downy woodpecker – The Jersey Birder

A birding walk through fall foliage at the Pole Farm

A red sumac tree stands just off the trail, with a wall of trees with red, yellow, orange and green leaves lines the background under a bright blue sky.

Autumn days can be glorious, and today is a stunner. Tied up early in the morning, I got out to the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm about 11 a.m. and made a two-mile loop in just over an hour. My main purpose in going was birding, of course, and at that relatively late arrival time IContinue reading “A birding walk through fall foliage at the Pole Farm”

Cold-weather birding is back

A red-bellied woodpecker pauses on a tree branch before attacking the bark for bugs.

It was a chilly 13 degrees Fahrenheit when I reached the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm yesterday morning. Even without a breeze, few birds were out half an hour after sunrise. But avian activity picked up as I reached the woods up the central trail. First to appear were several robins flitting about the trees. IContinue reading “Cold-weather birding is back”

A day of discovery and a lifer, sort of

A juvenile red-headed woodpecker flies toward a tree.

I made two visits to the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm today, and it was full of surprises. On a longer than usual three-mile walk in the morning, I finally added a red-headed woodpecker to my e-Bird reports. It was a lifer. Or was it? I’ve been hoping to spot a red-headed woodpecker since I beganContinue reading “A day of discovery and a lifer, sort of”

How to tell downy and hairy woodpeckers apart

A downy woodpecker clings to a tube feeder while a hairy woodpecker hangs from a suet feeder a mere two feet away.

I wrote Sunday about the relatively rare appearance of a hairy woodpecker in our yard. But there’s more to the story! First off, after the male hairy woodpecker appeared in the morning, I looked out the window during lunch to find a female hairy woodpecker on the feeder. That gives me hope that a breedingContinue reading “How to tell downy and hairy woodpeckers apart”

Wings clipped, I can still do some birding

Carolina wren, beak open, clings to a suet feeder cage.

Last week I had knee replacement surgery, and it will be a few if not several weeks before I can get back out into the fields. Even though I’m largely homebound, I can still partake of the pleasure of watching the birds through the windows that frame our backyard and the golf course beyond it.Continue reading “Wings clipped, I can still do some birding”

Some days birding, starlings are the best you get

A small percentage of my birding excursions give me a goose egg: no birds spotted whatsoever. Such outings are rare, and I can almost predict when I’ll get that result. Time of day is the most reliable predictor. On off-work days either my wife will shoo me out of the house or I’ll head outContinue reading “Some days birding, starlings are the best you get”