Far flying Godwits

Here is an exciting news clip from New Zealand. It’s nice to see birds making the news.
Bar-tailed Godwits, a shorebird that breeds in Alaska and winters in New Zealand and Australia have been tracked in their migration. The Bar-tailed Godwit is one of the species that is considered High Concern under the US Shorebird Conservation [...]

Turkeys at Garret

This morning at Garret Mountain Reservation in New Jersey I came across a group of Wild Turkeys and managed this shot of one of the fine looking toms. There was not anything else new at the park that I didn’t see yesterday but Chipping Sparrows were more numerous. I heard rumors of several Pine [...]

Big Flight of the Kestrels

American Kestrel, photo by copeg.
Today was the day of the American Kestrel. It started at 10 am and by the time I finished counting at 6 pm, 28 of these light weight, Microtus-killing machines had flown past. That was counting 10 in the last hour, and four birds in the last few minutes of that [...]

When the weather isn’t right for a good raptor flight, its a good chance to put in a little time digiscoping. Unfortunately today was particularly cloudy and the lighting was not optimal but it gave me a good chance to practice with manual focus. I set the camera to infinite focus and simply focus with [...]

Hungry Accipiters

I really wish I had a picture for this post. I guess that will have to wait until I manage to get a dSLR camera with a nice 300mm fixed lens. Anyways…
Standing in one spot for a whole day gives me quite a chance to observe things that I don’t ordinarily get to see. [...]

Pre-snow hawk watch

The first day went smoothly, minus the various encounters with curious dogs and their unconcerned owners. You would think people would be embarrassed to have their dogs sniff thru perfect strangers bags but no, instead its our fault that we “don’t like the dogs.” Never mind that the dogs are supposed to be on a [...]

The Watch is about to begin, what’s up with this weather

Tomorrow marks day one of the Montclair Spring Hawk Watch, weather permitting. After reaching about 75°F today the thunderclouds are rolling in and we might get a good storm tonight. Thats all good but what about this…snow on Friday? That could make things really interesting. Well, hopefully I will have some reports soon and some [...]

Smith’s Longspur

Well, I didn’t miss this one. Seems like everyone else got to see the Smith’s Longspur in the blogosphere- City Birder, Mike from 10000birds.com, Jersey Birder, etc. I was pretty sure that I was going to come up short again after searching for over an hour and only seeing Snow Buntings and Horned Larks. I [...]

Montclair Hawkwatch

This weekend I will be moving to NJ Audubon’s Weis Ecology Center to start as the counter for the Montclair Hawkwatch. I suppose I will be giving updates on the flights and the progression of spring as I watch it come northward everyday for the next two months. I am excited about being outside for [...]