Magnolia Warbler, (spring male)

This was our new discovery for today: the Magnolia Warbler. Mike noticed it from inside the house, and since the day turned out nicer than expected, we had plenty of time outside trying to identify our new friend. Mike has heard Chris imitating a catchy song that she's heard these last few mornings that sounds like wee-did-a-wee-did-a-wee-did-a-we. When we used the field guide trying to identify this bird, it described its song as such and the picture matched up well too, so we were very excited to put two and two together. Maybe now Chris can stop repeating the song since the bird does it better.

Black-crowned Night Heron

The black-crowned night heron has been showing himself for the past few days. He roosts in an evergreen tree all day. At 7pm he leaves to go fishing. We see him return at 7am in the morning.

Northern Flickers Again

The two nortnern flickers came by near dusk today. They stayed for about 30 minutes and had a duel in two different trees.

Tufted Titmouse in his new house

We put up a woodpecker house, but a tufted titmouse moved in. It's okay with us.

Black-capped Chickadee

The chickadees have been around since we moved in, but they don't stay still so they are hard to photograph

Pine Warbler

Here is a male Pine Warbler

Hairy Woodpecker

Today was an interesting bird day. It rained really hard last night. Early this morning, there were quite a few fancy ducks in the lake. Mike spotted a female
Green Winged Teal but confused it for a female mallard. Next Chris spotted three female Hooded Mergansers and then Mike saw a male Green Winged Teal join the group. Chris then spotted four Wood Ducks. They must have taken refuge from the storm at Lake Nelson during the night. It was too grey to get any good photos so we just enjoyed the visitors.

Much later in the day, it cleared up and we got a good photo of a male Hairy Woodpecker at the suet feeder. For a while, it got warm enough for some turtles to come out and sun themselves on a tree that fell into the lake in a recent storm. The turtles jumped in the water when we got close, but they don't seem to mind sharing the log with the geese.

Northern Flicker Dance

Here is a video of the Northern Flicker courtship dance. Mike posted it two ways. A high quality video uses an active-x control next and the regular Blogger video with a flash player below. The blogger should work on more computers, but the quality isn't as good. If all else fails, the URL of the higher quality video is http://www.new-jersey-birds.com/Flickers.avi

Northern Flickers Dance (Higher Quality)

Double-crested Cormorant

Well, I'm sure that Mike thought I was crazy the other day when I told him that there was a Shrek cormorant on the lake. Now I have proof!

We never saw anything like this last summer, so I guess those binoculars were a good investment. I'm sort of guessing about the ID. Maybe it's just a Great Cormorant whose hair is blowing in the wind? Doesn't matter to me though; whatever kind it is I think it's funny looking and adorable.

Northern Flickers

Aren't these some spectacular birds!

I was getting mundane chores done at home today, but everything came to a complete halt when in my peripheral vision I spotted some commotion in the yard. At first I said out loud, Awesome! Thankfully I then said, Get the camera, idiot.

It's possible there were three, two males and a female. This one on the ground appears to me to be a female because it is lacking the black line off the base of the bill, and the pair in the tree may be both males since they have that black line. I got a video also of the two in the tree (which Mike will have to post later), and I assumed it was a mating dance. Our field guide says when done between same sex it is for competition for territory or a mate. Leave a comment please if you can help with the identification.

Red Winged Blackbird

We have had many blackbirds come by, but just a few red-winged blackbirds. Here is the best shot. Until we started phographing, we never realized they also had a white stripe below the red one.

First Cormorant

The cormorants were the first diving birds we saw in the summer when we moved in. We haven't seen any since winter. Two returned today. We'll get better pictures someday, but this is our first.

Downy Woodpecker

A female downy woodpecker advertising the "Birds Choice" suet feeder. If you want to attract woodpeckers, you should get a suet feeder with a tail prop. To complete the ad, we got ours at Wild Bird Country 1199 Amboy Avenue, Edison, NJ 08837-2552 Phone: (732) 549-5250. Say "hi" to Colleen while you are there.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard

This pair has been hanging around for two weeks, Chris takes pictures of the fancy ducks. Mike gets the regular ones.

Robin Having a Meal

Turtle

We spotted a turtle poking his head up. We all are really looking forward to spending more time outside this Spring.

However, we also have fond memories of snorkeling among the sea turtles in the Caribbean. We won't be snorkeling in Lake Nelson.

Technically, a turtle is not a member of the bird family and doesn't belong on this blog. We like turtles though. So does our daughter Lynn. Below is another turtle picture from UCLA's botanical garden just for her.