

• Bird Photography Weekly

  Posted on Wednesday November 19th, 2008 at 21:39 in photos, winter, female, Finch, invasion, pine grosbeak, local schmocal, picogordo pinero, pinicola enucleator

  Last winter was incredible with a terrific northern finch invasion.  I am hoping for something similar this year.  There are already lots of sightings of Pine Siskins and White-winged Crossbills plus the ListServ has a few reports of Snowy Owls nor...