This is an immature or juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron, one in its first year. In early afternoon, it landed in our yard to look around. It was clearly curious. I was a bit surprised because these birds are more often seen at dusk....
Art glut,” some call it. It’s a problem I often encounter in writing this blog. I regularly look at so many photos that at times I lose my ability to tell good from bad, especially to recognize a really good photo when...
Few birds are as variform as the Great Blue Heron. Here are shown only several of its many aspects. To the left, are two Blues near our shore, on the eponymously named “Heron Rock.” The dark, hunched bird in front is a f...
I could just make them out in the pre-dawn gloom. They were huddled against the bitter cold. Frankly, I didn’t expect to see them. I thought they’d all have left for warmer climes at the first sign of ice. However, these mallards seeme...
Like Rodney Dangerfield, gulls don’t get the respect they deserve. We look at them, yet we rarely see them. We often regard them as lowly scavengers, and all too common ones at that. I’m as guilty as the next person...
There’s no denying it, gulls are intelligent and resourceful, as I pointed out in an earlier post. A Great Black-backed Gull is the villain of this piece. Spotting a chance to steal a fish, it does so with blinding s...
come to recognize the lumbered, slightly jerky flight of the Bald Eagle flying low among the trees. Even with the light failing, I spotted it through the window, without difficulty, coming from the direction of the marshy area at at the ...
Every now and then, we witness a territorial fight between male swans, with the resident male, or “cob,” defending his turf, or nesting area, against an interloper. Sometimes they fight to a standoff, work out an uneasy truce, and co-e...
I had just sat down for lunch when a din of honking arose from the geese in the pond. I looked up to see the Bald Eagle fly in from the north, as usual, and alight high up in Jim’s old willow tree. The tree is between Jim’s p...
They had been around for several weeks. I’d twice caught sight of them at first light, dark silhouettes against the pewter-gray pond, their white patterns twinkling in the semi-darkness. Each time, I tried to inch closer to the window for a ...
pulled into the driveway, and was unloading groceries, when the Bald Eagle swooped in and alighted on its usual perch high up in Jim’s old Willow tree. I put the bags down, went quietly into the house, came back out with my camera,...
We have the usual mob of American Robins this spring, thankfully. There seem to be enough grubs and worms to go around. This robin uncharacteristically perched itself halfway up the trunk of an old maple to look in on me. Yes, ...
A small flock of Common Mergansers, some 13-15 individuals, stayed with us on the pond for most of the winter, leaving just a few weeks ago, presumably for its nesting area further north (I actually saw it go). It was replaced by another, of ...
After a hard day sitting on the ground eating seeds that fell from the bird feeder, our Mourning Dove is finally taking a break. That quick flight to the top of the tree was tiring, too. Despite all it exertions, our dove graciously agre...
It’s hard to believe these serene Mute Swans, only hours earlier, were engaged in an horrific turf battle. After several month’s absence, they had come back to find a pair of younger swans settled on the pond, unexpectedly ice-fre...
This is the biggest swan I’ve ever seen. He’s the current resident male, (the victor in the swan fight I posted earlier). His neck is green with algae because he’s been feeding from the bottom. His mate was ne...
Over the course of two days, a miraculous event transpired outside my window. A flock — or maybe “swarm” is a better word — of Barn Swallows came to feed. They swooped and dived, banked and turned, and amazingly f...
It was with surprise that I glimpsed her lounging about the lawn on the northern side of the house. Ducks are not usually so casual about their safety. She wore the scalloped brown of many female dabbling ducks, so I assumed she was a Mallard. Tha...
If you think this is an arresting photo, how about the one I took five years ago, of four Great Blue Herons lined up in a row? The Great Blue on the left tried to land on the large, eponymously named Heron Rock, but was rebuffed by the h...
first saw these two birds at Heron Rock a little before dawn (photo below). The bird on the left is not on the big rock, itself — which seems able to support only one bird at a time — but on a small rock just beyond. It appears to be i...
little after dawn when I first glimpsed this dramatic scene through the window. It reminded me of a singularly iconic photo I had taken of a Great Blue Heron in the same spot just over a month ago, also by first light. ...
I went down to the water’s edge after lunch to photograph a large patch of water lilies growing near the shore. I’d had my eye on them for awhile, thinking the pads themselves, even without blossoms, would make an interesting photo....
Although these distinctive, medium-to-large woodpeckers are common and widespread in eastern North America, only rarely do I see them, perhaps one or two every few years towards the end of July. This is a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker, so-c...
Two Green Herons appeared recently in the little cove outside my window. I rarely see them here. They’re more often reported at the southern end of the pond. Long-term residents tell me there were far more of them about in years pa...
haven’t seen the Great Blue Herons on the pond for a while. Not since the big, concrete boat ramp was finished earlier this summer. Nowadays, one or more fishing boats can be almost always be seen on the water, at any time from ear...
