Hawk

This large hawk flew in at dusk. We estimate he is about 30 inches, at least twice the size of the sharpshined hawks that are more common on the lake. We weren't able to identify what type of hawk he was. Maybe he's an eagle.

Wood Ducks: Back in Jersey

Special Caribbean Issue

While Lake Nelson has it charms, sometimes people and birds require warmer climates and turquoise waters. We spent a week in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on two islands (Petit St. Vincent and Palm Island). Here are some the birds we encountered.

Bananaquit

Tropical Mockingbird

Frigate

Blue Heron having a snack.

Great Egret



Great Egret having a meal

Common Moorhen

Blackbird: with stolen Sweet-n-low.

Hummingbird



Sandpiper

Another Bananaquit

This duck was in a lagoon in the middle of Palm Island, SVG. It took some time searching on the internet, but we eventually identified it as a blue-winged teal on vacation in Palm Island, SVG. We prefered the caribbean waters, but they liked the lagoon.

Special Caribbean Issue: Unidentified Bird

We have not yet been able to identify this bird. Please leave a comment if you can.

This is a small bird, about 2 inches. We called it the complaining bird, because it would stop near our cottage and let out a scream while the other birds would sing and have some crumbs.

Belted Kingfisher

Look who decided to use our nesting box as a perch!

Chris spotted this female Belted Kingfisher this morning. The shot would have been better from the dining room, but the drapes were not open yet and she did not want to scare her off.

Hooded Mergansers and Common Mergansers

Wow! What a day here at Lake Nelson. There seems to be a merganser convention going on. Looks like the happy little couple came back and brought along some friends. Chris has spent the majority of the day on the dock or in the windows just watching their antics.

I love this shot even though the ones in the back are blurry because I call it "The Leader of the Pack."

Is she giving him the eye or what?

I think this is the first time we've got a clear enough shot that you can see the eye on this guy.

Green-winged Teals

Belted Kingfisher

Mike and Chris are having a contest to see who will get the best picture of the Kingfisher. They spotted the Kingfisher from different rooms at the same time but Chris was closer to the camera.  This is the best photo, which isn't bad considering it was a grey day and he only stayed for 30 seconds, but Mike hopes to surpass her someday.  Stay tuned, friends.

Green-winged Teal & Canada Goose

Another very exciting morning! We started looking early hoping to see the Wood Ducks again. One was here yesterday but barely for a minute. At first Chris didn't see anything other than geese, but did a quick scan over the lake with the binoculars in case. Well, good thing! Of course the "new duck" alert went into effect. There were two male Green-winged Teals hanging around for about a half hour. Isn't he just adorably small in comparison to the goose! It was sort of a gray morning, and we didn't find these little guys to be very photogenic, but this we thought was good enough to post.

Male Hairy Woodpecker at Suet Feeder

We are starting to select different settings on the camera to see what we get. This looks a lot clearer than a previous post of a Hairy at the suet feeder (at least in our opinion.)

Common Mergansers: Two Girls For Every Boy

They spent a pleasant afternoon sunning themselves without much diving.

Wood Ducks

This pair caused quite a stir at our house very early this morning. We were having our coffee in the upstairs bedroom windows as usual, which offer the best view of a large portion of the lake. At first glance with the naked eye, Chris thought the Hooded Merganser couple was back. Fortunately she was quick to grab the binoculars and discover it was a male and female Wood Duck pair. She dashed for the camera, of course all the while exclaiming to Mike how she could not contain her excitement. It's a good thing she moved fast, because they only stayed for about 20 minutes. We had seen a pair of these one day early last November also early one morning, and we hadn't seen any again until this morning. Chris sat out on the dock late this afternoon for an hour and a half hoping they would come by again so we'd have a clearer picture to put up, but they just didn't come by. The early mornings and late afternoons seem to be the best times for the less common types of ducks we see, so we'll surely be up early again tomorrow hoping for a repeat performance. The lovely female Common Merganser was here early in the morning too, and she was just demanding to be photographed again. I do love the way she is looking at him.

A Pair of Wood Ducks

Female Common Merganser

She looks so pretty and so proud, doesn't she! And her hair is not blowing in the wind like in another female Common Merganser that we posted.

Tufted Titmouse

It's a nice bright sunny day today, so we got some clearer pictures. This is our first posting of the Tufted Titmouse. They move so fast it's hard to get them. The others have been up before, the Northern Cardinal and the Nuthatch.

Northern Cardinal

White-breasted Nuthatch

A Female Downy Woodpecker

Thief

At first we thought the squirrels were cute. Now we are not so sure