My new bionic knees have rejuvenated my ability to tramp around the woods, and I’ve been steadily increasing the distances I walk in this new year. Today, I put in 2.5 miles on one of my favorite routes that takes me to the north end of the park.
Along the way, I had decent light in which to shoot photos of several birds, including the song sparrow singing lustily in the photo topping this post. Also singing were field sparrows, the first I’ve heard in weeks if not months.
I mistook a purple finch for a yellow-rumped warbler high up in a tree and didn’t realize my mistake until I brought up the photos at home.
Purple finch amid the branches of a budding tree.
An even bigger surprise awaited me when I pulled back into my driveway.
A Cooper’s hawk was on the ground near our bedroom window. The hawk darted into the bushes, flushing a small bird that flew past my car and off to safety. The hawk swooped over my windshield, landed briefly by the front of the garage and even flew low near the front door before heading down the street.
The Cooper’s hawk, looking for prey by our rhododendron and rose bushes.
Cooper’s hawks know their business. When they get hungry, they head to homes like ours with multiple feeders — a sort of Golden Corral songbird buffet.
I was able to get two frames of the hawk on the ground near our rhododendron but, shooting from inside the car, wasn’t able to get any other shots off.
We weren’t out to find the mythical Jersey Devil. My friend Jim and I set out for Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in the Pinelands to find pine warblers and red-headed woodpeckers.
Jim, who has been visiting Colliers Mills since he was a kid, guaranteed that we’d find the red-headed woodpeckers and figured we had a good chance of seeing pine warblers.
Colliers Mills is near New Egypt, known mainly for the auto racetrack in town. New Egypt is roughly in the middle of the state east to west and a bit south of the state’s waist line, roughly 30 miles from Trenton and 60 from Philadelphia.
Colliers Mills is in the Pinelands, the relatively new, marketing-friendly name for the Pine Barrens. The region is, as you might guess, characterized by many pine trees. The soil is sandy throughout. It’s a unique and treasured ecosystem, and it was here that the Jersey Devil emerged in folklore in the 18th century.
Driving into the WMA, we stopped first near a small lake that had attracted ring-necked ducks, mallards and a hooded merganser. As we walked a roadway through the pine trees along the lake, we soon heard the trill of a pine warbler. A while later, it flew into a tree overhead and gave us some good looks.
The pine warbler settles below a branch.
It flew from tree to tree, and we were able to keep pace. Or was it the other way around?
The best views came when the bird — the only pine warbler we encountered — ventured onto the end of a pine branch. The bird was well lit by the sun, and we each took several shots.
Pine warbler in pine tree in the Pinelands, aka the Pine Barrens.
Having logged the pine warbler on our e-Bird lists, we drove perhaps a mile into another section and parked on the side of the road next to a field. We crossed the field into a section of woods. Almost immediately, Jim spied a red-bellied woodpecker.
As often happens, it takes me a while to find whatever bird Jim’s keen eyes have spotted. Eventually, I saw the woodpecker through my binoculars but lost the location once I pulled up my camera.
We wandered among the trees and spotted a second woodpecker, then a third and a fourth. There may even have been five. As we were looking at one at one end of the stretch of woods, we’d hear one of the other birds calling from the other side.
I had several opportunities to capture the woodpeckers with my Canon, and I’m restraining myself from overloading the post. I’m sticking with a few favorites.
One of the red-heads, in a grove of hardwood trees.One of the woodpeckers atop a tree. The red on its head has a jewel-like quality.
I had spotted a juvenile red-headed woodpecker at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm last fall, but these were the first adults I’ve seen in my adult life. The birds are gorgeous, and it was a thrill to see them. 🦅
The weather reversed course Thursday, the temperature dropping and the snow falling although not sticking. This morning, I went out to my car, which had iced over so much that I couldn’t pull open the rear driver-side door where I usually place my camera with my binoculars.
The windshield was covered in crystals, which the defroster was able to clear to get me on my way to the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm. The temperature was not quite out of freezing range, but the sun was shining nicely, throwing off the kind of light that makes for good photos.
As I walked up the central path, I trained my Canon on a couple of red-winged blackbirds, sparrows and the robin who graces the top of this post. One of the sparrows faced the sun, and as I squeezed off several shots I assumed it was a song sparrow.
A more attentive look made me smile — the white belly, bicolor bill and rufous cap signaled American tree sparrow, a sometimes visitor that always cheers me.
