Beauties and the Beast

So, it was another AMNH walk with Paul, and another gorgeous day!  I got up the the area a little early so I thought I'd head down into the upper lobe before meeting the group.  But I didn't even get that far!  On the bridge on the park road, looking into the lake, something interesting flew into the trees to the left.  It was this juvie waxwing!  Look at that tail, like it was just dipped in bright yellow crayon wax.

cedar waxwing

It wasn't alone for long!  Look who kept it company.

black-throated green warbler, northern parula

This parula, and........

northern parula

 this black-throated green!  Oh, we were spoiled, looking down on gorgeous warblers so close to us.  They flitted about and left when it was time for us (one woman from the group joined me there) to go meet the group.

black-throated green warbler

 We met up with the group and had just barely started into the park when we saw The Beast - Paul called out that there was a hawk overhead, and then his voice got more excited, he said hawk again, and then he said, "That's a Bald Eagle!"  It was gorgeous.  Not quite a full adult, but nearly.  Soaring, circling, and generally being majestic.  It was definitely the highlight of the day for me!

bald eagle

bald eagle

 On to the normal beauties - this cutie black and white.

black-and-white warbler

 This Swainson's thrush hung out and posed for a while.

Swainson's thrush

 There was a Tenessee warbler at some point.  I think this might be him exiting the area.

mystery warbler

 This palm warbler lured us into a closed lawn, and some guy kicked us out.  He sounded really exasperated too, so I guess people must hop that fence all the time.  And the palm warbler wouldn't allow a picture of its face!

palm warbler

 Another parula taking full advantage of the light.

northern parula

 There were several redstarts, including a group of about a half dozen in and under one tree.

American redstart

 After leaving the group I saw this poor mottled guy, looking like there just wasn't enough ink in the printer to get the job done.

American robin

 Finally after seeing several common yellowthroats I managed to get the camera on one.  They are so skulky!

common yellowthroat

 Even the grosbeak came out to play.  This one looks like a young male to me.  There was definitely a patch of red although it doesn't show well in this picture.

rose-breasted grosbeak

It was a gorgeous day, made really special by that eagle!  :-)

Back to Brigantine!

Back on the bus, and back to Brigantine - and what a day we had!  The weather was absolutely glorious, and Paul said that the winds were setting us up for a great day.  Off we went!

Almost immediately after arriving and heading out to the boardwalk we saw this gorgeous kingfisher.  Yes, the picture is terrible, but it was quite a highlight for me!

belted kingfisher

 Our first sandpipers, being overseen by a marsh wren in the reeds.  Yes, that's a marsh wren.  I know it looks like a non-descript whitish blob, but it's actually a marsh wren.  They are very good at defeating camera and mine stood no chance of getting a good picture.

marsh wren, semipalmated sandpipers

 Continuing the bad-shots-of-great-birds, here's the clapper rail we saw!  Jack spotted it, and I was able to see it disappear.  Then we all heard it, and eventually it (or another one) came out briefly.

clapper rail

 These crabs were numerous, and according to the gulls, quite tasty.

fiddler crabs

 Back on the bus, to go around the loop and stop wherever we thought it would be interesting.  Here's a harrier looking for lunch.

marsh harrier

 A bunch of sandpipers foraging and flying in, and one pectoral sandpiper looking regal.

pectoral sandpiper, semipalmated sandpipers

 Monarchs were around too!  As usual, they were a wonderful distraction.

Monarch butterfly

 This is a Cooper's hawk making off with something.  We couldn't figure out what it was carrying.  But look at that........ does it have a fish?  Did it maybe steal someone's catch?  I haven't heard of that, and the picture isn't great, but........

Cooper's hawk

 Lots of egrets everywhere, and this one coming in for a landing was just gorgeous.

great egret

 A whole mess of forster's terns hovering and diving for fish, there are several at each stage in the fish-catching process here.

Forster's terns

 No fish for this one this time.  Try again Buddy!

