Quick Post

Great-horned Owl babies are really funny looking. I can't resist taking photos of them on the rare occasion that I actually get to see them. Now is the time of year to see the white fur balls in the nest with Mom.  I had a great opportunity to photograph this scene last week in Palmyra NJ.

Great-horned Owls

Some amateur guy with a little camera got too close to the tree trying to photograph the raccoon that you saw a few days ago in my other post and scared Mom out of the nest.  Here are the babies looking for Mom.  Take a close look and you can see the "horns" already trying to poke out of their fluffy heads.

Owlets

On my quest to be competitive in this stupid contest, there are some common birds that seem to be avoiding me.  One of them is the White-crowned Sparrow, a bird that is not "common" by any means, but I thought I would have run across one given the fact that I have been out birding like a nut.  I finally got the bird at Bombay Hook last weekend.  Whew.

White-crowned Sparrow

We're Flying Now!

Figuratively speaking - we are really starting to add birds to our total for the contest.  I've added over a dozen new birds to the list over the weekend with new birds coming along at a rapid rate.  Spring migration is heating up now and will continue to go at a dizzying speed until June. 

Literally speaking - here are some photos of birds in flight that I snapped over the past week or so.  Enjoy!

Here are Bald Eagles at Bombay Hook.  The first shows a full adult (right) and sub adult (left) soaring together.  The next photo shows another immature bird that joined the show and started to swoop on the adult.  The adult is flying upside down facing the attacker!

Bald Eagles

Bald Eagles

 Here are American Avocets flying past.  They now have that cinnamon head.  Check out the up curved bills.

American Avocets

Next up are a few terns seen at Forsythe NWR yesterday.  The first is the largest tern that we see in our area - Caspian Tern.  This bird has a big red bill which can be seen if you zoom in on the photo. 

Caspian Tern

 Here is a pretty cool shot of a Common Tern hovering over the channel at Forsythe right next to my car.

Common Tern

 The last 2 photos are of large birds - Great Egret and Great Blue Heron in flight.

Great Egret

Great Blue Heron

I'll post more from last weekend soon.  Honestly, I have more photos . . .

Lunchtime

You may be wondering what I had for lunch today as I traveled to Dover Delaware to meet with a potential client.  The answer is - yet another turkey and cheese hoagie from Wawa (and a large Diet Coke of course).   What do Bald Eagles have for lunch?  Coots.  As seen in this photo from Bombay Hook today where I ate my hoagie:

Admittedly, this is not my finest photo ever.  I had to quickly put the hoagie down, park the car, pick up the camera and get a few shots taken before the Eagle flew off behind the trees to eat.  Most of the shots are really blurry but you can see that this is a Coot based on the head and the giant feet hanging down.

Here is a shot of the whole scene.  The geese didn't flinch when the Eagle started to swoop down.  I guess they knew that the Eagle had something else in its sights.

Veteran's Day at Bombay Hook and Surrounding Areas

I played hookie on Veteran's Day and took Connie down to Bombay Hook NWR in Delaware. It's been a few years since we were there last. The weather was perfect. Big blue sky, not too cold. We made great time from our house in Abington down to Smyrna exit of Rt 1.

Our first stop was Woodland Beach off of Rt 9. There are a few entrances. We pulled into the southern most entrance and were greeted by an 8 point buck running through the field. We saw some birds in the mud flat there that looked like shorebirds from a distance. They turned out to be Horned Larks! 5 of them scurrying through the mud field. We got great looks.

We got into Bombay Hook just at 8:00 AM. The office was officially closed due to Veteran's Day, but there were a few volunteers that let us in for maps and such. Outside of the office we immediately saw what we came for - thousands of Snow Geese swirling around the beautiful blue sky. Wow!

On the wildlife drive we pulled off to scan the agriculture fields for anything interesting. We found American Pipits right at Tour 2 sign. Life bird for both of us. We have probably driven past Pipits a hundred times and never bothered to look at them before. However, I checked the Delaware RBA before our trip and read that Pipits had been seen. So, thanks to Andy Ednie for continuing to post to Virtual Birder.

Other notable birds seen at Bombay Hook - Green Wing Teal, American Avocet, Pintails, Dunlin, Semi-palmated Plovers, Greater Yellowlegs and 4 Harriers.

We drove south on Rt 9 to explore 2 sites that are regularly mentioned on the Delaware RBA that we have never been to - Port Mahon Rd and Little Creek. Thank goodness for eBird's Google Maps integration. It makes finding these sites so easy. We saw 5 Black Crowned Night Herons at Little Creek. It looks like they are building a serious levee there that will eventually allow you to walk all the way out into the marsh.

Anyway, it was a really nice day and we were home before supper.