Pelicans Around the Chesapeake Bay
I hope everyone is staying warm through Winter Storm Fern!
I thought I’d jump back in with a surely unique, prehistoric-looking bird to share. 😃
Whether brown or white, we are seeing more and more sightings of pelicans around the Chesapeake Bay.
American White Pelicans continue to arrive each winter at Blackwater NWR. Couple weeks ago I scoped/counted 148 on Blackwater River. I was standing alongside the refuge’s official counter and he counted 161. It was great to see a few not too far out for some photos.
American White Pelicans
For the Brown Pelican, we continue to see the occasional fly-by as they spend more time coming up to the mid-section of the Chesapeake Bay through the summer.
This past September, it was real exciting to come upon a pod of 32 Brown Pelicans resting on bay riprap with a few Double-crested Cormorants mixed in!
Brown Pelicans
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Brown Pelicans and Double-crested Cormorants
Hoopers Island Lighthouse is in the background
A side note:  State of Maryland sold Hoopers Island Lighthouse (above) in 2022 for $192,000 to a guy from Pennsylvania. He now owns three lighthouses on the Chesapeake Bay and is restoring them for future educational purposes.
If you love lighthouses and their restorations, you might enjoy his website, The Lighthouse Centers at https://www.thelighthousecenters.org.
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Happy Holidays!
Wishing you and yours a lovely holiday season!
(P.S. My hope is to return to blogging real soon!)
Great Horned Owl
This past Friday evening at dusk I was finishing up watering my flowers, when I heard a Great Horned Owl calling over the marsh behind our house. Another answered far off.
I dropped the hose and hurried towards the open space of trees to view over the marsh. I had my binoculars and found the owl perched on a big dead tree.
It was also staring directly back at me!
The owl took flight towards me. Egads!
Me:Â I’m fumbling with my cell phone to open up my camera.
The owl:Â it keeps coming and lands in a tree right in front of me.
Lucky me, it stayed for maybe a minute while I did the best I could with my phone camera!
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Great Horned Owl
Length:Â 18.1-24.8 inch (46-63 cm)
Weight:Â 32.1-88.2 oz (910-2500 g)
Wingspan:Â 39.8-57.1 inch (101-145 cm)
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We have Great Horned Owls year-round, but this is my closest encounter to date, and the coolest for me too!
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Duck Duck Goose – #5
We get very few duck and geese species during the summer around the Chesapeake Bay and eastern shores of Maryland, so a short game this time….. 😉
Wood Duck (female)
I wanted to show her in landscape above, now here’s a close-up of her smiling!
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Mallards
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Black-bellied Whistling Duck
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Canada Goose family
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Still weeks away, but our winter waterfowl will soon be arriving by the flocks!
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Great Blue Heron Landscape
My last post featured close-ups of my local wading birds. It’s always nice to share the big landscape scene too when it presents itself nicely.
Here’s the scene I found a couple mornings ago. The rain showers had briefly stopped, so I walked over to the marsh pond behind our house to look for any ‘waders’.
The rain crisped up the colors for a nice reflection scene on a dreary day. And I was happy to find one of my buddies there too!
Great Blue Heron
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Wading Birds – #4
Wading birds have the patience of a saint. So they are wonderful and perfect to shoot a series to get possibly that one photo that jumps out as your favorite.
Here are some of those favorites of my herons, egrets, and ibis shoots this spring and summer.
Green Heron flushed up to a persimmon tree
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Great Blue Heron
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Great Blue Heron
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Little Blue Heron (adult)
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Little Blue Heron (immature)
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Glossy Ibis
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White Ibis (immature, was considered rare sighting by eBird)
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Snowy Egret
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Great Egret
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Western Cattle Egret
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Western Cattle Egret
And a photo to show why they’re called cattle egret….. 😂
Western Cattle Egret
Alas, they will all soon depart on their fall migration, except for our beautiful Great Blue Heron, a year-round resident.Â
Woodpecker Wednesday
I have some very handsome and beautiful woodpeckers around my backyard and marsh during the summer.
Pileated Woodpecker (female)
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Red-headed Woodpecker
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Downy Woodpecker (male)
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Red-bellied Woodpecker (juvenile)
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Northern Flicker – Yellow-shafted (male)
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As long as they drill the trees and not our house and buildings, we’re all good! 😉
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1-2-3 Medium Bird Jubilee – #25
Again, I had a second post almost complete of birds from April to June for publish early July, so I’ll proceed with it while the folder rebuilds with newer shots next time. 😊
Here ya go!
They might not be as small but those birds a little larger have a beauty and joy of their own!
Eastern Bluebird (male)
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Blue Grosbeak (male)
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Blue Jay
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Gray Catbird
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Eastern Kingbird
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Mourning Dove
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Summer Tanager (male)
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Northern Cardinal (male)
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Brown Thrasher
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American Robin
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Baltimore Oriole (male)
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Orchard Oriole (male)
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Orchard Oriole (female)
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Great Crested Flycatcher
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Yellow-breasted Chat
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White-eyed Vireo
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Red-eyed Vireo
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Eastern Wood-Pewee
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Eastern Phoebe
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Acadian Flycatcher
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Brown-headed Cowbird (female)
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Cedar Waxwings
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Red-winged Blackbird (male)
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1-2-3 Cute As Can Be – #37
It’s been too long again.  I had this post ready to go early July, when I was challenged with new medical problems to work through. I’m going to try to get back up and running here!
Here you go!
There’s just too many to pick from my past few months’ (April to June) local cuties; so I’ll give ya a bunch in hopes I shared one of your bird favorites!
Indigo Bunting (male)
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Common Yellowthroat (male)
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Eastern Towhee (male)
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Ruby-throated Hummingbird (male)
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Carolina Wren
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Tufted Titmouse
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Carolina Chickadee
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Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
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Brown-headed Nuthatch
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White-breasted Nuthatch
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House Finch (male)
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American Goldfinch (male)
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Chipping Sparrow
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Field Sparrow
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Swamp Sparrow
And finally, one more sparrow!
Grasshopper Sparrow
Thank you for making it to the end! Next post is to catch up with those April-June medium beauties I’ve already got lined up!
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Oh Wow, More Warblers!
Oops! I went missing here for a couple months, blame it on Spring migration! And well, a few other life reasons. 😉
Of the 30 eBird recorded warbler species that have migrated through Maryland’s eastern shore side of the Chesapeake Bay at least once, this past Spring I saw 23 of those warblers and photographed 20 of them.
I shared my first eight warblers seen on my previous “Oh Wow Warblers” post. I saw four of those again and again, but missed scoring any other shots of these four already shared.
Yellow-throated Warbler
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Louisiana Waterthrush
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Ovenbird
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Prairie Warbler
And here’s the best of my best of those other 16 species with a couple species’ shots sharing both the male and female.
Common Yellowthroat (male)
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Common Yellowthroat (female)
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Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
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Blackburnian Warbler
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Yellow Warbler
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Blackpoll Warbler
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Northern Parula
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Magnolia Warbler
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Cape May Warbler
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Black-and-white Warbler
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Northern Waterthrush
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Black-throated Blue Warbler
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American Redstart (male)
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American Redstart (female)
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Pine Warbler
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Prothonotary Warbler
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Kentucky Warbler
(first time photographing woot!)
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Bay Photos by Donna 