Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Yesterday morning was filled with Yellow-Rumped Warblers everywhere on the West End of Jones Beach.  I had some success with raptors, watching as Merlins chased anything and everything including Sharp-shinned Hawks.  I headed home early since the diversity of birds was low but got an e-mail on my phone as I neared Captree announcing the presence of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.  Pulling into the parking lot revealed a big group of people and I saw the bird flying from perch to perch.  After spending some time trying to get a decent shot, I called it a day for good and passed on trying to locate the Yellow-Headed Blackbird that was still around.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler:

The Hawks were incredibly fast yesterday but I was able to catch up with a few:

Merlins were the real instigators - too bad I wasn't quick enough to get this Merlin chasing the Sharpie:

If you want to see more beautiful images of raptors, heck out this incredible book by my friend Richard Ettlinger:

Cold winds bring good birds

Kinglets are excellent gymnasts

 After a few unseasonably warm days that left many migratory songbirds grounded along the Northeast Coast, colder temperatures have once again prevailed leading to a big migration push.  And as the small birds move south, the big guys that feast on them are right behind.  While Merlin numbers were negligible at Jones Beach this morning, Sharp-shinned numbers were not.  In the hour or so I spent watching I witnessed about 40 sharp-shinned hawks in addition to a handful of Northern Harriers (including 1 male that continues to hangout along the West End).  Near the Coast Guard station I found (surprise) Golden-Crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rumped warblers to be rather abundant, and 1 Brown Creeper.  Unfortunately for me I couldn't get a shot of the Creeper (blame it on not being fully awake and my hands being cold I suppose) which would have been a new species.

Posing oh-so-still 

A juvenile Northern Harrier comes to check me out

A Coopers Hawk gives me a quizzical look

Two new species photographed

Soaking the Morning Sun

Another fall visit to the West End of Jones Beach produced two new species for me - though they aren't anything spectacular, the photos came out very well for a first time encounter.  For those non-photographers viewing this, it is extremely difficult to come away with good photos of a species the first time you come across it (especially once you have been at it awhile and gotten the gimme birds out of the way).  Knowing a species habits, habitat, food sources, interactions with other species and other key information is almost always needed to get top notch images of a bird.  The same applies for shooting a new location (though it's less of a factor if you are with someone with experience of that area).  It takes awhile to figure out the best way to get the shot, the best approach, how long you have to wait etc, but every now and then you get lucky.  Almost 1 year ago to the date, I got extremely lucky and came away with my best wildlife photos ever (the gyrfalcon seen at the top of this blog) - never mind that they're some of the best images of a gyrfalcon in the lower 48 where it's a rare visitor.  So, a long story short, I was stoked when the red-breasted nuthatch (above) came down to an open branch as the sun rose and let me shoot away - and equally thrilled when I stumbled upon some fellow photographers in the median of WE2 and caught a glimpse of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet (below)

Showing how it got its name

Tasty Bugs

As small as a pine-cone

Just a moment before the sun broke over the dunes, I was lucky to observe this Osprey (it's getting late in the season for them) flying toward me before it banked to my left and headed out over the open water.  I wish I'd gotten some better lighting on the bird, but I think it's kind of a cool silhouette regardless.

Morning Glow

The must frustrating moment of the day came while I was walking along the median toward the coast guard station on the south side of the parkway.  I thought I'd seen a N. Harrier moments earlier but dismissed it.  After snapping some photos of a dark-eyed junco playing hide and seek (my best photos of this species as well), I turned to see a "grey-ghost" (aka Male Northern Harrier) flying away from me.... if I'd turned a few moments earlier I may have finally gotten a half decent shot of this species, instead of this:

The one That got Away

While photographing the ruby-crowned kinglet, I also came away with some nice looks at yellow-rumped warblers which once again were truly everywhere.  The number of yellow-rumped (aka "butter-butts") was quite amazing and it's the case for many areas along Long Island and I'm sure other coastal areas.  I also photographed some while waiting out Golden-crowned kinglets that didn't want to give me looks like last weekend.  Oh well, I'll take the Ruby as a consolation prize.

