Yikes! It's Thanksgiving ...

Yikes!! - It's Thanksgiving! - Many of us gather with family and friends and remember blessing. For some, however, it is time to flee ...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!

Visit to Hawk Banding Station

I spent several hours today with a friend who was banding hawks in a hawk banding station. Cold and brisk, but several hatch year birds were hungry enough, and inexperienced enough, to come in on the lure birds.

First, is a hatch year female Cooper's Hawk ...

Cooper's Hawk (hatch year) sporting its new jewlery

Cooper's Hawk released after being banded

Several Red-tailed Hawks were caught and received a free metal bracelet. Here a young "Tail" is on the lure ...

Hatch year Red-tailed Hawk

While the hawk was on the lure bird momentarily (the spring-trap net was sprung moments after the photo) the lure bird was carefully examined and found unharmed ...

Red-tailed Hawk

After being measured, weighed, and fitted with a band, the young bird is released ...

Red-tailed Hawk (hatch year) released after being banded

Flying free ...

Red-tailed Hawk

Along the coast there were sizeable flocks of shorebirds, including a few Ruddy Turnstones ...

Ruddy Turnstone

... and elsewhere, Golden-crowned Kinglets continue to provide wonderful photo ops ...

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Good Birding!!

Black-throated Green, Rusty, et al - Heinz NWR today

Today was a beautiful, crisp Fall day at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum in Philadelphia.

It began with a Black-throated Green Warbler, a bird which should be in Belize by now - and if it does not get a move on soon will become a genetic cul-de-sac. Nevertheless, a feast for the eyes, and a cooperative poser for the cameras of several birders.

Black-throated Green Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

 Photographic highlights included the elusive elf of the tree trunk - Brown Creeper.

Brown Creeper

Brown Creeper

Waterfowl are still abundant on the impoundment, including the Ruddy Duck ...

Ruddy Duck

 At home in the southeastern corner of Vermont, the Rusty Blackbird has been a hit or miss bird from year to year. But at Heinz NWR has been likely tick on my year list in the Fall and Spring, as it was today ...

Rusty Blackbird

Rusty Blackbird

Good Birding!!

Wood Ducks, Kinglets

A Friday afternoon walk along Philadelphia's Wissahickon River provided great opportunities for Wood Duck photography.

The Wood Ducks were also a case study in birdwatching irony - at home in my Vermont neighborhoods where wild beaver ponds and wetlands provide nesting habitat, it would require exceptional effort and good luck to get photographs like these. On the other hand, an urban park within the city limits of Philadelphia provides daily opportunities to stand in awe of these beautiful birds.

Wood Duck

Wood Duck

Wood Duck

Sunday at Heinz NWR (in the shadow of Philadelphia airport), waterfowl still populated the lake, including several Greater Scaup (no photos), while Yellow-rumped Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Eastern Phoebes, and many sparrows worked the trees, understory, and weedy edges ...

Northern Shoveler

Eastern Phoebe

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet

 Good Birding!