Hey, Where is the lake?

Goslings

Great KIskadee

Great KIskadeeAnother bird from Tobago.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

This morning's scan of the yard turned up a rare visitor. Chris was doing household stuff with one eye out a window at all times checking for spring migrants. She dashed out when she thought she saw a Towhee in the garden. Couldn't find the Towhee but heard a lovely song in the trees. This Rose-breasted Grosbeak stayed and sang for around 10 minutes. At first he was hidden in the few leaves that are out, but he repositioned in a different tree for this clear shot. Not sure if the Towhee was a false alarm as it never turned up again. There are some similarities in appearance between the two birds, but the locations were so different that it likely could have been one of each. We'll make sure to keep some sunflower seed out, which is what the Grosbeaks like, but unfortunately the squirrels like it as well.

Little Nut

Red-breasted nuthatch


Red-breasted nuthatch and goldfinch


White-breasted nuthatch

The red-breasted nuthatch, now affectionately known as "Little Nut," spent his second day at our house. Late in the afternoon, it was joined by a second one, so we are hoping they take up residence. The white-breasted nuthatches are still around. Little nut seems to interact a bit with the larger white-breasted ones and generally gets along with all the backyard birds. Both varieties prefer being upside down.

Robin having a bath

Cardinals: Happy Loving Couple

The cardinal couple is spending quite a bit of time together.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs
While the dam is being repaired, we are left with just a stream. We were surprised yesterday to see a lesser yellowlegs wading.

Happy Easter

 

Copper-rumped Hummingbird from Trinidad

Copper-rumped Hummingbird
Another bird from the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad.

Red Breasted Nuthatch

 

We have white-breasted nuthatches all year round in our yard. The red-breasted nuthatch is a rare treat particularly on a dreary day.

Tufted Titmouse: Photo by Mayda

 

This picture was taken while the bird visited a feeder in my front yard.

A sunny picture for a rainy day

Pigeon Point, Tobago

Tropical Kingbird from Tobago

Blue Dacnis from Trinidad

Blue Dacnis
Here's a cute little bird from our March trip to Trinidad and Tobago. We'll keep posting a bird or two from our trip intermixed with New Jersey birds.

Bird Photos by Nelson

Kingfisher-Taken on our dock in Stone Harbor


Ospreys- Adolescent ospreys taken on stand in marshland off inland waterway in Stone Harbor.

Junco Go Home

Dark-eyed Junco
The juncos arrive in the early winter and head back to Canada when spring comes. While most have left, we have one remaining, reminding us of that awful long winter.

Spring Birds from our backyard

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Chipping Sparrow

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

We are still deciding whether or when to go to Cape May or Garrett Mountain or Central Park to see the spring bird migration. In the meantime, we are catching a few in our backyward.

Northern Gannet takes a plunge at Barnegat Inlet: Photo by Rob.

 

NJ BIrds: Blog Post Number One Thousand

Wow, since Our First Blog Post on Feb 16, 2008, we've made 999 posts making this post #1000. We really didn't intend to take on this task and we really weren't birders when we started. It was the red-bellied woodpecker, who we used to call "Mr. Spectacular," that fascinated us first with his brillant red head. We bought our first good camera to photograph him and created the blog to share with friends and family because the photos were too large for some email systems at the time.


Soon a small migratory duck, the hooded merganser, became our obsession. He is only on our lake a few weeks a year and usually in bad weather. We'll often look for him in late fall, winter and early spring.

The cormorants can be great fun to watch, both fishing and drying their wings while perched.

Eventually, we started to venture out, birding around New Jersey at the Meadowlands, Cape May, and Duke Farms where a bluebird posed for us.

Although most of the posts are of birds in New Jersey, we've been lucky enough to be able to go birding in California, Florida, Arizona, The Caribbean, and most recently Trinidad and Tobago.

