Next week my friend Renee and I are heading to Ohio for five days of pure-birding fun during the Biggest Week in American Birding. I have been posting photos from this event since February and now it is finally here! Birders from all over the world (yes, not just the US) will be pouring into Magee Marsh and the surrounding areas to enjoy the Warbler spectacle.
Palm Warblers were everywhere!
Last year, we went to the festival because we heard good things about Magee Marsh. We ended up falling in love with it! Now The Biggest Week is in our plans for many more future spring migrations.
What is so special about this event?
Obviously, there are great birds – who do not make you struggle to view them.
One of many Cape May Warblers near eye level
We also met new friends from all over the world, many of whom we still keep in touch with over Facebook. Some of them were trip leaders and showed us some pretty cool birds.
My first very good looks at a Sandhill Crane thanks to the guides from Wildside Nature Tours
The event planning just keeps getting better and better. There are so many trips and social events on the schedule. Kim Kaufman and her team really knows what they are doing!
Warbling Vireo, typically in tree tops, seen from one of the raised platforms on the Magee boardwalk
The Biggest Week brought me some awesome life birds including my first looks at Bobolinks, a Least Flycatcher, a Common Nighthawk, an Eastern Screech-Owl, a Sora, Field Sparrows, Grasshopper Sparrows, Lincoln Sparrows, a Cliff Swallow, a Gray-cheeked Thrush, a Kentucky Warbler (thanks to new friends for this one!!) and Prothonotary Warblers.
Prothonotary Warbler – a new bird for my life list
When a rare bird shows up, you will know about it. One of the best highlights of last year’s event were the Kirtland’s Warblers. Three of them showed up after I left so I did not see them, but I am determined to get one this year!! Huge thanks to Dawn Fine and Chris West for allowing me to use their photo so that you can see the great views that people got. Word traveled fast when these birds showed up… and so did the crowds. If you don’t want to miss great birds like this one, be sure to keep up with @BiggestWeek on Twitter and opt to have their tweets sent straight to your phone.
Kirtland’s Warbler by Dawn Fine taken with a point and shoot camera. Yeah… that’s how close she got to this bird!
Kirtland’s Warbler by Chris West
Speaking of crowds – you may be turned off by the amount of people that will be in the area. Be sure to read Anna Fasoli’s post at Nemesis Bird to put your mind at ease. I, personally, am not the type of person who loves crowds. In fact I mostly enjoy birding alone, but if it weren’t for these groups, I may have missed many great birds. And like Anna said, it is not packed wall-to-wall with people – you can always get away from the crowd if you want to!
This Lincoln’s Sparrow was pointed out by others in the crowd
I also share my excitement with Biggest Week bloggers Rob Ripma, Jerry Jourdan and Linda Rockwell – all of who I hope to see this year. I’m sad that I will not get to meet Dawn Fine but look forward to seeing her at future events. If it weren’t for her, I would not have seen the offer for event bloggers.
I will leave you off with a link to a great migration poem by Kim Smith. If you haven’t read it yet, I strongly recommend you do!
Birds are on my mind! There is no better way to start the day then taking a walk in the woods or at a park where it is just me, the birds and my camera. Last week was was pretty quiet. All of the fallout birds we had previously have moved on while no new birds were showing up! High winds toward the end of the week made for very slow birding. Things are starting to pick up as I am finding more first-of-year birds.
I hit my first Warbler wave of the year which included Yellow-rumped, Pine and Black-and-white Warblers; along with high numbers of Blue-headed Vireos and Ruby-crowned Kinglets and one lone Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.
Black-and-white Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Silhouette
I hear the songs of Ruby-crowned Kinglets everywhere I go. This is a song that I just learned this year and I’ve fallen in love with it – so much that I get their song stuck in my head instead of music…
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
I found my first Eastern Towhees, Thrashers and Hermit Thrushes. The low foragers are making some noise in the leaves. This Hermit Thrush, however, stayed out in the open.
Hermit Thrush
I still have some Fox Sparrows hanging around.
Fox Sparrow
And the Song Sparrows continue to contribute their tunes.
Song Sparrow
This afternoon, I heard a House Wren singing so I went to look for him. He hid only for a moment, then popped back up to sing and look around. I think he found a nice spot to settle into.
House Wren
House Wren
Another interesting recent sighting were three Northern Flickers on one tree. Two of them were doing a small dance to each other. I did catch a little bit of it on video, but it may be too shaky.