The tree sparrow fits in beautifully with the reddish branches and the warm-toned grasses in the background.
I did see a few song sparrows. I almost always do at the Pole Farm. I took several photos of three of them not far off the trail, but most of the time they turned their backs to me. I did manage did catch one oriented just right for an in-profile portrait.
A song sparrow surveys the meadow.
I hope these photos give you a sense of how comforting and warm the sunshine made the fields seem. Needing to get to work, I spent only 53 minutes, walking just over a mile. Every step was worth the visit. 🦅
Needing to burn some vacation time, I took the day off and headed east to the New Jersey shore. The drive was mostly a straight shot along Interstate 195, which stretches from Trenton to Belmar, and took me less than an hour.
The Shark River Inlet is where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean at Belmar Beach, and I was hoping I’d see some waterbirds that I don’t normally find on my side of the state.
I walked onto the breezy beach and was initially disappointed that I saw no birds on the water’s edge. Only a few gulls flew by offshore, too far out to identify.
The inlet, shot with my back to the ocean and looking back toward the town of Belmar.
My luck changed as I approached the inlet. A couple of birds were floating in the ocean waves, and I’d only discover from looking at my photos later that they were common loons and a long-tailed duck.
A common loon floats on the ocean, just outside the inlet.
Once I walked on top of the jetty, I spotted several brants on both sides of the inlet. Brants aren’t uncommon, but this was only the third time I’d recorded seeing them. The first was in 2019 while walking the perimeter of Liberty Island on a visit to the Statue of Liberty, and the second was at Barnegat Bay in 2022. The common denominator of the three sightings was the shore.
One of the brants floating on the inlet’s water.
A few song sparrows sang in the trees I passed as I made my way back to my car parked off Ocean Avenue.
While disappointed that I didn’t see much else, I still count the trip a success. 🦅
At last, the long winter appears to be abating, and the birds are singing and otherwise are more active than they were during the long stretch of cold weeks we had in New Jersey and the Northeast.
I went to the Pole Farm on Saturday, which started with fairly thick fog. It started lifting as I finished my walk, and I was able to get a few fair shots. We had more fog today, and I had fewer photo opportunities. But I do like the shot topping this post of a Northern cardinal perched on a tree against a gray sky.
I went back out to the Pole Farm this morning. In the afternoon, I made brief stops at the Plainsboro Preserve and at the Millstone River Impoundment in Princeton. The temperature reached 69 degrees and I was able to shed the windbreaker and walk the last stop in just a T-shirt.
Here are a few more photos from the weekend.
Red-shouldered hawk at the Pole Farm.Mallard at the Pole Farm — not a common sight.Bluebird pair in the fog at the Pole Farm.Bald eagle in the golf course retention pond behind our house.Great black-backed gull at left and (I believe) a herring gull on Lake Carnegie, Princeton.
The Nor’easter blizzard that blew into the East Coast last weekend put a crimp in my birding for a few days, but I was able to get back out this weekend as the calendar transitioned to March from February.
My friend Jim and I headed to Abbott Marshlands on Saturday hoping to find some waterfowl. Spring Lake remains iced over, but the marsh itself is mainly flowing freely. One of the highlights was getting to see a few wood ducks across the water from us, as the photo atop this post proves. Human-averse as they are, the wood ducks did not come close. We had to content ourselves with watching them through binoculars. My only decent shot was of a drake and hen, which tops this post.
This morning, I went back to Abbott Marshlands and saw a few more wood ducks, which immediately flew off once they sensed my presence. I also got a surprise shot of one while shooting a male common merganser flying across the water. As you can see below, there’s a wood duck — also flying to my right — at the bottom of the frame.
Common merganser above, wood duck directly below.
Earlier today, I visited the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm. Few birds were in sight, but there were a few minutes on one of the trails through the woods when the calls of several erupted. A pileated woodpecker cackled in the distance, and then I heard the raucous call of a common raven that flew overhead. Next up came a chorus of blue jays and one insistently calling white-breasted nuthatch.
I’d be remiss if I did not share what might be my favorite bird photo the year to date, one I took Saturday last weekend at the Trenton sewage ponds. A pine warbler, no doubt attracted by insects hovering around the sewage, showed up and sat still long enough for me to capture it digitally. It’s a beautiful bird.
The pine warbler at Trenton on Feb. 21.