A recent post portrayed a great blue in the rain. This sequence unfolded a few minutes later, just after the rain stopped. It’s the same bird, trying to decide whether to stay or go. After shaking water from its wings, it finally c...
This rock-hopping Green Heron was photographed September 3, 2012. The times are posted at left. ...
I’m sure my presence at the open window or the clicking of my camera, more than 100 yards away, was what startled this young Green Heron. I had opened the window slowly without scaring it off, and was feeling a degree of self-satisfacti...
Anyone who has watched a Great Blue Heron stand for hours waiting for a fish to swim by, knows it must “go to bed hungry” many nights. The great bird’s batting average is never very good. So, I regard it as a ...
The dead leaves adrift on the water’s surface are a poignant reminder of the season’s end, and a promise of rebirth in the spring. In a similar manner, the worn plumage of the Great Blue Heron hints at its renewal by molt....
Every spring and fall, ducks of all kinds pause here at the pond during their seasonal migration. Those visiting in the largest numbers are the tiny Buffleheads, the slightly larger Ruddy Ducks, the peppy Hooded Mergansers,&nbs...
I spied its distinctive soaring flight across the pond, almost half a mile away. It was circling, apparently looking for prey on the ground. I grabbed my camera and lowered the top sash of the window, hoping it would come my way. Sure en...
The peppy, little Hooded Mergansers have been visiting in their usual large numbers, this fall, on their way to warmer parts of the United States. They come in small flocks, one, two or three dozen at a time. In contrast to past years, t...
If you look closely, you’ll see a second Great Blue Heron lurking in the background. It’s an adult, either standing on the shore, or in the water very close to shore. Whether it’s a male or female I can’t say beca...
These are the same Hooded Mergansers that I wrote about two weeks ago. This small group has remained on the pond longer than any others of their kind, this fall, no doubt living on small crustaceans and aquatic i...
The usual suspects hang out here, along our shore. They are the dabbling water fowl, those that tip over to feed, such as the Mallard ducks and the Canada Geese. No doubt they keep coming back because the bot...
This young Great Blue Heron stops by quite often, but not every visit is a good photo op. It can linger just beyond the reach of my lens, or the light can be wrong. I last got some good shots of this two-year-old a month earlier, wh...
Recently I devoted several posts to a small band of Hooded Mergansers that had elected to remain on the pond until it froze over, despite the loss of their favorite prey, the once abundant Bluegill sunfish, which fell...
I may catch a fleeting glance of a coot sweeping by our shore once in a winter. Here was one frolicking with Mallards and Hooded Mergansers – all drawn excitedly to the shallows, no doubt, by the odd chance of a quick mea...
In the years I’ve lived here, I’ve seen and photographed only a few Ring-necked Ducks — two pairs in 2009, and one pair in 2011. So, it was with surprise and delight that last week I witnessed a small flock, about a doz...
During the first half of March, I witnessed a greater-than-usual number of migrating ducks here on the southern end of the pond, starting with small groups of Common Merganser and Hooded Merganser, followed, in order, by flocks...
“The music paints a gossamer, transcendental image of a mystical swan swimming around Tuonela, the island of the de...
They were far off when I first spotted them. I dismissed them as more of the Ring-necked Ducks I had seen in M...
Every April the eternal ritual is repeated. The female swan (the pen) goes on the nest, built in a shallow depression on ...
This big bird spreading its wings is a common sight on the pond. The Double-crested Cormorant lacks oil glands to waterproof its feathers, or so we’re told. After diving for small fish, it must rely on this time-honored method to d...
You’ve never heard of a Muscovy Duck? Neither did I, until three of them appeared on the pond one day in May 2...
“Why do swans fight?” I’ve been asked that question many times. From what I’ve observed, a fight ...
Rarely have I captured a Great Blue Heron poised to strike, as this one is. It had not been fishing here, one ...
In my recent post, The Last Heron,* I linked the departure of many pond birds to the mass die-off of ...
Suspended momentarily in midair, then swooping or diving, the gulls were excited by the prospect of Bluegills for lunch. The small sunfish are caught and brought to the surface by migrating Hooded or Common Mergansers.&nbs...
The big bird was chipper, if not downright frisky, full of itself, and having fun. After all, it’s not every day th...
Great blue herons are large birds, their wings spanning 5½ to 6½ feet. Yet, when I saw this one soarin...
I first saw this small hawk through the single French door in the back. It was busily plucking a dead mourning dove on the lawn. It had apparently made the kill a few feet away on the terrace, as evidenced by the small pool of blood and ...
The birds are back, at least some of them. Every day, now, I see one or two Double-crested Cormorants on the s...
I first saw this small hawk through the single French door in the back. It was busily plucking a dead mourning dove&...