Three Northern Flickers
I also had my first Broad-winged Hawk of the year – he flew over my yard! This was yard bird number 96. I am almost at 100!
Broad-winged Hawk
I am hoping that this week brings in more new arrivals. I really love finding birds before work to start my day off right!
It took a while, but spring is finally here — though it still seems to be fighting with winter. I knew that the nice weekend we had in early March was just a folly, but I did not think that it would be this tough! After some nice weather the birds started to move, only to be stopped by more bad weather. Migration is slow, but the birds are slowly trickling in. Earlier this week, I wrote about my birding trips that involved migrating birds and fallout. Today I want to share some of my local year-round residents and new arrivals.
Sparrows
The Song Sparrows are filling the air with the variety of their tunes!
Song Sparrow
Juncos have been hanging around in full force. I get over 20 at a time under my feeders. I am glad they they do not eat from the feeders otherwise they would clean me out! I had multiple incidents where over 30 Juncos would fly from one single area. They are everywhere!
Dark-eyed Juncos
I enjoyed the songs of Fox Sparrows for the first time. They hung around for over two weeks and I had up to six at a time near my creek when they flew right at.
One of many Fox Sparrows who passed through
Finches
I still have some Pine Siskins hanging around at the feeders with the Goldfinches (who, by the way are starting to look very gold!).
Pine Siskin
The lingering Redpolls wish they moved on sooner. I suppose they learned the hard way that staying south did not mean sunshine and warm weather.
Common Redpoll in a rain storm
My newest feeder-bird arrival is the Purple Finch. I started with just one for about a week and yesterday I had three pairs.
Purple Finch
Waterfowl
Every walk at the creek produces at least one Common Merganser. I was able to get pretty close to them at times just by staying still near the edge of the woods.
Male Common Merganser
Female Common Merganser
For the first time, I had Geese across the street from me. I think the creek was too high and rough for them so they wandered a little bit in search for food.
Canada Geese across the street
Woodpeckers
The Pileated Woodpeckers seem to be a bit less shy then usual when they are looking for insects.
Pileated Woodpecker
Since I had no tripod I layed down on the ground across from him and used a stump and my knees to keep the camera steady so that I could shoot this video
I’m pretty sure that I found the nesting cavity for my local Red-bellied Woodpeckers. They are hanging around this tree and especially this cavity an awful lot!
Red-bellied Woodpecker at possible Nest
Other local birds
The air is also full of the loud songs of my Carolina Wrens.
Singing Carolina Wren
Brown Creepers are everywhere.
Brown Creeper
And last week marked the return of my favorite flycatcher, the Phoebe.
Eastern Phoebe
This past weekend I also had a long-awaited yard bird: while standing in my driveway talking to a friend an adult Bald Eagle flew low following along the creek. This happened not ten minutes after my friend and I were talking about having Eagles as yard birds. Talking about being at the right place at the right time!
Who would think that bad weather could equal really great birds? When birds are migrating through and run into poor migrating weather (storm, front), they will drop out of the sky, typically in good numbers, to the most convenient habitat that suits them. This is known as fallout. Serious birders will actually go out in the rain and look for these birds because many times, something rare is sure to show up.
On Wednesday morning it started with an early report of some Long-tailed Ducks and Bonaparte’s Gulls. It was before work, so I went out to find these birds with success. I had 27 Bonaparte’s Gulls and later in the day over 80 were counted in the same location. As the day went on, the reports started coming in quick from birders who were off from work — more Long-tailed Ducks (20+ in one location and 40+ in another), Red-necked Grebes in four different locations, Horned Grebes showing up in high numbers, Four Great Egrets foraging together in a local pond, Caspian Terns in two locations — it was too much to resist not taking a long lunch for these great reports! I went out and quickly found some of the birds with a friend, but did not have time to take photos or get all of the birds.
Four Great Egrets stop to rest for one evening
The next morning, I headed out with another friend to see if we could get the high number of Long-tailed Ducks. They were no longer around, but I did see two Caspian Terns, which I did not get the previous day.
Caspian Terns
We continued to get poor weather so many of the birds stuck around for the weekend. Bufflehead were in high numbers at every location.
Bufflehead Pair at Dorchester Park
Bufflehead at Lisle Park
For the first time, I saw Horned Grebes in every possible plumage — winter, transitional and full on breeding plumage. I was happy to finally get photos of them too!
