Magee Marsh Residents

The boardwalk at Magee Marsh is not only a stop over for migrants but is also the summer home to quite a few birds too. Most notably, the Prothonotary Warbler. A few pairs of these birds nest along the boardwalk. They nest in cavities and always above water. In some areas, people put nest boxes on posts in swampy areas but at Magee, there are natural nest cavities too. Here is a beautiful male preparing a nest for his mate.

Prothonotary Warbler - male

And here is the mate gathering twigs and grass right on the boardwalk. She literally has no fear of the people walking the boardwalk since she is solely focused on getting that nest built.

Female Prothonotary Warbler

Prothonotary warblers are some of the sought after birds because of their beautiful yellow color but they aren't the only yellow birds that call Magee boardwalk home. Yellow Warblers were building their nests too. In fact, there were at least 6 nests along the boardwalk. This one was the most photographable. I stood on the railing to get up high enough to snap a few shots. Here she is with a beak full of fine silk maybe from a spider web.

Yellow Warbler

The next series shows how she moves around the nest getting it formed just right before going off to find more materials.

Yellow Warbler

It's not just warblers, other birds like this Woodcock also build their nests at the park. In fact, the people who mow the lawn at the parking area have to rope off areas where they find the nests. Here is one of the Woodcocks laying low in the bushes just off of the parking lot. Our friend Steve spotted it. I love that fluffy butt!

Woodcock

And there are now 2 active Bald Eagle nests within a few hundred yards of each other in the parking area. I didn't shoot any photos of the nests, but Connie, Peanut and I watched one of the adults fishing for perch just off the beach. Spoiler alert, he didn't get a fish.

Bald Eagle

The other fun thing about Magee Marsh is that we saw people that we know there. Edie and her friends from DVOC, Chris and Gerry, and Harvey's friend Steve too. Off to another destination this week. Hoping to squeeze in some really good bird stuff in between work meetings in Massachusetts.

Di and Her Eagles

Di had a pretty good weekend. She completed her second half-marathon on Saturday morning AND she made a great time - crossing that finish line in under 2 hours and 45 minutes. I walked along with her for 8 of the 13.1 miles for "support".

Today, I recuperated by sitting in a car with Harvey while driving around Brigantine looking for birds but mostly struck out. I headed back up the AC Expressway at noon, over the Walt Whitman Bridge and onto the Schuylkill (this becomes significant soon) so that I could get back home to caulk the tub - oh joy.  I was just about at 30th St when Di texted me this - "That blob is a bald eagle. Gazebo at Lemon Hill" along with this photo:

iPhone photo - Bald Eagle

That photo is taken with an iPhone so imagine how close Di had to be to the eagle.  This is the second time that Di has sent me an iPhone photo of an eagle at Lemon Hill. The first was a few years ago. She is so lucky. I walk the dog here almost every day for 8 years and have only seen 2 eagles - flying over the river, never perched.

I told you that 30th St would become significant. You can see, Lemon Hill from the Schuylkill Expressway. It is above the boat houses which are about 1/2 mile past 30th St. I was sitting still in traffic at the time but started to move again so I texted back - "so is this" along with this photo:

You can see the Eagle if you look really hard at the tops of the trees.  Don't worry, the traffic was moving so slowly that there was no danger. I didn't look at the phone, I just held my thumb on the shutter button and snapped about 8 photos.

Of course, I had to get a better look. I have been hoping for this situation for years - a photo of a Bald Eagle in the city. It only took me 5 minutes to exit the Schuylkill at Girard and make my way to the gazebo at Lemon Hill where I found Di, Barbara and Sammy waiting for me. I snuck up to the gazebo with my Canon 7D with 400mm lens and snapped about a billion photos. The lighting was terrible but I managed to get a few good ones including this head shot.

Bald Eagle - Lemon Hill Philadelphia

Check out the dark pigment spot on the eagle's eye. It is supposed to be all pale yellow. Cool.  The holy grail of photos still eludes me - a photo of an eagle with the city sky line in the background. Some day, some day.

Congrats to Di for a stellar weekend.

Back in the USA

The trip to Europe was great but the timing was terrible. I all but missed the spring migration in our area by being out of the country in May. Once Memorial Day rolls around, there is not much in the way of bird life to keep us interested. Here are a few stories from the weekend.

Barbara and I got up early on Sunday and headed out to Hidden Valley Ranch in Cape May to chase a Painted Bunting that has been hanging around for over a month. This poor guy is way out of his normal range which is down in the deep south. Nonetheless, he was singing his little heart out trying to woo a gal - a nonexistent gal. It's going to be a lonely spring for him.

Painted Bunting

It's only May and we already know that the summer is going to be full of ticks. I was covered with them within the first 100 yards of the walk to find the bunting. Even the birds were covered with ticks. Check out this Carolina Wren. He has 2 ticks on his face. I cropped the photo so you could see them - one between the eye and beak, the other below the eye.

