March Birds

These pictures are from several trips last month. March was a weird kind of month from birding perspective - the winter birds were leaving, but the majority of the spring birds haven't moved in just quite yet. But there were a few that I was able to catch:

American Robin - always a sign of spring:


Northern Mockingbird - stays here all year:


A Mallard in his iridescent green spring coating:


An angry-looking Northern Cardinal:


A Song Sparrow breaking into its spring song:


A close encounter with a Red-Tailed Hawk:




A seagull working for its dinner:


The result of the entire winter worth of mussel dinners for seagulls:

Signs of Spring

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

Mute Swan


Snow Geese


Hooded Mergansers


Coming in for a landing!


Snow Goose fly-by


Barn Owl sleeping in its box


Male Ruddy Duck close-up

Fort Tilden

Early spring flowers

A day on the beach.... in February

Actually, it wasn't that cold. Here are some pictures from Sandy Hook:














I didn't notice this Long-Tailed Duck amongst all the seagulls, but once it saw me and took off, I managed to get this pretty good picture of it in flight up close:



So a seagull and a Great Cormorant were sitting together next to a sandbar...


This one is actually from Jones Beach - a flock of Snow Buntings doing their thing in the sun:

Bald Eagle Update

Here are sharper versions of a few of the Bald Eagles pictures posted previously:

Adult:


Juvenile: