Bird Watching: Birding at the Jersey shore, 1 by thymewarp13

thymewarp13 wrote:
Thanks, Resin for all your assistance with my IDs. I was at least headed in the right direction for most of them. As for my last bird, I had at least determined that I had a spotted thrush. Years ago (before I owned my own field guides) I had the misfortune of meeting my first spotted thrush on the front doorstep of my home. He had been the victim of a window collision and had not survived the impact. Although I did not at the time know his identity I went to the library and had concluded that he was a Wood Thrush. Although this might sound just a little weird, I found this bird to be so beautiful that instead of burying him in the back yard immediately, I wrapped him securely and stored him in my freezer for at least a year. (This is not a little story that I have shared with many people over the years, so I'm not sure why I'm doing so now.) In my memory, my saved bird had seemed smaller than my pictured bird, although I see that typically the Wood Thrush is a little larger than the Veery.

Pelletory, just where did you photograph your wonderful osprey with fish shots? They are great. I did see osprey at several locations at Stone Harbor and Cape May, but I was never able to get any decent shots, especially not with a fish in its mouth. I'm a real fan of osprey myself, so I'm looking forward to the day when I'll be able to see something similar to what you captured without having to go to YouTube or the like. As for my good luck with the weather, I arrived in Stone Harbor early Saturday afternoon and did most of my birding on Sunday morning before some rains moved in. I visited Leaming's Run Gardens early Monday and was back in Pennsylvania by the time those heavy winds had already arrived.

Claypa, I was so happy to have seen this Red-Headed Woodpecker last week. Coincidentally, my previous sighting of one was in Williamsburg, Virginia, so it looks like I'm probably going to have to leave home in order to get lucky with the RHW again.