What is it about Northern cardinals that makes us homo sapiens swoon? Whenever I post a batch of bird photos to Facebook, if there’s a cardinal in the lot, it usually draws the most likes and comments,
The cardinal is the state bird of my native Ohio, and I’ve always known them since I was a kid. The brilliant red males get more attention than the more understated females, but photos of them also get a good reaction.
Female cardinal, taken a few days ago.
Cardinals abound in my neck of the woods in central New Jersey, their cheery songs carrying clearly through our neighborhood and virtually every patch of greenery and woods for miles in every direction.
This morning, I had the good fortune to catch the male cardinal shown above, perched on a tree at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm. I maneuvered without success to get a clear shot without the small branch in front of him, but I’m not disappointed. The bird is beautiful, and the photo captures him and the setting.
Thank you, Mr. Cardinal, for sharing your song and a few moments with me. 🦅
At least one Virginia rail is hanging out in the big pond at the center of the Charles Rogers Wildlife Refuge in Princeton, and I stopped there before work Monday.
I was hoping as on previous visits merely to hear a rail, a bird that hides among the reeds and rarely ventures into view when birders come near. While I didn’t hear the rail that others have recently reported on e-Bird, I was delighted to see through the reeds a male wood duck floating in the water beyond them.
Focusing was tricky, and after shooting several frames I moved off the observation platform at the parking lot and walked along the trail for a short while. Not seeing much other than a few robins, I turned back toward my car and the observation platform.
I’m pleased that my Canon R-7 was able to focus reasonably well on the duck. It took several attempts to get autofocus to lock onto it.
Another birder happily pointed to two male wood ducks on tree branches on the back edge of the pond, and one of my shots of that tops this post.
The male wood duck is spectacularly colorful, and the morning sun played the colors up nicely.
I’m not sure where the female wood ducks were — maybe they were hiding in the reeds with the Virginia rail! 🦅
After a few days of rain and a forecast for heavy clouds today, I wasn’t expecting good conditions for photos as I headed to the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm this morning.
I was hoping that I might be able to spot a few early arriving warblers in the trees, which wasn’t to be. But I had surprisingly good fortune to find several birds out in the open and within range for my camera.
Walking up from the parking lot, I took the tree-lined path to my left. Other than a couple of glimpses of robins and blackbirds, nothing caught my eye.
As I cleared the woods and rounded the curve toward the observation deck, I heard two Eastern meadowlarks calling to one another, one on each side of the trail. It took a few minutes before I spotted the one to my right perched on a post. The bird was backlit, and my photos were poor.
I had better luck to my left. As I passed the observation deck, I flushed the other meadowlark, which flew only a few yards back into the grass. One of the shots tops this post, and I’ve stitched in an even sharper shot here in the text.
I then entered the central woods of the park but didn’t see much on the first two stretches of trail. I decided not to make my usual turn to cross the woods but to stay straight on the trail until I reached the edge of the Reed-Bryan Farm side of the park.
Feeling good, I figured I would increase my chances of seeing more birds if I went through the Reed Bryan fields. After slogging through two muddy stretches of the trail, I was rewarded with a nice view of a Northern flicker, one of at least three I observed.
Northern flicker in profile, showing some of her yellow shafts.
Moments later, I heard and then saw my first Eastern towhee of the year. I also heard at least one wild turkey gobbling in the distance, another first report for 2025.
I reached the AT&T Building One oval but didn’t find anything to shoot. I finally turned toward the parking lot, following the dirt path that splits the main fields.
I came upon another birder who had just seen a Vesper sparrow, a bird that has bedeviled me. I have yet to see one, and today would be no different.
That disappointment dissipated down the trail, when I spotted a couple of Eastern bluebirds. One flew away from me, but not so far that I couldn’t catch it parked on a branch, its brilliant blue feathers shimmering vibrantly in the filtered sunlight.
