WIth smoke from Canadian wildfires blowing into the mid-Atlantic region, I woke up this morning with some irritation in my eyes. With the air quality rating poor, I decided to skip a planned outing with the birds.
I did go out Thursday morning and encountered hazy conditions under filtered sunlight at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm.
Knowing the air quality was deteriorating, I took a shorter walk than usual and thus encountered fewer photo opportunities with our feathered friends.
Plenty of common yellowthroats were singing and a few popped into view. I captured one of them on my camera as it was flying from stalk to stalk a few feet off the trail. I didn’t see the bug in its beak at the time, but it showed up clearly once I got my photos up on screen.
Other than this yellowthroat, the only other bird I shot was a juvenile Eastern bluebird.
I’m hoping the air will start clearing overnight and that the expected storms late in the day will wipe away the haze — for the birds’ sake and mine. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 