Sunrise, Sunset
Sunrise, my backyard
Sunset, Chesapeake Bay
“I love watching the sunrise and sunset, and the sky, the birds.” – Manisha Koirala
The Eagle Has Landed
Coming in for the landing…..
Bald Eagle
Ta Da!
(6.5 ft wingspan)
Great Blue Herons
Another share of my ‘winter blues’!
We have Great Blue Herons year-round, and I will still stop to photograph a lovely composition shot.
I even have a ‘resident’ that I see quite often fishing in the marsh pond behind my house at low tide. We almost collided this afternoon when we surprised each other at close range. (I am good at sneaking up to this pond! hehe)
Great Blue Heron (my ‘backyard’ frequent visitor)
Another shot of my buddy heron
More from the past couple months…
Breezy conditions, ruffling the feathers
I literally pulled right up alongside the above Great Blue Heron, and it took flight to land on the other side of the tidal pond.
That’s a 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 ft wingspan!
(167-201 cm)
Not feeling too threatened, it moved along on it’s mission to fish.
Last but not least, my favorite of the recent Great Blue Heron scenes.
That’s some nice habitat!
Great Blue Heron ‘stink’ eye, telling me time to move on!
😉
1-2-3 Medium Bird Jubilee – #19
I’ve got the winter blues to share with you!
Blue Jay
Length 9.8-11.8 inches (25-30 cm)
Weight 2.5-3.5 oz (70-100 g)
Wingspan 13.4-16.9 inches (34-43 cm)
Belted Kingfisher (female)
Length 11.0-13.8 inches (28-35 cm)
Weight 4.9-6.0 oz (140-170 g)
Wingspan 18.9-22.8 inches (48-58 cm)
Eastern Bluebird (male)
Length 6.3-8.3 inches (16-21 cm)
Weight 1.0-1.1 oz (28-32 g)
Wingspan 9.8-12.6 inches (25-32 cm)
I Brake For Tundra Swans
I actually brake for a lot of birds 😏 and yes, most definitely for Tundra Swans!
In my to/fro travels across farm land regions, I am always on the look-out for them.
Tundra Swan, Canada Geese, Ruddy Ducks, American Black Ducks, Northern Pintails, and a Mallard
These huge, elegant birds are a real treat to see around the Chesapeake Bay region when they come to winter from their Arctic breeding grounds.
Parents and a youngster
Their size:
Length: 47.2-57.9 inches (120-147 cm)
Weight: 8-23 lbs (3800-10500 g)
Wingspan: 5.5 ft (168 cm)
Tundra Swans form permanent pair bonds by the time they are 2-3 years old and remain together year-round for life.
Pure white clean in all that mud!
Last week at sunrise, I lucked again with a large flock surrounding a farm pond where they probably spent the night.
Tundra Swans on a farm pond littered with swan feathers from preening all night
A tiny female Bufflehead is in the far right top corner of the pond, staying safe in with these big protectors!
The sun started breaking through the light fog as I started to leave so I shot a couple more to see the scene lighten up.
The grayish/darker swans are the immatures born during last year’s breeding season. They travel with their parents during migration and will return with them back to the Arctic tundra.
In just a few weeks, these beauties will be leaving us to head back home.
I will definitely miss them when they go!
1-2-3 Birds and Berries – #12
The berries that are ripe for eating are disappearing fast! I’ve got lots of birds but being at the right place at the right time, even getting a photo with a berry in the shot hasn’t been easy. 😏
But I do love the two bird species captured in the past week making the cut, and I think you will too. There seems to be a lot of red in these photos….
White-throated Sparrow
(migrated here for the winter from Canada or the most upper northeast region of the U.S.)
I was so lucky this past week with a most cooperative male Northern Cardinal enjoying a berry-licious meal.
Northern Cardinal (male)
(a year-round resident in my backyard)
With all that red, could it be a special day?
Of course!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Five On The Wire – #15
Another five birds, taking in those great 360-degree views from a wire perch!
Belted Kingfisher (male)
European Starling
House Sparrow (male)
Eastern Bluebird (male)
Red-shouldered Hawk (immature)
This one featured in flight at Blackwater NWR two posts ago here
Mockingbird and Flicker
Northern Mockingbirds quietly control their territories with quick follows, fly-bys, and maybe even swipes at others, to persuade someone to move along if you don’t belong. You may have noticed a mockingbird following you around during a walk, or appear to always be one step ahead of you on a perch. Yep, it’s keeping an eye on you!
A Northern Flicker landed on a snag, surely not realizing someone considered that snag private property.
Oh, but my backyard Northern Mockingbird did….
Mockingbird suggesting a male Northern Flicker move along
Flicker unpersuaded by the Mockingbird’s attempt
“Well, that was rude….”
1-2-3 Birds and Berries – #11
As you’ll see, the native berry buffet around me is quickly disappearing, which means there have been some very happy, well-fed birds!
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Cedar Waxwing
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
Carolina Chickadee
Berry-licious!
My neighbor’s holly trees are beautiful right now, full of bright red berries. I’ve got my eye on them as they continue to ripen for another buffet consumption by some lucky birds in a few weeks!
Another Visit to Blackwater NWR – Part 2
Continuing with Part 2 of the birds I captured at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge a couple weeks ago.
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
Northern Cardinal (male)
Downy Woodpecker (male)
This next warbler was an exciting photograph for my file. It’d been seen before in weeks prior, including by myself, so I knew where to try to find it again if it was still at the refuge at that location. Sure enough, the Orange-crowned Warbler popped out and played ‘catch me if you can’ before disappearing again. But this time! Yay! I got a photo!!
Orange-crowned Warbler
(this warbler usually goes further south in migration
to the southern U.S. states and Central America from Canada)
Carolina Wren
In beautiful song!
Of course, I cannot forget the raptors at the refuge.
Red-shouldered Hawk (juvenile)
Coming at you!
(It’s a sure bet you’re gonna see that beauty perched on a wire in my next ‘bird on the wire’ series….. 😉 )
On January 18, 2024, the Blackwater NWR Mid-Winter Eagle Survey was completed. Forty people were stationed at various locations at the same time for a 30-minute period of counting.
The tally was 174 Bald Eagles present at the refuge. Numbers are up from the last 4-5 years. To see the refuge’s full survey and graph showing the numbers since 1980, click here or go to
https://www.fws.gov/media/midwinter-eagle-survey-2024.
Bald Eagles (female, largest, on right)
Bald Eagle (immature)
This next pair of Eagles were perched on the Osprey nest platform that is on a live cam year-round.
The female is perched atop the camera post
Live Cam links at the refuge (cut/paste):
Above Osprey platform – https://www.friendsofblackwater.org/camhtm.html
Abandoned Eagle nest taken over by a Great Horned Owl who today, Jan 30, 2024, laid an egg! –
https://www.friendsofblackwater.org/camhtm2.html Scroll down that page to Youtube link to see the owl lay the egg.
Waterfowl scenes – https://www.friendsofblackwater.org/waterfowl-cam.html
And my last pair of Eagles that I cropped two ways. Couldn’t decide which to post, so here you go!
Never a dull moment at this refuge! It can be hard to leave!
