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.