We aren't sure how much longer we can keep this up, but it has been fun learning about birds and sharing our experiences with others.
-Chris and Mike

Lake Nelson returns, just for a day

 

 

The dam at Lake Nelson has been under repair since the late fall. Instead of the lake, there is a small stream running down the center. We've had a few great blue herons fishing in the stream. On Thursday, there were three at once. With all the rain we got on Saturday, Lake Nelson filled up completly. While having coffee early this morning, Mike saw a small duck, and it turned out to be a female hooded merganser. Now, it's not our best merganser photo, but we are happy to have the lake back, if just for a day, and even happier to have the hooded merganser stop by.

Northern Cardinal Courtship

We've had a few cardinals around all winter. This week, this cute couple have been paying more attention to each other. In the top photo she is looking at him adoringly. The bottom photo shows 'mate feeding' or 'courtship feeding.'

Trogons from Trinidad and Tobago

Amazonian White-tailed Trogon

Collared Trogon


Violaceous Trogon


We've been wanting to see a trogon ever since we missed them when we were in Arizona. In Trinidad and Tobago, we were lucky enough to see three varieties.

American Goldfinch: State Bird of New Jersey

American GoldfinchI guess we should put a New Jersey Bird up on this blog too. We still have 25 or more birds from our Trinidad and Tobago trip to post, but spring is here and the New Jersey State bird is starting to be more colorful.

Lineated Woodpeckers from Trinidad

The adult Lineated Woodpecker in the bamboo we tracked ourselves. Mike heard the familiar drumming of a woodpecker while we were on the veranda at Asa Wright. We set off in search of the source and eventually found it in a bamboo cluster along the driveway. You'd think it would be easy to find with that bright red head, but it actually took us a while.

The darling juvenile sticking its head out of the nest was shown to us by our driver on our departure from Asa Wright. He pulled over to show us where he knew there was a nest, and luckily the little one was being curious enough to stick its head out just at the right time.

Violaceous Euphonia from Trinidad

Violaceous Euphonia We saw roughly 75 types of birds while in Trinidad and Tobago.  As you can imagine, it wasn't that easy at first to get the names of these birds rolling off our tongues.  We had been told what this was by other birders, but it didn't quite stick.  Chris at least once mistakenly referred to it as the violaceous euphoria.  A clever birder in the bunch told her that's just how she feels when she sees it; euphoric!  Eventually the name stayed with us and we also found out that violaceous means violet.

Tobago: Brown-crested Flycatcher feasting on a moth

We love watching birds eat things that look too big for them; never ceases to amaze.  This feast went on for a good 20 minutes while the flycatcher relentlessly flung this large moth around.  Eventually each wing fell off and the flycatcher got it into a proper angle to swallow it whole.  While we're sorry for the moth, we thoroughly enjoyed the show.

More Trinidad birds: Channel-billed Toucan, Oilbird, and Masked Cardinal

Channel-billed Toucan


Oilbird and chick


Masked Cardinal


Here are some more birds from Trinidad. They aren't our best photos, but they are interesting birds. Chris even had to go into a cave to see the oilbird.

Manakins from Trinidad and Tobago

White-bearded Manakin


Blue-backed Manikan


Golden-headed Manakin


At Asa Wright Nature Center, the White-bearded and Golden-headed Manakins were easy to find. They have leks on either side of one trail where the males perform adorably trying to attract the females. The Blue-backed Manakin was a different story entirely. We spent at least an hour hiking trails with a guide on Tobago, and Chris told him she wasn't leaving the island until she'd seen the Blue-backed Manakin. Thank goodness he took her seriously; the bird was better in person than in the guidebooks. It looks like it's wearing a little blue cape and a red beret that sits slightly askew. Even after we had a brief look at one on the first hike, we went to another trail where we got to know the bird a little better. We like to watch for a while, rather than just see it, check it off a list and move on.

Female Cowbird

Female CowbirdMore spring birds are reaching our backyard.

Return of the Black-crowned Night Heron

Night HeronThe Lake Nelson Night Heron has returned from his winter vacation to his favorite tree.  It's now been three years that he comes back to this tree where he sleeps during the day and fishes at night.

Northern Flicker

Northern FlickerThe spring migration has reached our backyard.