Hanging Out

Gazing into the morning

The morning started out with a Merlin on a snag right next to the Coast Guard station.  Some nice photos but I'm starting to get a good number of pictures just like this - merlin on a branch.  I hope one day soon I can get one with prey or even stretching it's wings/tail out to give me something a bit unique.

Looking for a Meal

Speaking of raptors, I rounded out my morning by hanging out with Richard Ettlinger once again and trying to photograph some speedy sharp-shinned hawks and merlins.  I was too optimistic in keeping my 1.7X teleconverter on for most of the session which meant sloooooowwwww autofocusing and missed shot after missed shot (which Richard always made clear to me by showing me the photos on his LCD and saying "see what you missed?").  Finally I gave up and took it off reducing my focal length from 500mm to 300mm and this sharp-shinned winged by... too bad I had to crop so much.  Perhaps better luck next time.  We also had a near encounter with a grey ghost (almost certainly the one I'd seen previously in the morning) but as soon as it popped over the dune and saw Rich's camera it made a U-turn and went back east... a truly difficult bird to photograph.  All in all, it was a gorgeous (albeit cold) morning with the full moon setting and a warm sunrise on a crisp fall day filled with birds.  The only regret I have is not making the run to Robert Moses after hearing a report of a sleeping red fox (a species I've only seen a few times and never had the chance to photograph).  Mike Lotito who gave me the head's-up came away with gorgeous images of a sleeping fox soaking up the morning glow of the sun... oh well, you can't be everywhere all the time!

Catch me if you Can

More from Jones Beach

Here are some more images from last weekend at Jones Beach.  Hopefully the weather will be good at some point this weekend and I can improve on my flight shots.  Above: Merlin in flight

 Above: A merlin feasts on a small bird for breakfast.  Below: Merlin stooping

 Adjusting its angle:

 Sharp-Shinned Hawk pursuing the Merlin:

 Done chasing and heading toward the ocean:

Jones Beach West End

I had the good fortune of running into the extremely talented avian photographer Richard Ettlinger at the West End of Jones Beach on this gorgeous October morning ripe for migrants.  While I wasn't able to stay long, I had some quick success and hope to have more in the future.  Merlins were just about everywhere, mostly perched on snags but lots flying around.  Northern Harriers, Sharp Shinned Hawks and a few lingering Osprey were also filling the skies.  On the non-raptor front I found Northern Mockingbirds and Yellow Rumped Warblers plentiful - as well as a Baltimore Oriole (below)

This Merlin was searching for prey from a snag along the parkway:

And another one was found in the median near the Coast Guard Station:

One of the first birds I came upon was the Northern Mockingbird, lit-up by the warmth of the rising sun:

And lastly (for now anyway) a Sharpie showed up to pursue the Merlin seen at the start of this posting:

Sandhill Cranes and Sharp-Shinned Hawk

Not Alone:
After about 1 minute of observing the Sandhill Cranes I saw something flying toward me and quickly turned my attention to this beautiful adult Sharp-Shinned Hawk (Thanks to Jerry Liguori for helping me with the ID) who took a path right over me.  These are by far the best flight shots I have of this species, and my first of an adult in flight.  There was an Male Northern Harrier that flew by a little later but did not get this close.  It was interesting that the Cranes didn't even notice the Sharpie, or the Harrier for that matter, which are too small to take one of these birds.  The other songbirds in the area however did take notice.

And a few more Sandhill Crane shots to round things out....

Learn how to ID raptors by reading Jerry Liguori's Hawks at a Distance: Identification of Migrant Raptors which features one of my photos

Spring is here

I meant to do this blog post on Sunday but mother nature had other plans, knocking out my power for a few days, so here we are and it will be brief in words and heavy in photos.

