Catch a kinglet if you can!

My birding friend Nancy and I had a nice stroll trough the main trails of the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm this morning. Noticing little action as we made our way up the central dirt path, we had better luck once we reached the woods and the area near the old AT&T Building One site.

The trees were quiet at first, but Nancy soon spotted quick-moving birds in the smaller trees behind a deer fence. I ambled over to join her, and we started tracking a couple of ruby-crowned kinglets dashing from branch to branch.

Kinglets are small and flighty, never setting for more than a few seconds on any particular branch or cluster of leaves that strikes their fancy. Nancy and I had our lenses trained on the trees wherever we saw movement, but the kinglets seemed to get the better of us.

Nancy and I joked about how we were getting great shots of leaves and branches, and we each hoped that we’d have at least one decent shot. Ace birder Jim Parris soon joined us, and we walked through the Building One oval and turned right onto the Lawrence-Hopewell trail.

More kinglets were zipping about the low trees there, and Jim was the first to pick out the song of winter wren that was lurking in the low branches mere feet from us. I wasn’t able to get a photo of the little fellow but I did see him pop out for a moment.

While Jim turned to follow the trail farther back, Nancy and I lingered a few minutes before turning toward our cars. We shot toward a few more kinglets, which for me would result in the photo topping this post.

The kinglet doesn’t show a ruby crown, but I did catch it stationary for the split second it took my shutter to trip. I found one other fair kinglet shot on my photo card — one with the kinglet, wings spread, flying away from me.

By the “one good shot makes for a good day” formula, this was a good day.