How many baby duck photos can we post?

Apparently quite a few. Other than baby ducks, there's not much else around, except a wet night heron.

California Birds: Too much rain in NJ

The rain is dampening any birding plans. We do have daily duck visitors, but how many duck photos can we post? Here are two photos from CA, an old one of a roadrunner in our backyard when we lived there, and a recent one of an unidentified bird in Bolsa Chica.

Summer Ducklings

We feel very honored when the mother ducks bring the babies up into the yard. Looks like they will be quite helpful with the clean up task under the bird feeder. Today there were actually two groups of mothers with babies in the yard, these little guys and a slightly older group. They kept their distance and shared nicely the whole time with the older group mostly napping and these young ones filling up.

Beaver

 

 

 

We were pleased to find the beaver dam this weekend and even more pleased to see one out of the water.

Baby Ducks

 

 

 

Great Egret

 

Duckling Rescue

When we went for an early morning walk, we noticed the mother mallard swimming around a ring float in the lake that is near the fountains. It appeared to be calling to a duckling that was stuck inside the float. When we got home, we saw that there was still much activity and calling around the float. We took the boat over and were surprised to find that there were actually four cute baby ducks swimming in the inner part of the ring but couldn't make it out. Mike gave them each a boost and the baby ducks quickly caught up with the mother. She actually has a total of eight, but we were too busy to photograph them all.

 

 

 

Chickadee

 

Eastern Kingbird

It seems that eastern kingbirds have plenty of insects to eat this year.

 

A few times, we've noticed the kingbird chasing the heron, much like other birds chase hawks or crows. It dives at it and hits it on the back. Here's one blurry photo of a chase. We also like it because if you enlarge it by clicking on it, you can see a bit of the red on the kingbirds head that is rarely visible. Perhaps he was angry.

 

Flickers

While out in the boat, we saw two male northern flickers. They appeared to be having a discussion over territory, but it was fairly civil.
We like the top photo because it looks like one very wide flicker.

 

 

Photo from Amy in Ringwood, NJ

 

Honestly, I am not sure if it is a falcon or a young hawk (if you could help me out, that would be great!)

For the past few weeks, my dad and brother and I have been hearing the calls of falcons (which is what we have been assuming) and even last week one was perched right on our deck. Then last night when I went to put out the garbage and my dog started growling at something on the ground, I saw the bird just staring back at me. We don't know how it got injured but I called Animal Control and a woman came to take it to a shelter. She said it didn't seem too bad, but it will have to be checked out and eventually (hopefully) released. I've included a few photos.

I feel bad now though since I keep hearing the other birds calling for the missing one - I even saw one falcon today sitting around the spot that I found the injured bird :( We'll see how things work out.

~Amy
Ringwood, NJ

Lynn's Best Owl from Ojai

 

Girls' getaway to Ojai

Mike had to attend a conference in Pasadena, so Chris and our daughters decided to spend some time together at a spa in Ojai, California. One morning, they took a hike and the highlight was encountering an owl, probably a great horned owl.

 

 

Here's a photo of a Cooper's Hawk, a western bluebird (although it looks more like an eastern bluebird) and a butterfly.

 

 

 

 

Birds from the backyard feeders

We put up a jelly feeder for the orioles. They ignored it while building their nest and then disappeared entirely during the June rains. The catbirds have been sampling the jelly recently.

 

The goldfinches are returning to the nyjer feeder now but not in the same numbers that we saw last year.

 

Birds from the Celery Farm in Allendale

We took a quick trip to the Celery Farm in Allendale, NJ. The yellow warbler was best photo that we got.

We spotted some wood ducks including what appeared to be an immature male just showing some adult colors.

 

 

Egret

Swans and Ducks

Cormorant

Baby Catbird

Swallow

Wren

Tufted Titmouse feeding baby

Here is a tufted titmouse feeding her young. We've spotted quite a few babies being fed this week, including the tufted titmouse, the chickadee and the downy woodpecker.

Killdeer: Photo by Tara

 

Killdeer sitting on her eggs in parking lot in Florham Park
He/She has been guarding the eggs for quite some time and we are all anxious to see the babies.

Happy Fourth of July