Last week an acquaintance of mine photographed a Snowy Owl (2 days after I had photographed "mine") on the North Fork.  It wasn't too far away and the next morning was supposed to be gorgeous so I thought it would be worth a shot.  Well, no Snowy Owl, but I found a beautiful Sharp-Shinned Hawk along Pier Ave. in Jamesport and a Northern Mockingbird at a small pond:

When I arrived at work a Mockingbird was being loud as usual and posed for me:

Here is a Red-Winged Blackbird from last week which I didn't get around to posting.  They are quite difficult to expose, but I liked the X made by the 2 pieces of phragmites and the nice lighting/colors:

This evening after work yielded the first Osprey of the season.  It was the first Osprey that I spotted last season as well and was munching away on a fish.  I'm a bit concerned about the nesting platform as this weeks storm caused the metal base to curl up which certainly will inhibit building a nest.  These are big birds and it's amazing how large the platform is:

As the sun was setting I spotted some mergansers on the West side of Ponquogue Bridge and this one had an odd habit of scurrying across the surface instead of swimming or flying, the lighting made for a beautiful scene:

Almost immediately after this photo I turned around and saw 2 birds flying off the huge wireless tower at the Coast Guard Station in Hampton Bays and snapped some photos.  At first I thought Mourning Dove based on shape and popularity, but a quick look at the LCD showed me something far better:

The pair of Peregrine Falcons flew south toward the ocean and I briefly thought about going back to that side to locate them but the sun was getting low and I still needed to run over the bridge and back.  After I returned from my run, I got in my car and was about to pull onto the road when I saw a dark bird shoot down toward the water then loop back up and down again before flying right over my head and landing on the big tower next to me.  One of the peregrines had returned.  Hopefully this means it is a nesting pair and they will set up on the Tower or the Bridge which is oddly their preferred habitat.  I'm not sure on this - but I'm venturing it will be the first nesting pair in Southampton Town in a very very long time.  I hope I'm not getting ahead of myself.

First Sharp-Shinned Hawk

I had to abort my first attempt at Dune Rd. this morning as the high tide mixed with last nights rains flooded the road at the Quogue/East Quogue border.  Having to go up island I decided to give the Trumpeter Swans a visit with the hope of the skies clearing up.  Well, the skies were improved but the Trumpeters were still way North of either public access and weren't going to be cooperative.  On my return trip I thought I'd give EPCAL (Grasslands at the former Grumman Air Force Base in Calverton) a try in the hopes of seeing some Short-eared Owls.  Of course, the grasslands yielded nothing but a surreal scene of a lone white-tailed deer running full speed through the massive grassland area - a bizarre sight to see on Long Island which is so heavily dominated by woods, suburbs and sprawl.  With about an hour left prior to sunset, I had enough time to make another run at Dune Rd., this time from the Ponquogue Bridge side.  As I approached the bridge, my eyes scanned the telephone poles leading to the old bridge as I have seen falcons perched on these poles before and sure enough there was a brown raptor sitting on one of them.  When I got close enough to see/photograph it, I realized it was a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, a species which I've never seen or photographed before.

After getting some good record shots of the bird, I continued on under the assumption the road was no longer flooded (as it was now low tide).  Going over the bridge I spotted a Northen Harrier hunting over the wetlands, and another one hunting over the dunes as I turned West onto Dune Rd.  Unfortunately, the road was flooded out so I headed back hoping the Sharpie would still be around.  When I got over the bridge, it was still there and I parked my car trying to determine how best to photograph it (the sun was behind it, making it rather difficult to get a good photo).  Just then, the hawk dropped from its perch and came screaming toward my vehicle flying about 2 feet off the ground, it was so fast and direct I honestly thought it was going to come land in the passengers seat!  Well, it passed the open car window and continued north eventually landing on a low wooden perch adjacent to the roadway where it was quickly startled by passing vehicle and took off into someones back yard.  What a sight to see.  After reviewing the photos, I can make the assertion that this is a juvenile Sharp-Shinned Hawk, which looks almost identical to a juvenile Cooper's Hawk.  The easiest way to tell the two species apart is size, as the Cooper's is considerably larger, but it can be difficult if it is a female Sharpie (which are always bigger than their male counterparts) especially if there is no reference for scale.  Another way to tell the difference is the tail, as the Sharpie's tail is squared off and the Coopers' is rounded - also when trying to ID these birds you can look at tail length (shorter in Sharpies) and leg thickness (thicker in Coopers).  Here is a photo from last year of a juvenile Cooper's Hawk I found near Tiana Beach which shows how similar they can be: