Ratty dines out

I just learned the answer to the burning question.  How do muskrats eat in winter?  It is the question that is keeping you up nights, I know.  While I was at the Liberty Loop of the Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge today, I saw a muskrat trot across the snow and burrow into a footprint.   [...]

SkyWatch

I am not sure if he is the bruiser or the bruisee, but either way, I have a Red-bellied Woodpecker hanging around the yard again.   It seems to me that the sky always looks bluer (when it’s not gray, cloudy, snowing) in winter.  To see other skies, check out Skywatch.

Myrtle Warblers really eat Myrtle

While I was down at the beach last weekend, I saw loads of Yellow-rumped Warblers flitting amidst the low shrubs on the walk back from the jetty.  The wind was blowing pretty fierce, so they would fly up but settle back down quickly.  Mostly they were hanging  around one type of shrub with small whitish [...]

Bird Photography Weekly

There were loads and loads of Long-tailed Ducks on the water at Barnegat Light.  A walk out onto the jetty produced close views of them in various stages of molt, a sure sign that spring is on the way, thank goodness.  This duck looks completely different in the summer; with a black front and head [...]

Winter Birding at Barnegat Light

Barnegat Light is the mecca in NJ for wintering diving ducks.  Now, winter birding is a chilly business at best, but if you have ever been to the Jersey shore in January; you know it can be downright cold. Of course you would not be birding tucked in close to the shrubbery around the lighthouse, [...]

Sparrows in Winter

Drive along any back road in winter and you will flush birds up from the sides of the road where they are eating grit.  Most often they are Juncos and Sparrows, but I always stop and look if I can, ever hopeful that there be something else in those mixed flocks.  (I got my life [...]

Bird Photography Weekly

Since I am heading to Houston for a conference in mid-Feb; I’m thinking of going down a few days early to do a little birding.  Do you have a favortite spot on the upper Texas Coast? I have been to Anahuac and plan on going there again.  I might drive down to Attawater although I [...]

Awash in Rough-legged Hawks

I was surprised to see 4 different Rough-legged Hawks at the Great Swamp (in the measly 1/2 hour I had to spend there) on Saturday.  Curious to see if there were any at the Wallkill; I decided to take a run through the farm country in lower Orange county (NY) to see what was shakin’ [...]

♫ Found a peanut ♫

♪ Found a peanut… ♪

♪ Found a peanut… ♪

♪ Found a peanut, just now… ♫

♪ I just now, found a peanut… ♫

♪ Found a peanut, just now. ♪

Heh, heh,   ♪ Me too…. ♪

Hey!  No fair.  They are mine!!!!  Grumble, grumble.  Stupid squirrel peanut thief….
Do you know the “Found a Peanut” song? It is what I [...]

My World – snow spot

Can you guess what this is?
Not a footprint.
Nothing fell from the trees.
Not a squirrel butt mark.
I’ll give you a hint….
Think small, really small….
Give up?
It is a chickadee snow bath wallow.
I looked out my window to see a Black-capped Chickadee taking a snow bath.  By the time I dashed to the garage to get the camera [...]