"birding" fun

[whulsey]

Nice looking little bird. So far not many birds around here this year.

[Kevin WS]

It is a very pretty bird - I love the colours.

I wonder why your bird numbers are down? Do you have any idea? An university or someone you could ask?

[SCEtoAUX]

Nice pic of that bird, Kevin. It is indeed a very colorful critter.

I think loss of habitat is causing the lack of birds. I used to get a lot of different birds here, but in the last 10 years or so there has been a distinct lack of variety. I miss seeing the Indigo Buntings and Cedar Waxwings among others.
I keep putting out a variety of seeds in the feeders and provide water hoping some will come back. I did not see any Rose-breasted grossbeaks for quite a while but I have seen some these past couple of years.

[Don Boose]

Just before the pandemic closed down travel, Lil and I spent a week at Cape May, New Jersey. March is not a great birding month at Cape May, but beautiful northern gannets were soaring just offshore (no hope of a photo) on the Atlantic coast, and there were the usual rafts of shorebirds along the Delaware Bayshore.

1. A lucky shot of two bald eagles, one adult and one immature, on the sandbar at Norbury Landing (just north west of Cape May on the Bayshore), where we also saw a couple of blue herons (Image 2). At times in the past, we have seen a hundred or more herons and egrets feeding on the sandbar there.

3. The usual herring gulls (great black-backed gulls are also common year round). Laughing gulls will appear later in the season. You can see shorebirds in the background. I was too far away for identifications, but based on past experience, they were probably mostly dunlin, sanderlings, sandpipers, turnstones, and plovers. Once the horseshoe crabs come in to spawn, the red knots will migrate through.

4. On the Atlantic Ocean coast at Two-Mile Beach (north of Cape May and just south of Wildwood) is where I caught this American oystercatcher. The northern gannets (and cormorants, and scoters) were visible off shore, but I couldn't capture them on film.

5. And here is a shot of the Cape May fishing fleet as seen from Two-Mile Landing, which is on the western side of the causeway facing Jervis Sound: the long shallow body of water formed by the offshore islands where Two-Mile Beach is located. The map from Marine Traffic (https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...y:39.1/zoom:11) shows the geography, and also shows the ships anchored at Big Stone Anchorage (one of my favorite things to do at Cape May is to sit at Cape May Point and watch the deep drafts swinging on their hooks at Big Stone and the passing maritime traffic). Bermuda Islander, en route to Salem, New Jersey, is a pretty container ship that makes regular rounds from New York City to the little Bayshore port of Salem to Hamilton, Bermuda and back.

Don
Don

[Michael Mash]

Getting a good image of one bald eagle would be a good day Don.
You captured two!
I live in a major metro area, so your photo is as close as I ever get to seeing birds like those.
Mike

[SCEtoAUX]

Nice pics, Don.
I like watching the antcs of shore birds.
Have you noticed a drop in the number of birds in the area?

[birder]

Cool Don, I see I've missed some other cool birds as well in this thread. Glad you could make a trip to the coast, really cool birds.

[SCEtoAUX]

This chipping sparrow showed up in the back as I was filling the bird feeders. It seemed to not be afraid and waited around until I was finished then proceeded to eat the sunflower seed I had scattered on the ground.

[Vermin_King]

She only comes out at false dawn and after sundown, but the momma owl is nesting in the tree across the street again. Unfortunately, not the best time for photos.


According to the Missouri Conservationist, they nest late March to mid-April here. Eggs hatch in 4-5 weeks and the little buggers leave the nest 4-5 weeks after that. Hope to see a little one again

[Don Boose]

Great image, Doug!

Belated answer to your question: yes, we have had far fewer birds this year than in the past. I only see two or three goldfinches and one or two chickadees a day when I used to have dozens fluttering at the feeders at this time of the year, and the formerly most common bird, the house finch, rarely shows up any more. Even the robins are in fewer numbers than in the past.

Don