That’s a pretty good day of birding and nature photography! 🦅
Distressed over the heartbreaking number of birds killed by striking windows on campus, a group of Princeton University students set out on ambitious plan to study the problem and find a solution.
Their inspiring work has led to changes in the university’s building procedures, saving the lives of countless numbers of birds. The students of the Princeton Birding Society who devised the program are featured in a 10-minute documentary directed by Jared Flesher and produced by the Princeton Office of Sustainability. The video premiered Thursday on YouTube. I encourage you to watch.
I know the students featured in the film, Patrick (a senior) and Claire (a recent graduate). To say I admire them is an understatement. Patrick and Claire were members of the Princeton team that won the World Series of Birding in 2022.
I also know the featured faculty member, Professor Cassie Stoddard, who sponsored and advised on the project. I admire her, too.
As you’ll see from the video, patterned film has been placed on many windows on campus where the students often found birds dead on the ground. Now, new construction includes the window film, which breaks up the window reflections that otherwise might seem like clear flying for a bird.
I find it slightly, amusingly ironic that the Bird Safe film debuts at a time when I’m still dealing with a daft song sparrow, whom I have named Basher, who keeps attacking the windows of our dining room every morning.
My wife set a couple of stuffed animals in the windowsills, which seemed to have kept Basher at bay for a few days. But he has returned, and I spent a portion of the last two mornings waving him away. The bird seems none the worse for his repeated beak pecks at our windows.
I’m not sure the bird film we’re installing on campus would keep this sparrow away.
Regardless, I am pleased with the success our Princeton students have had preventing bird deaths on campus. Patrick, Claire and their fellow birders have made a difference here, and I’m sure they will make a difference in our world in the years ahead. 🦅
I have always depended on the kindness of other birders. Yesterday was no exception as I finished my walk around Spring Lake at John A. Roebling Park, a.k.a. Trenton marsh.
Yellow-rumped warbler pausing momentarily in a tree.
As I was finishing my loop around the lake, I spotted at least three yellow-rumped warblers in the trees near the parking lot. They were my first sightings of the year.
In that nearly hour-long trek around the lake, I saw not a single bird on the water. Not a mallard in the marsh or a gadwall on the lake. Most days, the marsh and lake are teeming with waterfowl, but not on this drab gray Saturday afternoon.
As I approached my car, I spotted a woman with binoculars and a camo-covered long lens in the lot. I said hello and noted that although I’d heard and seen many cardinals and blackbirds, not a single bird was on the water.
To my delight, she motioned toward the lake and said, “There’s a pied-billed grebe out there.” She pointed to where the bird was dunking itself, and soon I spotted it, my first of the year.
A short while later, the woman — Stephanie — spotted a second grebe. They were fairly close to each other, and for a while it seemed one or the other was underwater. Finally, they started diving nearly synchronously. The sky was heavily overcast, so conditions weren’t great for photos. I never did get a clear shot of both of them floating, so I had to settle for a couple of frames of one of them.
One of the pied-billed grebes, brightening a day sorely lacking in sunshine.
It turned out a third grebe was swimming and diving farther back on the lake, adding to the charm of the moment. I’d never previously seen two grebes simultaneously, let alone three.
I’m grateful to Stephanie for pointing out birds I otherwise would not have noticed or had the pleasure of watching cavort on a lake otherwise barren of wildlife. 🦅
This time of year, it’s always a good idea to check the traffic at your bird feeder to see if any newcomers or old friends show up. On Sunday morning, I looked out the back windows at home and spotted a chipping sparrow on the circular perch of our primary feeder.
It was the first “chipper” of the year for me. A few house sparrows briefly chased it off, but it returned to munch some more. Mr. Chips stayed quite a while, and I swear it ate its body weight in seeds before departing.
This is my third consecutive sparrow post, and, dear reader, I’ll strive for more variety in the days ahead. With Spring migration starting to build, the odds are good that I’ll report a fair variety.
