These are a Few of My Favorite Thing... er, Birds

Some of my favorite birds have been hanging out here the past couple of days.  I always enjoy seeing them.  We've had Buffleheads and Ring-necked Ducks on the pond and a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers looking for suitable nest trees.  Our camera isn't great for bird photography, but here are a couple of shots ...

Just Ducky

If you like ducks, as we do, there are few better places to be in the Winter than South Jersey.  We are lucky enough to be able to spend a lot of time at Cape May, and have gone looking for ducks several times already this year.  Our favorite Cape May spots for Winter Duck Hunting – don't worry, our weapons are cameras and binoculars! – are Cape May Harbor and Lake Lily, and going up the coast, the Avalon Seawatch and Forsythe NWR (aka "Brig").


Lake Lily is small enough, and attractive enough to the birds, that it affords magnificent views of some very special waterfowl.  We have made several trips this year attempting to see the Cackling Goose, as well as the Dickcissels that have been seen in the area, and while we struck out on these, we have seen some pretty special birds there.  They're often so close that you don't even need binoculars.


Right around the corner, the ponds at Cape May Point State Park have been full of ducks, although you will need binoculars, or even a scope, to be able to tell what you have in front of you.  We had a spectacular sight there on Saturday, when scores of ducks suddenly took flight.  We were wondering what had spooked them, when an adult Bald Eagle flew in, circled the ponds, and then flew east towards the Meadows.  Within two minutes, all of the ducks had returned.


Here's an unordered list of our sightings this Presidents' Day Weekend:


Saturday 2/19 - at Cape May, Cape May Harbor, Lake Lily, CM Point State Park:
American Robin
Northern Cardinal
European Starling
Common Grackle
Bufflehead
Black Scoter
Brant
Mute Swan
Canada Goose
Hooded Merganser
Double-crested Cormorant
Northern Shoveler
Mallard
Gadwall
Ring-necked Duck
Redhead
American Wigeon
Coot
Blue-winged Teal
Bald Eagle

Sunday, 2/20, from GS Parkway and at Forsythe NWR:
European Starling
Common Grackle
Turkey Vulture
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret (!)
Coot
Northern Harrier
Northern Shoveler
Pintail
Common Moorhen (!)
Black Duck
Great Black-backed Gull
Mallard
Herring Gull
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Hooded Merganser
Snow Goose
Double-crested Cormorant
Pied-billed Grebe
Bufflehead
Green-winged Teal
Gadwall
Common Merganser

On Occasional Birding

I'm a lifelong birder.  Some of my very earliest memories are of "helping" my father, who was a licensed bander for many years, tend to his mist nets, although in the beginning, I was really much too young to be of any real help.  I dutifully assisted in the keeping of the yard list and was the first in the family to see some pretty impressive additions to the list.  One of my favorites was the Pileated Woodpecker, seen on the stump on the south side of the house when I was about ten.  I yelled "Pileated on the stump!"; Dad said something to the effect of "No Way!", but his jaw dropped when he came to look out the window at one of our mutual favorite birds from a distance of about ten feet.


Having said that, birding isn't an all-consuming passion for me.  I call myself an Occasional Birder, but I suppose Opportunistic might be a better term.  I bird when I can, where I can, taking advantage of location and available time.  Although I've birded on foot and by car and by boat in many spots and on two continents, I've never taken any special extended trips for the purpose of birding, and the vast majority of my birding time has occurred within 125 miles of Philadelphia's Western Suburbs.  I suppose I've missed out on a lot ... strike that, I know I've missed out on a lot, but I'm an Occasional Birder, not a Competitive Birder, so that's okay with me.