On a walk when I found few birds other than Canada Geese, I took just six photos this morning, one of which I trashed in the camera on site.
When I got home, I almost didn’t bother to check the card because the pickings at the Millstone River Impoundment in Princeton were so slim. I had forgotten that I took two “who knows?” shots of a bird flying above the lake that’s closest to the exit off U.S. 1 that leads to the park.
The bird was far off, and I didn’t think much about the ID, figuring it was probably just another gull and that Merlin might be able to sort it out later.
But the memory card proved otherwise: it was a bald eagle, its white head and wingtips unmistakable. The photos are noisy and grainy, and I’m only including the better of the two to prove my point.
Bald eagles are fairly common in the Delaware River Valley, and they will sometimes swoop over the Princeton University campus, just a couple of miles south of the impoundment.
Even though this wasn’t a rare sighting, it was a surprise, and I’ll happily take that any day of the year. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 