Meadowlands in January

There is life (and beauty) outside of the Giants stadium! Here is some proof:








 

Green-Winged Teal:


In flight:


No comment:


Settling for the night:
 

Black-crested Night Herons (immature top left, adult bottom right):


Immature Black-crested Night Heron in flight:


Landing:


Northern Harrier:

Liberty State Park

The coldest day of the winter so far was a good day for a leisurely walk in Liberty State Park.  I got some interesting shots:

The classic:


Frozen pond:


Lunch meeting:


Waiting out the winter:


Bridge view:


Gull in front of the Freedom Tower cranes:


Sea wall (with Staten Island Ferry in the distance):


Let's be cold together:


Jersey City watercolor:


Into the sun:

Buffleheads!

You know you are a bird nut if you add an exclamation point after something like "Bufflehead". Anyway, I was able to finally take some good clear pictures of them with my new lens. Enjoy!

Male and female together:


Diving:


Male alone:


Taking off:

Ducks and Raptors

I got a new lens on New Year's Day! I now shoot with the 100-400mm Canon F/4 L-series lens. Which basically means that I can get about 30% closer (and probably get a picture as much clearer) to the subject. Here is my initial catch (don't forget to click on each picture to see a much bigger image!):

Northern Harrier:






Ruddy Ducks:






American Black Ducks:






Here is an interesting couple of pictures: a motley crew of water birds. The ducks with the white heads are Hooded Mergansers, the darker ducks are Gadwalls, and the buddha in the middle is Great Blue Heron:




Same Great Blue Heron, trying to blend in:


Northern Shovelers:




This is a blurry picture (taken from a great distance), but I think this is a Red-Breasted Merganser:


Northern Pintail:


American Coot:




Sanpiper (eyes closed!):