Carolina Wren - with ticks

I was covered with ticks again today when Harvey and I headed out to see if there were any interesting birds around. No neat birds but we found a few neat butterflies. Butterflies have really weird names. Thankfully, Harvey knew what they were.

Hayhurst's Scallopwing

Red-striped Hairstreak

Speaking of butterflies, Di, Barbara and I put in 2 new gardens at the Blue House this spring - all in an attempt to attract butterflies and hummingbirds to the yard. I used Pat Sutton's plant list as a guide. You can find it at New Jersey Audubon website (Click Here) .

Shade Garden

Sun Garden

If you build it, they will come. The plants weren't in the ground for an hour and viola - our first butterfly - a Skipper.

Skipper in the garden

It's not the most attractive butterfly, but you can see that he/she loves the flowers. Check out the long black tongue probing the Bluestar (amsonia).

Skipper

Harvey and I were scolded by a pair of Bald Eagles today. We inadvertently got too close to their nest. Boy were they pissed. We hustled off down the path to get away from the nest but not before they told us about it. I snapped a few photos on our way out of the woods. These are 2 different eagles - one is Mom and the other is Dad. The first one has something in it's talons.

Bald Eagle

Pissed off

Cams

One of the best things about the Internet is the ability for people like me to be able to post information to this random blog and have others read it for a laugh or to learn something or just pass the time.  Couple the Internet with video cameras and you get a "Cam". Cams let you peer into the secret lives of animals via a web browser and pass the time watching and learning.  Here are a few cams that are hot right now.  The best is the Bald Eagle nest in Hanover PA. Before you click the link to start watching live video, check out these photos from a recent snow storm.  Here is Mom completely covered in snow.

Snowy Mom

Here she is shaking it off after the snow stopped.

Shaking off the snow

And here is the snow covered nest showing the eggs safe and sound.

Eggs are safe and sound

All photos were copied from the Internet and credited to whoever captured the images from the cam.

Here is the link to watch the live action. The eggs are still not hatched. WARNING - once you click the link, you may end up watching for hours skipping lunch and dinner. It sucks you in.

Eagle Cam :  http://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/bald-eagle-live-cam  

Another cam that is capturing everyone's attention is the Great Horned Owl nest in Savannah Georgia. The owls in the south are further along than our owls, so the babies are already hatched. Once again, I warn you that this will suck you in for the entire day watching the babies bob around the nest.

Owl Cam :  http://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/great-horned-owl-cam

Anyway, it is something to enjoy while we wait for our beloved warblers to start their northward journey.  

More Florida Follow Up

We made our obligatory trip to Corkscrew Swamp - an Audubon sanctuary located in Immokolee just outside of Naples Florida. We usually see Barred Owls here but we were too early for the nesting season. We did get to see other birds including an assortment of warblers - which as you now are already gone from our northern areas. Yellow-throated Warbler is one of the earliest warblers to return to PA and NJ. I think it is because they winter in Florida rather than way down in South America.  Here is one picking bugs in the cypress trees.

Yellow-throated Warbler

Another fan favorite at Corkscrew is the Pileated Woodpecker. They come much closer to the trail than they do in other parks. Here is a male hammering away at a cypress. You can tell it's a male by the red mustache. Females only have red on the crest. 

Pileasted Woodpecker

Butterflies are also nice to see in November when we know that they are all gone from our area.  Here are 2 that showed well in the swamp.

Ruddy Daggerwing

White Peacock

White Ibis were taking a break from feeding. I caught this one resting on a log.

White Ibis

Crested Caracara are interesting birds. Half hawk, half vulture, they scavenge on dead things along the roads and in farm fields in the deep south. They are quite comfortable walking and running rather than flying through the fields. We often see them on the ground which is how we saw our first Caracara in Belize - flipping cow patties with it's powerful feet to find beetles underneath (eeewww) We have since seen them many times along the road out of Corkscrew and also in NJ and DE as vagrants.  We were not disappointed on this trip where Lori spotted 4 Caracaras along the road eating something that was hit by a car.  I jumped into the bed of our rented pick up truck to snap some photos.  This one captures the bird's field marks the best. You can see the "crest" of feathers hanging off the back of the head and the bare orange skin around the beak. 

Crested Caracara

One final bird from the trip is this immature Bald Eagle that soared and circled above me while I was out at a park in Punta Gorda. He was looking right at me - kinda gave me the creeps. 

Bald Eagle

I'm home for a while now - at least until Christmas.  

A Thief Among Us

Sunday was very windy which turns out to be terrible for spotting little birds like the Kinglets, Warblers and Vireos that overwhelmed us on Saturday. The wind is good for raptors though. We headed out to a few new sites looking for some rare flycatchers that were reported but didn't see any of them. We did manage to have front row seats to a mugging at the old Magnesite Plant on Cape May Point.  It started with this 2 year old Bald Eagle soaring directly above us which drew "oohs and aahs" from the gang.

