Wordless Wednesday: Purple Sand

[Purple Sandpiper at Avalon, NJ, Sunday February 9 2014. Click to enlarge.]

Eagle (and Duck) Festival

 [Coming in for a landing, this Bufflehead was at the Maple Avenue Impoundments in Dividing Creek, NJ during Saturday's Eagle Festival. My camera was not set for a flight shot (I was trying to photograph the goldeneye below at the time this Bufflehead dropped in) so I wound up with some motion blur, which I think actually has a nice effect on this photo.]

Yesterday was the Cumberland County, NJ Eagle Festival, always a fun event. I was there as a participant this year, not as a leader, and it gave me a chance to enjoy again the sight of casually interested or curious observers being blown away by scope views of Bald Eagles, often adults, often at nests.

In talking to Kathy Clark, the NJ Bald Eagle biologist, I learned that eagles are running a little late this year when it comes to egg laying.  Other than a few early layers in January, February is at the top of the bell curve for laying, and currently few pairs of eagles are on eggs.  A product of the cold and snowy winter, I suppose.

It turns out that though we enjoyed views of many eagles and other raptors like harriers and Red-tailed Hawks, I didn't photograph any of them.  All were a bit too far for me and my 300mm lens (with a 1.4 converter).  I've developed quite a collection of images where the bird is small in the frame and have begun being more selective.  There's only so much that cropping can do. So instead I focused on the ducks. It's been a great couple weeks for them, with icy conditions moving them and concentrating them, sometimes where they can be photographed at close range.

[Hen Common Goldeneye at the Maple Ave. Impoundments yesterday.]

Fri-D: Cooper's Hawk Tail Length

This bird is quite round-tailed, and so perhaps there's no need to overanalyze separating it from Sharp-shinned Hawk, but note also how long this Cooper's Hawk's tail appears.  Coops are proportionately longer-tailed than sharpies. Forsythe NWR, NJ, January 30, 2014.

Wordless Wednesday: Royalty

[Immature Peregrine Falcon at Forsythe NWR, NJ February 4 2013.]

A Longspur of a Different Color

 

 [NOT the Smith's Longspur. . . this Lapland Longspur at Stone Harbor Point, NJ on Saturday was one of at least three that caused some brief false positives on the Smith's.  Note the rufous wing coverts and broad rufous edges to the tertials. Also check out the namesake long spur on the hind toe. Click to enlarge all photos.  ]

A veritable horde of searches were out for the Smith's Longspur at Stone Harbor Point, NJ this morning, me among them.  The Smith's has been lighting up the internet of late. Sadly, I did not see it - yet, anyhow. It would be a state bird, not surprising since it is a third state record. It was reported by others.

But the birding was good at Stone Harbor - there were the three Lapland Longspurs to distract one, and plenty of both "regular" and Ipswich Savannah Sparrows.  At least two American Bitterns flew over the crowd, as did a Common Loon.  And the weather could not have been better for finding a longspur, or not finding one, or finding the "wrong" one.  Although one could argue that the Smith's Longspur is the wrong one, given the location, and the Laplands were right, since they're supposed to be out in dunes during Atlantic Coast winters.  I always used to say I'm more interested in seeing birds where they're supposed to be than finding the odd rarity, which I guess is still true, though it sounds rather like the fox and the grapes at the moment. Ah, well, I've seen Smith's on the tundra in Alaska, which is where they're supposed to be in summer.

 [Lapland Longspur in flight, Stone Harbor today. Note the single white outer tail feather on each side. Smith's has two per side.]

[This Common Loon flew over Stone Harbor Point today.]

[Another winter dune bird:  Snow Bunting, Stone Harbor Point today.]