And speaking of sparrows, in case you were wondering, the song sparrow that’s been attacking our windows is still at it. The bird started its Quixotic antics a short while after sunrise today. I wish the bird would stop, but I haven’t yet reached a Carl Spackler state, “licensed to kill gophers. by the government of the United Nations.” 🦅
I had little opportunity to go birding during the work week, so getting out Saturday morning was a priority. The sun was out as I arrived at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm, but a wall of clouds soon moved in.
Nonetheless, it was bright enough when I reached the old AT&T Building One site about three-quarters of a mile up the trail. There posing nicely in a tree and singing beautifully was a field sparrow.
The bird was just a bit above eye level, and I took several shots before moving on.
My favorite was the one posted here, with the bird in full-throated expression.
I enjoy seeing birds of all sizes, but as I’ve probably noted before, my favor leans more toward the smaller ones, chickadees and kinglets and several varieties of sparrows. Within that subgroup, field sparrows rank near the top. 🦅
For the last several days, a song sparrow has been pecking at a couple of windows on the back end of our house. While my wife has been bemusedly coping with most of the attacks, I finally got a photo of the offending fellow this morning.
If you look at the window in the photo above, you’ll see scratch marks aplenty.
This sheet of paper has kept the bird away from its first window of choice.
This is the second window the bird has been attacking. His first target was a nearby window, over which we taped a large sheet of newsprint. I don’t think the bird has been back there.
This is isn’t our first encounter with ersatz bird attacks on reflective services. In previous Springs, I’ve watched a sparrow bash the side-view mirror of our Subaru. At our previous home, a robin persistently jabbed at one of our living room windows until I taped newspaper sheets over it.
There are various ways to keep birds, who see their reflection and apparently think they’re attacking a rival, from bashing one’s windows. We’d place some decals up if we had them. You can also hang streamers — anything to break the plane that the bird is misinterpreting.
We’ll probably put up another newsprint sheet in hopes of turning the bird away. But we have several windows that give us views into our yard, so this small human-bird skirmish could go on a while. 🦅
Even without the formal arrival of Spring on the calendar, you know it’s a new season at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm. The tree swallows are back, jetting over the fields and checking out the bird boxes.
The boxes are cozy quarters for the swallows and Eastern bluebirds, the latter staying in the park year-round. But when the swallows return, they jostle with the bluebirds for residency in the boxes.
I spotted my first swallows of the year the other day, with two of them flitting around one of the boxes near the edge of the woods. I was too far off to bother with trying to shoot a photo.
“Who are you???”
As I trekked back to the parking lot I spotted one on one of the boxes not far from the trail. The bird was looking straight across the box, but when I pressed the shutter on my camera, the bird turned its head and gave me what I interpreted as a look of “don’t bug me.”
The field sparrows have started singing again, and I also got to watch a couple of bluebirds poke in and out of a another box near the swallow. Warmer, sunnier days lie ahead.
My birding opportunities are limited this week, so with the sun shining and the temperature flirting with 60 degrees, I decided to make a quick dash to the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm after work.
The highlight of my 2-mile stroll was a chorus of Eastern meadowlarks singing in the fields as I made my way back to my car. At first thinking I was hearing an echo, I figured out that larks were alternating their songs from one side of the trail to the other. Two birds were in one tree at one point, and I encountered a third lark singing farther down the trail.
I had relatively clear views of two of the birds. They were a good distance away from me and lit up by the descending sun. I had to contend with power lines strung behind them, and I was able to maneuver just enough to get them out of the frame.
I’d heard a few meadowlarks in recent trips to the Pole Farm, but not the sustained singing I heard this evening. Nor I had been able to spot one on those previous outings, so my reward tonight was sonic and visual. What a treat! 🦅
A different frame of the same bird depicted at the top of this post. It was the first of the three meadowlarks I spotted.
The Jersey Birder 