I can’t recall if I’ve ever gotten a shot of a pine warbler before. I’m very happy with this one. I was lucky to find it, and I look forward to seeing more warblers once Spring migration begins in earnest. After the snow and cold we’ve had, migration can’t start soon enough! 🦅
With around-the-clock above-freezing temperatures in the offing, this weekend was likely my last chance to try for shots of birds in the snow. It was not to be.
My friend Jim and I hit multiple spots on Saturday, starting at the nearly bird-less Pole Farm. Not a great start for the Great Backyard Bird Count.
We made brief stops at three other locations before heading to the Watson Woods section of Abbott Marshlands. Finally, we saw some interesting birds in Watson’s Creek.
Common and hooded mergansers and ring-necked ducks were floating and diving on the water. American black ducks, mallards and a green-winged teal were swimming nearby. Jim also pointed out a female goldeneye. Did I get any decent photos of these critters? Nope. We had to shoot through a tangle of branches to focus on the birds in the water, and the dozen or shots I took fell short of mediocre.
Today, I headed up to the Plainsboro Preserve, hoping that the change of scenery would bring me some new birds. I walked the snow-covered main trail for a while, taking a turnoff to the lake at the center of the park. Not finding any birds on the mostly frozen lake, I scanned the trees with my binoculars and found a pair of bald eagles far across the lake.
The eagles as seen from the main trail. I started walking to the back of the park for a closer look at them but eventually turned around. The snow-coated trails slowed me down and I didn’t think the walk would be worth the effort, with no guarantee the eagles would still be there.
The preserve visitor center has a big deck from which to observe birds dining at several feeders. I was seeing the usual suspects when the Merlin app alerted me to a purple finch. I scanned the trees and spotted one high up. He flew down into a tree just off the deck, perching inside the branches and giving me some tricky opportunities to catch him.
The male house/purple finch. Note the snow in the background.
E-Bird now lists the purple finch as a house/purple finch, which surprised me. I didn’t know the bird had been reclassified. Another surprise: I discovered from the visitor center staff member that the Plainsboro Preserve is no longer affiliated with New Jersey Audubon. The town manages it, and in fact has done so since 2022. Another memo I missed!
On the way home, I stopped at the Millstone River Impoundment and was astonished to find a man ice-fishing on the big pond. I’ve seen a lot in Princeton but I never expected to see anyone ice-fishing. With the temperature rising into the 40s yesterday afternoon and today, this likely is the last day for ice-fishing around here.
The ice-fishing guy, as seen below one of the footbridges at the park.
There’s one other thing I learned over the weekend. With the brilliant glare of the sun on the snow in recent weeks, I’d been having trouble seeing through my camera viewfinder in my usual Program setting that I use for birding. I thought — mistakenly, it turns out — the problem was caused by my Transition eyeglass lenses darkening.
Wrong.
I had forgotten that my Canon R-7 has an electronic viewfinder, essentially a small video screen instead of the clear glass optical viewfinder on my previous cameras. The bright snow was turning the view through my viewfinder black, From Microsoft’s AI Copilot agent, I learned how to change a setting in the camera menu to override the normal viewfinder setting. I now have a custom setting on the camera that I can dial up whenever such bright winter days return. 🦅
The wind is howling, the thermometer is at 10 degrees, and I’m sticking close to home. Fortunately, I filled the feeders yesterday and today, and the neighborhood birds are flocking to them.
My wife and I looked up from our cheesesteak lunches to find a beautiful Northern flicker perched on one of the shepherd’s hooks. The bird’s yellow tail feathers shone brightly in the sun. Intermittently, gusts of wind fluffed up other feathers, reminding us of the wind-chill effect, at -9 as I write this sentence.
Norther flicker illuminated by the sun.
The flicker didn’t seem to mind the chill, nor did the dark-eyed juncos clustered on the ground plucking the nyjer seeds dislodged from the tube feeder. I did watch a white-throated sparrow seemingly tuck down into the snow below one of our shrubs as a wind gust blew in.
In the back corner of our lot, a red-bellied woodpecker hammered insistently in one of the trees below where a branch had been sawed off.
The red-bellied woodpecker takes a breather. Shooting from far off through a window, I was pleased to get a catch light in his eye.
We also had a surprise visitor, the first American goldfinch of the year. It appeared to be a male in winter plumage. It chomped nyjer seeds from the tube feeder.
American goldfinch having a snack.