Forster's tern

 A great blue heron coming in for a landing.

great blue heron

 During our lunch stop this fish crow hung out with us.  We all had the chance to learn its call and see it flying.

fish crow

 This was quite a sight.  I saw the ibis fly out of the bus window, but I misidentified it as a little blue heron - wishful thinking!  When we found it, it climbed up to be with the egrets.  So here they are, 2 snowy egrets, a great egret, and a glossy ibis.  :-)

glossy ibis, snowy egrets, great egret

 This is what a yellowlegs looks like when it leaves.  I love it!  Also, that's a short-billed dowitcher.  Yes, that's right, they call it short-billed.  It makes me pretty excited about seeing the long-billed version!

short-billed dowitcher, yellowlegs

 Semipalmated plover among sandpipers.

semipalmated plover

 Black-bellied plover showing off how it got its name.

black-bellied plover

 Caspian terns!  There were four of them there, they are the ones with the reddish bills.

Caspian terns

 Juvie osprey coming in for a landing.

osprey

 Avocet!  What a looker!  My first one.

American avocet

 The female boat-tailed grackles are quite different from the ones I'm used to!

boat-tailed grackle

 Before we left we obviously could not resist a walk through the woods.  I found a turtle!  It was small and extremely cute.  We have no idea what kind it was.

mystery turtle

mystery turtle

 Someone found a toad!  And then another one, and another one, and....... I could barely see them when they were pointed out, but apparently they were all over the place!  We wondered if they were born in the pond and once they got old enough went to the woods, and we were seeing a batch of them make the journey.

mystery toad

 That was about it - it was a great day, and we saw tons of great things.  Here is my best shot using my iPhone and the scope.  The attachment I got worked great once, and not-so-great once, but it's still a big improvement over not having the attachment.

Caspian terns

Thanks to AMNH for setting up the trip and thanks to Paul for being such a great leader!  :-)

A happy walk in the park

A glorious Friday afternoon, I walked in the park alone for a while and then Jack met me and we walked together.  It was beautiful!  Not very birdy, but beautiful.  :-)

northern flicker

red-eyed vireo 

black-throated blue warbler

rosy-breasted grosbeak (female)

ruby-throated hummingbird

American redstart

Common yellow-throat (female)

Fall Walk with AMNH

Today was the first of the fall walks with Paul, and it was great!  Well, I only managed to stay with the group for half of the walk.  Then I got distracted and wandered off, and didn't manage to get back to them.  I knew it would happen someday!  :-)

We started off heading over to the upper lobe, where there was a Carolina wren showing off for us, singing and posing.  That turned into almost a theme for the day - there were several Carolina wrens, it started to seem as if they were stalking us!

Carolina wren

It was a big treat to see this hummingbird.  It stayed put for quite a while, preening behind some leaves.  There was also a common yellow-throat but I missed it, all of my focus was on the hummingbird.

ruby-throated hummingbird

We also saw this Baltimore oriole doing its best to distract us from the warblers:

Baltimore oriole

Such as this parula, we were all straining our necks to see this little fellow way up there.

northern parula

There were several redstarts

American redstart

This catbird wanted attention, it kept posing until  finally agreed to take its picture.

catbird

A chestnut-sided warbler looks so different in the fall!

chestnut-sided warbler

Seeing the adult male redstart was a treat.

American redstart

This flicker was foraging on the ground, almost invisible in the brush.  Apparently it thought it was invisible even when it exited the brush, it took its time and didn't seem to mind me being quite closeby.

northern flicker

Flycatcher!

I love it when black and white warblers pretend to be nuthatches.

black-and-white warbler

I did manage to see a few things that (I think) the group sadly missed.  Hopefully we will all get to enjoy them next time!  At azalea pond there were more warblers flitting about.

blue-winged warbler

Magnolia warbler

And this waterthrush was bobbing around the streamlet.

waterthrush