December has been a slow birding month for me so far. I’ve been reading the local eBird lists and noticed that birders have noticed that the species lists have dropped down to 10-20 species per outing. One reason I prefer fishing to birding is that I’ve never been “skunked” while birding. There have been many […]
Tag: Hooded Merganser
Quiet Nature Preserves Have Their Busy Days
We have a small nature preserve in town named The Helen Carlson Wildlife Sanctuary. I like to stop in for a quick look around whenever I’m in the area. During my last visit their was a Red-shouldered Hawk calling out keyeer keyeer keeyer from the top of a pine tree just as I was getting […]
Birding By The Sea
Well, this is not actually a post about birding by the sea, but birding by the Long Island Sound at Hammonasset Beach State Park. Images in this post are from a trip to Hammonasset in mid-January when I met world eBirders Julie Hart and Daniel Schlaepfer with four additional visits in February. Julie was kind […]
Mondo Ponds Nature Preserve Trail
Mondo Ponds Nature Preserve is located in Milford, Connecticut only minutes from I-95 and dozens of other highly valued birding venues. Images presented in this blog article were capture on a pair of visits made to the trail, one in late October and one in late November. While the preserve constitutes nearly 36 acres, I […]
Woodchat Shrike at Sodbury Common
With the Jims needing the Woodchat Shrike for a life tick we headed off up the M4 this morning in search of that tick. Arriving on Sodbury Common at 7ish we got lucky as we pulled up next to the finder and received detailed advise on where to look as he walked on to work […]
Don’t Prejudge A Cloudy Winter Day
When I looked out the window early this morning I was discouraged by the sight of piled up snow and grey skies. I decided to take a pass on birding for the day and headed to the local diner for breakfast but tossed my birding gear into my trunk just in case I had a […]
Hooded Mergansers
Birdwatchers call them “hoodies.” I saw this pair and lots more of them at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, New Jersey, on the day after Thanksgiving. The little ducks are about 20 inches long, have a wingspan of about two feet, and weigh between one and two pounds. They are found […]
Hooded Merganser – Lophdytes cucullatus
What I love about winter in New England is that the pond start to freeze up and it concentrates the ducks and other birds into smaller areas that have open water. At a local pond in Plymouth Massachusetts, it becomes much easier to photograph and observe hooded mergansers. I was able to observe and photograph […]