Horned Grebe
Horned Grebes
Both birds were often together…
Horned Grebe and Bufflehead
The big Grebe news, however, were the Red-necked Grebes. It is rare in our area to see a single one – I had at least NINE in one location with great scope views (not so great camera views…)
Red-necked Grebes with other waterfowl in Whitney Point
Today, we also found a Common Tern actively fishing around a lake. Another great rarity.
Common Tern in Whitney Point
And, of course, our more usual waterfowl were also around.
Pied Billed Grebes and Blue-winged Teal
It was not just about waterfowl. I also believe we had a Kinglet fallout. Ruby- and especially Golden-crowned Kinglets were everywhere. At one point I was surrounded by at least 50 birds dripping from the trees. There was a Kinglet on every branch that I looked at. I failed at getting a decent photo of a Golden-crowned since they are so fast but I did manage to get a Ruby-crowned at one point.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
This weekend also brought my first Warblers of the year! I had Pine Warblers, Palm Warblers (in multiple locations) and Yellow-rumped Warblers.
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Other great highlights included another rarity for our area, a Vesper Sparrow who has been hanging around with some of our more common Sparrows and many first-of-year birds. We also did a Woodcock walk and enjoyed a male in good enough light to follow his aerial display.
Vesper Sparrow (far left) among Savannah Sparrows, a Junco and American Tree Sparrow.
I also had my best looks at singing Rusty Blackbirds – close enough to see how they got their name.
Rusty Blackbird
It was a great birding weekend and I am sad that it is over. I will write about my more local yard and creek birds in another post later in the week. This next week will bring more new migrants… I can’t wait to see who shows up!
My friend and I made a trip up to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for some photo ops. My original reason for wanting to go up there were to see some Bohemian Waxwings that have been reported during the week. They were not seen all day yesterday, but we ended up going anyway to see other birds. When we parked the car at the Lab, I checked my email to see if anything interesting had been sighted and it turned out that Bohemian Waxwings were reported not far from us on Cayuga’s birding listserv. We hopped right back into the car and made our way to the birds.
When we got there, we ran into a Cornell Spring Field Ornithology class who led us to the right location, but the birds were slowly trickling away from sight into private property. At that point, I only had binocular views of them with no real looks at field marks – you could tell they were Waxwings, but I wanted to see the key marks of a Bohemian. My friend decided to go see if she could get permission to go on the property and the owner allowed us in!
We came across a flock high up in the trees and got very nice scope views of about 30 birds. We went further in for a closer look and suddenly we were surrounded by Waxwings.
Bohemian Waxwing pair
Bohemian Waxwing pair
This is a bird that I have wanted to see for a long time. We estimated that there could have been up to 80 individuals (though, I put 70 on our eBird list), plus one lone Cedar Waxwing. In our area, it is usually the opposite! We had satisfying looks from every angle.
Bohemian Waxwing
We were pleased to see some of the birds exhibiting courtship behavior by exchanging small pieces of food back and forth.
Bohemian Waxwings courtship
Bohemian Waxwings courtship
Bohemian Waxwings courtship
It was one of the best “life bird” experiences I’ve had, especially considering that I would have never expected to see so many.
Bohemian Waxwing
After this wonderful experience, we went out to look for waterfowl. While the numbers are down from the winter-waterfowl birding, we still did see a good variety including Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Ducks, Bufflehead, both Mergansers, Redhead, Ruddy Ducks, Common Loons, American Coot and a Pied-billed Grebe. I finally got some decent photos of Hooded Mergansers, thanks to another friend who joined us!
Hooded Merganser
All of us couldn’t help but get photos of this Mallard up close in the sun. As common as they are, you cannot dismiss their beauty!
Mallard
The last highlight was another good one. We went to find local nesting Great Horned Owls and did not come up empty handed.
Great Horned Owl
A great start to a birding weekend. I wonder what tomorrow will bring…
Still on the edge about whether or not you want to attend the Biggest Week in American Birding festival? You can now view the official visitor online! What’s even better? You don’t even have to leave this website to view it!
Flipping through the guide made me look through my photos from last year. And ever since Warblers have been dancing through my head. I am so eager for their return to the northeast! To ramp up for migration, here are just some Warblers that I saw during last year’s festival.
You would think that Yellow-rumped Warblers would take over the trees…
Yellow-rumped Warbler
… but surprise, surprise, the Warbler who dominated the festival was the butt-pumping Palm Warbler.
Palm Warbler
Some Warblers were difficult to photograph…
Black and White Warbler
… and others made it too easy.
