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.

White-necked Jacobin, Trinidad

This hummingbird was a regular and constant visitor to the feeders at Asa Wright Nature Center.  Not a shy little bird at all and very entertaining to watch.

Bushtit

BushtitOne more from San Diego

Bicolored Conebill from Trinidad

Bicolored Conebill (male)



Bicolored Conebill (female)Birding can be full of pleasant little surprises.  Before our trip, we spent some time looking through our field guides to have some working knowledge of which birds we might see.  Obviously, the ones with very vibrant colors or unusual characteristics were easier to remember.  On the day we set out to see the Scarlett Ibis, we also spent some time looking around on our own behind the visitor center.  It wasn't long before Chris said, there's a nice little blue bird out here.  So while at the time we didn't know what type of bird it was, we just enjoyed watching it and its mate and then did our research afterwards to learn about the Conebills.

Eaglecam: The Eagle's Nest at Duke Farms

There is a web cam at a bald eagle's nest on Duke Farms in Hillsborough, NJ. A screen capture is below. The live web cam feed can be accessed from the Duke Farms Eaglecam web site or if all works well, clicking on the bottom image. As of today, one eagle chick has hatched.

Audubon's Warbler from San Diego

Audubon's WarblerOne more from San Diego: An Audobon's Warbler. This is a subspecies of the yellow rumped warbler or a distinct species depending upon who you talk to.

Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager
Frequent readers of this blog will be familiar with the story. Mike had a business trip, this time to San Diego, and got up early to go birding before his meeting. With a little advance planning and internet search, he found a location where an interesting bird had been spotted recently. This time, the bird was a summer tanager.

A special thanks to SDBIRDS and Wendy of San Diego for describing the location of this bird.

Red-headed Woodpecker

Red-headed WoodpeckerWe went to Glenhurst Meadows in Warren, NJ because some red-headed woodpeckers were reported there. After about 30 minutes, Chris spotted one and we enjoyed watching and photographing it.

Tree Swallow and Eastern Bluebird also from Glenhurst Meadows

Tree Swallow

Eastern Bluebird