Merry Christmas to all! I hope your holiday is a happy one.
After wrapping a few gifts yesterday afternoon, I went to the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm and joined a few other photographers on an owl stakeout. I spent 90 minutes awaiting the arrival of short-eared owls. They didn’t show.
But amusingly, as I was standing in the cold, I noticed a few song sparrows foraging on the ground. One was almost underfoot. I marveled at what either was its fearlessness or its obliviousness to this homo sapiens a yardstick away.
I had to back up a step and pull my Zoom back to its 150mm setting to get the bird wholly in the viewfinder. The sparrow stuck around long enough that I had the presence of mind to shoot a bit of video.
The other photographers seemed to pay the sparrows no heed and they may not even have noticed them. I’m glad I did.
Today, I made a short trip to Veterans Park in Hamilton, where the lake is mostly frozen and snow covered. I saw some gulls and the gaggle of domestic geese who live at the park year-round. The one memorable sight was a bald eagle perched in a tree across the lake. I’m not sure its stern gaze was directed at me. I’ll give the bird the benefit of the doubt. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 