Cape May Warbler
But that is just the nature of photographing birds! Trees along the ponds were lined with our favorite bright-yellow Warbler who filled the air with their songs.
Yellow Warbler
Many unexpected Warblers came down to eye level…
Magnolia Warbler
Nashville Warbler
…and others would watch us from not far above.
Black-throated Green Warbler
Northern Parula
This is the first time that I came face-to-face with a Black-throated Blue Warbler!
Black-throated Blue Warbler
In the same area many birders were able to enjoy a Cerulean Warbler preening right off the board walk.
Cerulean Warbler
The star of the show, however, was the singing Prothonotary Warbler who gave me the best life-bird view that I could ever ask for.
Prothonotary Warbler
I also saw tons of Blackburians, a few Bay-breasted and one surprise Kentucky Warbler – who we would not have seen if other birders did not flag down our car as we were leaving. Yeah – we got flagged down to look at an awesome bird. What a great way to end a day!
The festival is only one month away. I am so excited that I will soon be surrounded by great birds and wonderful people. If you’re going, let me know! I would love to meet more people!
Last Summer, I went to Italy to visit family. I have been there before, but not as a birder. I used Birding Pal to find a local birder who may be able to take me around. Thankfully, I found a very kind birder and also met a couple other local friends of his. Since it was the middle of summer, we went looking for water birds. He took me around Castel Volturno, Riserva Oasi Dei Varicon and other areas to the north of Naples.
The first birds we saw were all Sandpipers – Common, Wood, Green – all of which look very similar to me! The most exciting early sighting was a Grey Heron. I was very happy to see the Eurasian counterpart to the American bird that I love so much!
Grey Heron with Eurasian Coots and Black-headed Gulls
The next location was full of Black-winged Stilts, Yellow-legged Gulls, Mediterranean Gulls, Little Egret and Moorhens. I also caught glimpses of a Eurasian Oystercatcher, Gull-billed Tern, Little Tern. I did manage some [bad] photos of some of the birds.
Black-winged Stilts
Eurasian Oystercatcher with Mediterranean Gulls and Black-winged Stilt up front
Yellow-legged Gulls with Black-winged Stilts
Common Moorhens
We stopped at a beautiful spot, Riserva Oasi Dei Varicon, which brought us many more great waterbirds. Here, we saw Redshank and Greenshank, Kentish Plover, Little-ringed Plover, Little Stint, Shelducks, Garganey, Ferruginous Duck, Little Grebe and Sandwich Terns.
Sandwich Terns
Shelduck
Redshank and Greenshank
While driving around, I got better looks at some of the birds and saw many others that I did not get photos of suck as a Eurasian Kestrel, Crested Lark, Turtle Doves, Magpies and Night-heron. Some that I did get photos of are below.
Little Egret
Squacco Heron
Cattle Egret with Cattle
Zitting Cisticola
We were staying in Sant Agata were I saw mostly common birds like the Italian Sparrow, Blackbirds, Eurasian Collared Dove and Hooded Crows.
Italian Sparrow
Eurasian Collared Dove
We took a tour to Pompeii and the Vesuvius and saw some other common birds such as swifts, Hooded Crows, Jackdaws and Magpies. The bird I was hoping to see, the Hoopoe, was no where to be seen even though they are known to breed in Pompeii.
Hooded Crow
Jackdaws
Common Swift
Alpine Swift
And on our way back home from that tour, we saw a beautiful Serin above the streets.
Serin (wild Canary)
Other birds were spotted around family’s property including Spotted Flycatchers and, one that I was very happy to see, the European Robin.
Spotted Flycatcher family
European Robin
We took a trip to Trieste to see cousins and were surprised with some good birds in the gardens. Even though these are common birds, I was very happy to see them! They were very attracted to the plum trees which made it easy for me to see them.
Eurasian Jay with a plum
Eurasian Jay
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Blackbird Fledgling
We also saw many colorful Chaffinches while out in the area.
Chaffinch
We made a last minute stop to Isola della Cona, South of Malfalcone. This reserve gave me the best surprise of the entire trip – a bird who was on my must see list that I did not think I would see – the European Bee-eater!
European Bee-eaters
The reserve itself was full of Camarague horses and Cattle Egrets who would hang out nearby.
Camarague Horse with Cattle Egret, Lapwing, Wagtail and Duck
Cattle Egret
Other great birds at this location included Northern Lapwings and White Wagtails. I never did have to go chasing any of the Lapwings who showed up on the east coast of the US since I already saw them here!
