wood thrush – The Jersey Birder

Ovenbirds: loud and lovely warblers

An ovenbird leans forward on a horizontal tree branch. Green leaves are behind and above the bird, which has streaks of brown on its white breast and a white eye ring.

The loud, insistent call of the ovenbird is a daily experience in the woods at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm, but it’s rare that I get to see one. Today, I spotted two. I took an unusual route. I headed up the central trail from the Cold Soil Road parking lot, turned right to theContinue reading “Ovenbirds: loud and lovely warblers”

Capturing a wood thrush in two media

The mellifluent songs of wood thrushes fill the woods where I walk at the Mercer Meadows this time of the year, but it’s a rare day when I am able to spot one. My luck changed Sunday morning. I began my walk from the parking lot at the Reed-Bryan Farm side of the park andContinue reading “Capturing a wood thrush in two media”

What a day to forget my binoculars!

Cape May warbler perched among green tree leaves. The bird is mostly yellow with brown streaking and an orange spot ringing its eye, mostly below.

When I got to the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm this morning, I realized that I’d left my binoculars at home. Oops. It wasn’t worth the drive to fetch them, so I set out on the trails with only my camera. In the end, it was a minor inconvenience on what turned out to be aContinue reading “What a day to forget my binoculars!”