Saturday, October 30, 2010

Clapper Rail

Clapper Rail

We drove down to Brigantine for some Saturday morning birding. We had our hopes set on seeing a bittern since some have been reported there lately. While looking for bitterns, instead we found a Clapper Rail. Similar behavior to the Soras we have seen with the darting in and out of the reeds, but it was the longer bill than the sora that made us question what it was, and it wasn't as striped as the bitterns. After a bit of research, we are pretty confident that it's the clapper rail.

Mike was lucky enough to see the endangered California Clapper Rail on a recent trip and now we've both seen his eastern relative.

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Eastern Bluebird from Brigantine

Eastern Bluebird

We don't get Eastern Bluebirds in our yard or neighborhood, so this somewhat common bird is an uncommon treat for us when we do get to see them.

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Hooded Merganser at Brigantine

Hooded Merganser
Hooded Merganser

The Hooded Merganser duck is one of our very favorites to see, and with our lake being drained for repairs this fall, we were feeling very deprived. Fortunately our trip to Brigantine included seeing this one male, but we sure would have liked to have seen many more!

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More Birds from Brigantine on a Lovely (but brisk) Fall Morning


Yellow Rumped Warbler
Yellow Rumped Warbler
White-throated Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Hermit Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Savannah Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow

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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Go Beavers!

 
 
 
We realize this is way off topic for a bird blog, but you may have noticed that we branch out with stories and pictures of other wildlife occasionally. This summer we've been watching an adorable family of beavers: mom, dad, and a little one. Our community had a plan in place to drain the lake for some much needed repairs to the dam, and we were starting to worry about what our little beaver friends would do with no water. Two weeks ago, the dam was opened and we have not seen the beavers since then. It's a little dreary looking out into the empty lake with a small stream flowing down the middle.

While driving over the Metlars bridge the other evening, traffic was at a standstill so Mike reminded Chris to look over to the other side of the lake to see the status over there. Well, we were ever so delighted to see that the beavers had built a new dam! It was too dark that evening on our way home to check it out fully, but we took a walk by first thing this morning. We didn't see the actual beaver family, but we did discover that our little beaver friends are making things better for other wildlife too. A HUGE turtle seemed to be making its way very slowly over the dam and heading for the deeper water. There were also lots of birds around that area too. We've seen a small decline in the number of birds right in our yard (could be due to a neighbor's cat being let out), so we are keeping our backyard water feature running for as long as we can for them while they are without the lake. (An order has already been placed for a defroster for it.) We do, of course, fully understand the need for the dam repairs and are impressed with the efforts of all the volunteers working to make it happen, but we're also incredibly impressed at the efforts of the beavers and hope they succeed in making it through the winter. We are really going to miss seeing the migratory ducks that usually stop by, but maybe we'll make more birding trips away from home this season if it doesn't get too cold and snowy.
Anonymous Kevin Dorival said...

I love wildlife and the pictures on this blog are amazing. We don't really see nature like this in Miami.

December 8, 2011 at 3:56 PM  

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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Palm Warbler

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