Northern Lapwing
White Wagtail
The reserve was also full of many birds I already saw, plus some new waterfowl.
Black-winged Stilt
Northern Shoveler
Mixed Ducks
Graylag Geese
Common Snipe
Black-headed Gull in winter plumage
Common Sandpiper
The sun was strong and heat made for poor far-away photos, but I am happy that I at least got these memory photos. The last good bird here was another common one that I was happy to see – the European Goldfinch.
European Goldfinches
Overall, I saw over 50 life birds, and even though I didn’t get to see a Hoopoe as I had wished, I really enjoyed the birds I did see!
Last Summer, we had a very famous Barred Owl family make their home at a nearby park. Local birders enjoyed great views of these very cooperative owls who seemed to be showing off for us! I only have time for a short post tonight, so I will fill this entry with photos of these beautiful birds!
The easiest way to find these birds were when they would call back and forth with a hissing sound. We found the two siblings pretty easily
Young Barred Owl
Young Barred Owl
A parent Owl eventually flew near the bog and gave the photographers a great opportunity.
Barred Owl parent
The next time I went with another friend, we found the young owls after an hour of searching!
The two young Owls
I took some video this day too. This one shows the Owl making its hissing call.
Listening to that is really making me itch for spring with the Red-eyed Vireo, Black-throated Green Warblers and Hermit Thrush singing in the background! This video shows both Owls together, with one getting very curious at the sound of my friend walking.
I returned again with a visiting friend and once again found both siblings.
Barred Owl
Barred Owl siblings
One of them decided to give us a show and stretched it’s wings, giving us great photo ops, even in the dark woods.
Barred Owl stretching
Barred Owl stretching
Barred Owl stretching
I also finally got a quick video of flight… well, a good enough video of one of the Owls flying off camera…
These Owls were such a pleasure to have. I hope they return this year so that I can spend more time with them. This time, I will set aside some days and actually stick around a bit more.
Sparrows are a family of bird that we are all familiar with. In North America, we can blame the non-native Eurasian Sparrow who is a very widespread and invasive bird.
House Sparrow, the Non-Sparrow
This Sparrow is not, in fact, related to our Sparrows. Ours are more related to old world buntings. I am lucky to only have a few visitors every now and then rather than larger numbers that often raid feeders. This invasive bird seems to prefer my neighbors feeders instead!
Now on to the true American Sparrows. You may think that they are just another “little brown job,” but look closely and see that they can be very unique and beautiful. I get three yeah-round residents, the Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow and Dark-eyed Junco.
Song Sparrow in the winter
Song Sparrow in the spring
White-throated Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow, tan morph
Dark-eyed Junco
The numbers increase greatly during migration, but I get a few who stick around throughout the winter. My other winter sparrow is the American Tree Sparrow who I am still trying to get a good photo of.
American Tree Sparrow on my snow-covered deck
During the summer, my feeders are raided with Chipping Sparrows. They are my one summer-only Sparrow that I have actually seen on my yard. The other two summer sparrows are ones that I heard only from my yard, Field Sparrows and Eastern Towhees.
Chipping Sparrow
The Chipping Sparrows typically come in full force once their young fledge! They are the one sparrow that I get to enjoy watching as they feed their young.
Chipping Sparrow Fledgling
Chipping Sparrow adult feeding young
Other young birds have also found their way to my yard. I did not realize that I had breeding Juncos in my woods until I finally saw some young ones during the summer!
Immature Dark-eyed Junco
Dark-eyed Junco Fledgling
I also spotted young White-throated Sparrows foraging around.
Immature White-throated Sparrow
Along with my more usual visitors already mentioned, I get two types of Sparrows who move through during migration only. This White-throated Sparrow was my first one!
White-crowned Sparrow
And my favorite local sparrow seems to visit once per migration season, the Fox Sparrow.
Fox Sparrow during Fall migration
There are other great local sparrow species that I cannot call yard birds due to their need for specific habitat, but maybe one day they will pass through and I can add them to my growing list.
Every bird lover has that one special bird that started it all. In my early camera years I always loved taking photos of animals. When I purchased my first dSLR I was sure to get a telephoto lens right away because I knew that I would want to photograph wildlife. I would visit Colonial Park in Somerset, New Jersey where I started photographing geese and ducks because they were the easiest targets. It was not long before I saw a Heron for the first time. A bird so beautiful and majestic, graceful and proud. In May 2008, I saw the bird that would change everything.
