Some Sun Would Be Nice

Long story short: traveled a lot this past week- not completely for birding- but managed to sneak in time here and there for birds and photography. Too bad for the crappy weather or I’d have better images. But in the past few days I’ve been to North and South Jersey, Bombay Hook in Delaware (for an hour in the rain), and back here at home. So here are some photos I managed.

This Solitary Sandpiper was with a couple more and being unsolitary at Kingston Flats the day before I had to travel.

Down at Thompson’s Beach near Heislerville WMA I got to grab a new sparrow for me to photograph, Seaside Sparrow.

black-necked stilt
This is basically the only bird I had time to laser focus on down at Bombay Hook. It was cold and raining and my family was miserable. But I found 6 and managed to get semi-usable photos in the rain.

Back in the town I grew up in, Waldwick, NJ, I got to see this Yellow-crowned Night Heron up in a tree doing it’s courtship display. Too bad it was in terrible light.

Finally back at home I photographed one of ten Least Sandpipers on the river during my lunch walk.

Twitter

Click here to follow me on Twitter and have these reports sent to your cell phone as soon as I post them.

NOTE: Any post that begins "REPORT:" is something I'm passing along and will include date, while all other posts will be my sightings from the field and should be considered from within a half-hour of the post.

Countdown to 300

After re-entering birding in June 2007 and subsequently throwing away my life list, I am finally approaching 300 species on my new life list. So I’m going to countdown the last ten.

#290 Arctic Tern
Lake Wallenpaupack, PA Oct. 24, 2009
After a crazy storm pushed down lots of seabirds. Not accepted by PORC but I didn’t get a photo. But I’m positive of ID.

#291 Common Eider
Sandy Hook, NJ Nov. 8, 2009

#292 Lapland Longspur
Sandy Hook, NJ Nov. 8, 2009

#293 King Eider
Sandy Hook, NJ Nov. 8, 2009

#294 Ivory Gull
Cape May, NJ Dec. 6, 2009
Seen on my first true “chase” of a single bird.

#295 Cackling Goose
Harvey’s Lake, PA Dec. 9, 2009
Weird to see this on my list after a mega like Ivory Gull, but I wasn’t very aware of this species since it wasn’t it’s own species when I originally birded. Then I haven’t crossed paths with it since studying up on the ID until now.

#296 Brown-headed Nuthatch
Lewes, DE Apr. 2, 2010

#297 Little Gull
Lake Wallenpaupack, PA Apr. 10, 2010
This was on my most wanted list for a while. Now on to Black-headed Gull.

#298 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
PPL Riverlands, PA June 14, 2010
In county lifer. Nice.

#299 Black-headed Gull
Bombay Hook, DE August, 21 2010
One of my most wanted birds. Check.