Bald Eagle - 2nd Year

The "oohs and aahs" turned to "woahs and wows" when the eagle started to chase an Osprey. Look at the size difference between the 2 birds. (The eagle is the big one :-))

Bald Eagle chasing Osprey

The reason for the chase became obvious once the Osprey dropped the fish that it had in its talons.

The Drop

The eagle locked eyes on the fish.

Up for Grabs

The eagle made no mistake - snatching the fish out of midair while the Osprey peeled off and headed back to the bay. We can only imagine how the poor fish felt . . . however, it's doom was inevitable.

The Steal

This Peregrine Falcon cruised past us looking very menacing.

The afternoon was much less dramatically for me, Roxy and this Golden-crowned Kinglet. Kinglets like to flutter around and pick bugs from shrubs. I caught this mid-flap shot.

Flutter feeding

You can see the golden crown in this typical pose. Kinlets like to hang under branches to look for bugs. Check out the orange feet too.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

We ended the day at Josh's annual pumpkin carving party. My pumpkin is in the middle. It is supposed to be a sunrise behind clouds.

Pumpkins

Bugs and Birds

I haven't had time to post anything since I was away (again) for work in Washington DC and then catching up with work and home life. Last weekend, I headed to the shore and didn't find much in the way of interesting birds but I did get to hang out with some of the DVOCers. Here are a few photos starting with this beautiful Bald Eagle. Bald Eagle? Yes. This bird is what they call a "second year" bird which means that it is about 2 years old. You can tell by the feather pattern. This guy or gal looks exactly like the field guide which is why I can casually tell you the age of the bird. Most of the time, its not that cut and dry for me. This bird will get the white head and tail in another 2 years or so.

Bald Eagle - Second Year

Here is a Parula that was sitting still for a few seconds. That is a rare event for these tiny warblers. They are usually in motion and difficult to photograph.

Northern Parula

Like I said, not much in the way of rare or unusual birds. That wasn't the case for bugs though. My friend Chris told me about these weird caterpillars that hatched along the dunes so we went to see them  She was right . . .

Stinging Rose Caterpillar

Patty and Steve identified it for me. Steve wrote a nice blog post on his blog - Recycled Photons - if you want to check it out.

Cape May is full of dragonflies at this time of year. They migrate south just like birds do so you get to see alot of them in the fall. Most of the birders in Cape May can also identify the dragonflies but I just call them by color like this green and black striped one that was sitting along the path.

Dragonfly

I had to photograph this Monarch butterfly on the purple flower. Not weird or unusual, just pretty.

Monarch Butterfly

Gulls and Eagles

This is the time of year when unusual gulls show up and cause the birders to go crazy chasing them. Frankly, these unusual gulls look almost identical to the other "regular" gulls that we see all summer long but for birders, they are a treat. 4 gull species look very similar to most people: 

Laughing Gull is the most common gull at the shore in summer - they have a black head and make that laughing call. Their head turns white in winter except for a little smudge of black here and there. They winter down south in Florida.

Bonaparte's Gull is the most common gull in winter. They also have a black head in summer, but we rarely see that since they spend their summers far north of here. We see them with white heads and a few "dots" of black.

Black-headed Gull as the name suggests has a black head too. We rarely see these gulls except during their northbound migration. They winter far south of us and nest far north. 

Little Gull also has a black head in summer and, as the name suggests, is smaller than the other gulls.  It is even more rare than Black-headed Gull in migration. Birders go nuts over this gull (truth be told, it is cute). 

Black-headed and Little Gull were both seen in Cumberland County earlier this week so I went down after work in an attempt to photograph them. The Black-headed Gulls were reported to actually have the black head which would be good for the photo. In typical fashion, I showed up 5 minutes too late to see the Little Gull. It had already flown away. Sigh.  But I did get a few photos of Black-headed Gull.

Black-headed Gull

The only way to tell this gull apart from Bonaparte's and Laughing is by the dark tips under the wings and the red feet. Are you kidding me? It's not that easy to see those features when you are looking at a hundred gulls but somehow these birders do it. I got pretty good at spotting this guy since he had the black head and black wing tips.  Here is another photo that shows 3 species together. Can you tell which is which? I just gave you the field marks for Black-headed gull so that one should stand out. The other 2 species are Bonaparte's and Laughing. 

Black-headed, Bonaparte's and Laughing Gulls

While I was patiently waiting to see if the Little Gull would return, the resident Bald Eagles got off of their nest to chase a Cormorant that had a big fish. Eagles are notoriously lazy hunters. They would rather grab a free meal from a Cormorant than find a fish on their own.  I snapped a few shots and noticed something odd about one of the eagles. You'll need to zoom in to see it.

Bald Eagle with deformed beak

Check out the top of the bill - it is totally deformed. I sent out a note to the Jersey Birds list and was told that this is probably an injury caused by a fight with another eagle. Wow, don't mess with eagles!