My first Great Blue Heron, cropped with a lower quality lens
After taking countless photos of waterfowl, this was the bird that I wanted to get a great photo of. When I went home, I found out that it is a Great Blue Heron. A very common bird, yet I never remember seeing one before. It was not until August that I finally got fairly close to one.
My second Great Blue Heron, shot with a Canon 55-250 lens
I spent two hours watching the bird, enjoying his beauty. I hoped that he would fly so that I could try a flight shot, but he wouldn’t budge. It turned out that I had to leave the bird! The next time I went to the park was after work, so it was already late. I did not find a Great Blue Heron until it was near dark, but I did find another interesting relative.
Green Heron
A much smaller bird in the Ardeidae family, the Green Heron. I soon found that this one was even more difficult to get close to. Most of the time I would only see them when they were spooked away by me walking by. They were just too quick!
The following weekend, I photographed both birds at the same park. I was getting closer to the perfect shot, but was still not quite there yet.
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
A couple of months later, I found another beautiful long-legged bird. This one was all white and gorgeous as ever. The Great Egret became a new target bird, along with my other Heron friends. My first sighting of it was in a tree only for about a minute. I later found it perched along the bank.
Great Egret
I would often go to the park after work, so I lost lighting quickly for bird photography. I started to become a bit creative with my photos.
Great Blue Heron Silhouette
But most of the time, I would end up getting photos of a bird who was flying away.
Great Blue Heron flying away
The next time that I would see a Great Blue Heron was in the middle of winter on a nice February afternoon. Some of the water was frozen over and I enjoyed watching as geese and ducks would slide around on top of the ice. The Heron quickly stole my attention when it landed on the bank right next to me.
Great Blue Heron
I enjoyed watching him fish for twenty minutes until he flew off in the other direction. An hour later, I caught back up to my feathered friend and watched him fish some more. He must have been hungry! He tried to grab an already dead fish that was much too large for him.
Great Blue Heron with a large catch
He fished in the open and searched under bridges for whatever he could find in the recently thawed waters. Pickings seemed to be slim.
Great Blue Heron
The only fish he caught were very small, so he had to keep going at it.
Great Blue Heron with a small snack
This was my chance. The Heron did not care that I was right there next to him. He would walk right up to me and right past me, continuing his search for small fish. I patiently stayed still and watched him, enjoying every bit of the show he gave me.
Great Blue Heron
He was so close, that I could get shots of his head that filled up the entire frame.
Great Blue Heron
And shots that were too close for the frame!
Great Blue Heron up close
My earliest target bird dream had come true. I had the perfect photos of the perfect bird, shot with my new Canon 70-200mm F4 lens… yeah, he was close! You do not get this type of opportunity close-up in central New Jersey off the coast very often.
Great Blue Heron
It was hard to top that experience. I never got that close again. My next great experiences happened at new location at Johnson Park in Piscattaway. Here, I saw a Black-crowned Night Heron for the first time!
Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron
A couple of weeks later at this park, I found myself passing by more Herons and Egrets that were not disturbed by my presence.
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron perched above the trail
Young Great Blue Heron
My journey for better photos of Great Egrets also proved to be a success from different locations.
Great Egret at Boland Pond in Binghamton, New York
Great Egret at Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey
Great Egret in Cape May Meadows, New Jersey
I also found two very interesting Herons abroad. In Costa Rica in the Corcovado Rain Forest, we came across a Bared-throated Tiger Heron who was perched above a waterfall.
Bared-throated Tiger Heron in Costa Rica
And in Italy, near Naples I found a bird that I really wanted to see – a beautiful Squacco Heron!
Squacco Heron in Italy
I also saw two types of Egrets in Italy, Little Egrets in the same area as the Squacco Herons and many Cattle Egrets in Isola della Sola.
Little Egret in Italy
Cattle Egret
My most recent exciting Ardeidae experience came during a drive through Nummy Island in New Jersey this past fall. We had five different types of them in one location! Great Blue, Tri-colored and Little Blue Herons along with Great and Snowy Egrets. This was my first time photographing Snowy Egrets up close and they certainly did not disappoint me!
Snowy Egret in flight
Snowy Egret chasing off another
Herons still fascinate me and will always hold a special place in my birding-heart. One day, I would love to go to Florida and be able to photograph them up close. I also really want great photos of my next target Heron, a Tri-colored Heron!
Great Blue Heron
If you made it this far, please comment and let me know your “gateway” bird!
