Author Archives: JK

Oystercatcher Nest

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Monday, June 3, 2020,

This is an Oystercatcher nest and those are two Oystercatcher eggs. They are fairly easy to spot here but this is a zoomed in photo and the eggs are in the center of image. If you were to try to spot these eggs on a beach, you would need some very sharp eyes. I knew where this nest was, having spotted it the previous day, but it still took me almost ten minutes to find it again when I returned. As you can see, Oystercatchers do not build intricate nests. Like most other shorebirds, they merely make a shallow scrape in the sand.

This is Mama Oystercatcher who has come to sit on her eggs. She spends most of her time on or near the nest but she does leave it occasionally. While I was taking this series of photos, she only left the nest twice. Once to dance with her mate, and another time to scold a Tern that was perched on a nearby pole. That’s how I managed to get the photo of the uncovered eggs in the first pic. After giving me the once over – I was seated some distance away – she settled back down to incubate her eggs. JK

JK

 

Chipping Sparrow

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Monday, June 1, 2020,

This is a Chipping Sparrow. They are not rare but I don’t see them very often. It could be that I don’t pay enough attention. For example, this particular bird had to be pointed out to me by another photographer. As an aside, about a week after I took this pic, I was at a friends house being socially distant on her patio. As we sat there, I must have seen about eight of these little guys visiting my friend’s bird feeders. Rather than go out to my truck to retrieve my camera, I just sat there and enjoyed the show. JK

JK

A Cooper’s Hawk at Morton Refuge

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Thursday, May 28, 2020,

This is a  Cooper’s Hawk. A very frustrated Cooper’s Hawk.

I was visiting one of my favorite places, Morton Refuge in Sag Harbor when I found this beauty, or rather, when this beauty found me. She wasn’t looking for me. She had had her sights set on a Chipmunk. We both did. When I saw the Chipmunk, I took my camera and tripod from my shoulder and began to set up for a shot. However, before I could snap a single shot, the Chipmunk dashed off. Moments later, this hawk swooped in and began searching the area where the not so hapless Chipmunk had ran to. We were both out of luck. JK

JK