Oven bird from Rutgers Newark

 

Great Blue Heron: Photo by Michael

Here's a contributed photo of a great blue heron on a boat.

Piscataway Birds

 

Palm Warbler  (previously misidentified as a yellow warbler)

Song Sparrow 

We took an afternoon walk and found these birds in the field behind the park.

A visit to Sandy Hook

Eastern Phoebe 

Dark-eyed Junco 

Yellow-Rumped Warbler 

Sunday's weather was nicer than Saturday so Mike talked Chris into going to Sandy Hook again. We've been disappointed by Sandy Hook a few times. It's so large and confusing to someone new to birding. Today was a bit better. Still we didn't find the bobolinks, wood ducks, cuckoos, and vireos that others report. The first of season Dark-eyed Junko reminds us of the impending doom some call winter. We spotted quite a few kinglets, both ruby-crowned and gold-crowned.

Warbler from Sandy Hook

 

Here's a warbler we are having problems identifying.

Gold-crowned kinglet from Sandy Hook

 

 

 

How Mike and Chris birdwatch. Mike: "There's a sparrow with a yellow head." Chris: "Looks more like a kinglet with a yellow mohawk to me." Mike: "Oh, then it must be a Gold-crowned kinglet; I read about them in your birding emails." Chris: "Really; I guess that's what it is then."

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet from Sandy Hook

 

 

The Ruby-Crowned Kinglet is one of our favorites, even if it rarely shows its ruby crown. It's so small and darts around so quickly, but it really liked these flowers so it stopped to pose for a few photos.