After dropping off my taxes with the man, I decided to drive on down to Oberly Road in Alpha, NJ. Oberly Road is a birding hotspot for wintering raptors, Snow Buntings, Horned Larks and the much sought-after Lapland Longspur. Of course, I was hoping for Snow Bunting and the elusive Longspur. While I got neither, there was a flock of dozens of Horned Larks swirling around and many sparrows. It was a male Northern Harrier, however, that stole the show.
He appeared out of nowhere, made a few preliminary passes then dove onto a small dark something but then dropped it. He coursed back and forth over the field intent on finding a meal. After some minutes he wheeled off to cross the road to search in another field. I was finally able to breathe again. I do love the gray ghost. I don’t see them often enough.
Oh yeah, and the Horned Larks were nice too.
Stumble It!
That’s such a great birding spot.
Wow, beautiful shot of the harrier, Bev!
Great work capturing the first image. The larger version must be quite sharp?
Very nice! It was only a couple of years ago that I learned what a gray ghost was in birding terms. We used to use a fly type fishing lure which was called a gray ghost for trout fishing.
Nice work Bev! i just drove across Oberly Road (which is within walking distance for me) and observed a Crow convention lol. There was a small flock of Starlings with them. The fields looked bare to me, but I didn’t have the bird’s eye view! Merry Christmas!