I’m glad these birds are hardy enough to withstand the bitter cold. I’m grateful that they found sustenance in our yard and wish them well on this, likely the coldest weekend of this winter. 🦅
We’re in a long stretch of frigid weather, and it was 6 degrees when I headed off yesterday morning for a birding jaunt with my ace birding pal Jim. Our first stop was a new one for me: the Trenton sewage ponds.
Yes, the cement-framed pools at the Trenton sewage treatment plant near the edge of the Delaware River are a birding hotspot. As Jim explained, the ponds are warm year round and attract bugs, which in turn attract birds. As we walked up the driveway to the plant, through the gated fence we immediately saw a couple of swallows (ID undetermined) fly up and then back down toward the dark water in one of the pools.
Lovely setting for birding, no? The sewage ponds as photographed through a gated entrance to the plant.
It wasn’t a busy morning for birds. We saw a handful of yellow-rumped warblers and watched as a Merlin flew overhead with something in its claws. We trudged back to the car and took a look at the Delaware, which at this spot appeared frozen solid. There were even drifts of snow atop the ice.
We took the “Trenton Makes, The World Takes” bridge over to Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and drove to the north end of the levee along the Delaware. There we spotted two female goldeneyes swimming with a female common merganser in a small channel of open water. About 100 Canada geese snoozed nearby.
After a short stop, we drove up to Patterson Farm in nearby Yardley, hoping to catch site of the Lapland longspurs that have been hanging out near some humpback piles of mulch. As we approached the mounds, we saw cars parked on a curve, which was where the stakeout was.
While we spent close to an hour at the spot, we never spotted a longspur. That was a small disappointment, because I was able to see my first horned larks. I estimate there was a flock of 50 of them feeding on the snow-covered fields.
The birds were close to where we parked, feeding in one spot for a few minutes and then taking off to another. The larks kept returning to where we were, no doubt because somebody or somebodies had strewn seed out on the snow (as seen in the photo topping this post).
At one point, a peregrine falcon swooped in over the fields and spooked the larks. The peregrine made a big banking turn and headed off, flying so quickly I didn’t even think about taking a photo. I did take a lot of photos of the horned larks and kept a few favorites, including this one.
Horned lark stopping on the snowy fields of Patterson Farm.
Even with the cold weather, it was fine day of birding. How often do you get to say you went to a sewage treatment plant, crossed the Delaware and recorded a lifer? 🦅
The big storm that cut a wide swath across the country left about 8 inches of new snow on the ground at our home. The storm didn’t seem to bother the dark-eyed juncos and three varieties of sparrows that fed virtually all-day long at the feeders.
I expected the house sparrows and wasn’t surprised to see a couple of white-throated sparrows and a few song sparrows chowing down. What did surprise me was the number of juncos that swarmed our yard. I estimate that at least 20 of them were visiting at their peak, many more than the handful we normally see.
The juncos and sparrows seem to be in cahoots when it comes to feeding at our place. The house sparrows take the lead in perching at the main feeder, stuffing themselves and sloppily dropping seeds to the snow below. That’s where the juncos and white-throated sparrows hang out, plucking seeds off the snow. Song sparrows occasionally appeared on the perch but mostly stuck to ground feeding.
On the nyjer tube feeder, I often saw a single junco clinging to the side while four or five of its mates were eagerly plucking at however many of the little black seeds the one up top scattered on the ground.
Snow fell most of the day, flakes for the first several hours and then pellets in the afternoon and evening.
Every time I opened the front door, I flushed two or three juncos that were on the porch, evidently taking a break from the storm.
As I was shoveling snow and using my light-duty electric snowblower, the juncos kept feeding from the small cage feeder we have in our front yard. As I looked up at the feeder, I was struck by how much one of the juncos’ two tailfeathers (white underneath) resembled icicles.
I’d like to think that because I talked to the juncos (everybody talks to birds, right?), they relaxed and didn’t worry about the man in the Princeton parka with the noisy blue machine belching white powder. Even when I pushed the blower only a few feet from the shepherd’s hook holding the feeder, the juncos stood firm and munched.
Once back in the house, I was amused by a song sparrow waiting its turn for the main feeder out our dining room window. The bird (in photo topping this post) waited patiently while the house sparrows sparred with each other and hogged the seed ports.
The birds that come to our yard charm me each day, and I’m grateful for the performance they put on during yesterday’s storm. We’re in for an extended cold spell, and I hope they continue to come calling. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 