Thursday 14 February 2013

Nowhere near Jersey Shore

 A partially hidden Saw-Whet Owl
 Turkey Vulture
 Black Vulture
 Eastern Bluebird
 Ring-billed Gulls
Cackling Goose (centre) with larger Canada Geese
After saying my goodbyes to Cape May, I drifted north on a night drive to Hunterdon, New Jersey in at times quite persistent snow. I was going to stay with Rob Fergus aka The Birdchaser, a birding crazy ornithologist whose main area of expertise is urban birds. So we were kindred spirits.

After ousting his youngest daughter out of her bedroom, Rob put me up for the night and today we spent all the daylight hours (and most of the dusk) birding in the vicinity. I had one tick in the shape of a couple Saw-Whet Owls and saw some new birds for the trip like Merlin, a brief Long-eared Owl, Redhead and Lesser Black-backs.

On one of our drives to a different location we came across a bunch of Canada Geese feeding in a snow covered field. After a brief roadside scan Rob discovered a minute Cackling Goose in amongst the flock. The small size was totally apparent and its bill was particularly compact.

I've decided to stay an extra day with Rob and his family instead of journeying to New York City (an hour away) to stay with my cousin Orville for Friday. My logic is that I can leave Rob's early on Saturday morning and cut cross country to my next destination - the Cornell Laboratory for Ornithology in Ithaca, New York State. It makes more sense than to go to NYC to battle for a parking space on Friday and to then barge through the city again on Saturday morning to get to Ithaca.

I love a good plan!


1 comment:

Linda said...

Hi David,

Greetings from Montreal, Canada. I love your photos. Thank you so much for sharing.