Category Archives: Birds

Chickadee At Avalon

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Tuesday, October 11, 2011,

I like Chickadees. I just do. They’re so sociable and charming that they don’t need to be draped in colorful garb. I hesitate to use the term “cute” but let’s face it, these little buggers are indeed cute. This guy was was feeding amongst the seed heads in the furthest of the farm fields at Avalon Preserve. My good friend and the head of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, Sue, is very fond of telling us to save the seed heads, don’t cut your flowers, and she’s right. There’s a good deal of food and nutrition to be had in those “dead flowers”and birds need that stuff. Other animals as well. Those cute (Oh! There’s that word again.) chipmunks that we all enjoy seeing are big seed eaters too. The pretty petals may be gone but those flowers still attract plenty of wildlife, so keep the seed heads and enjoy the view. JK

JK


Juvenile Cardinals At Sweetbriar

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Monday, October 3, 2011,

Here are two young Cardinals that I saw at Sweetbriar. I’m fairly certain that they were from the same clutch as both of these birds and an adult pair were all traveling together and remained close during the half-hour or so that I was taking these pics. The bird in the first photo appears to be well on its way to male coloration while the bird in the second pic seems to be female. This is just conjecture on my part. I didn’t look under any skirts to check. I do notice that the female’s bill is already red. More conjecture here, but maybe females can achieve red bills sooner than males because they don’t need to use as much red pigment in their feathers. I don’t know any of this; I’m just making a guess. I don’t really know the ways of nature. I just wonder at them. JK

JK

Juvenile Night-Heron

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Thursday, September 8, 2011,

This juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron is perched just above the waters of the Nissequogue River. It was fledged this past spring and won’t acquire its adult plumage till next year. And those golden eyes, which look pretty darn cool now, will become two amazingly beautiful ruby orbs. JK


Killdeer On The Carmans

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Friday, July 22, 2011

Here’s a couple shots of a Killdeer on the Lower Carmans River. I took these two years ago today but I never got around to posting them. There’s been a lot of that over the years. I’m afraid my zeal for taking photographs is no match for my immeasurable laziness when it comes to posting the pics themselves. JK

JK

Alien At The Porthole

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Friday, June 24, 2011


Sweetbriar Nature Center has several bluebird boxes in the open fields. Unfortunately, we don’t get many bluebirds. Or any, to be more precise. The boxes are still put to good use by other species.


This female Tree Swallow is raising her brood in one. She doesn’t care that the box is for bluebirds. She’s not proud. What she is is hot. That’s why she’s gaping in the lower pic. Three o’clock in the afternoon inside a 6x6x12 oven in the open sun and you’d be gasping for a breeze at the window too. Not to mention her pretty-boy mate. Oh sure, he’s handy with the occasional feeding but he barely helped build the nest and he never takes a turn at sitting the kids. He’s perched on a shady branch and singing. Singing. Well, singing don’t feed the brood and it sure as heckfire doesn’t get her out of that box and into a nice cool grove of trees, now does it? Typical male behavior. Her mother told her it would be like this and her mother was right. Those Tree Swallows are all the same. All woo and no work. JK