Pictures Don't Always Tell The Whole Story

 It's hard for me to remember what it was like to go birding without bringing my camera along. I like having a visual record of what I see but there is a lot that happens when I'm birding that I never capture on film. For example, seconds after I saw this American Oystercatcher a jolly old Labrador Retriever came crashing though the water and chased him off.

You can see from this photo that there are about 20 Glossy Ibises in this photo. What you can't see is that there are 85 more of them outside of this frame making a total of  over 100. I was watching them from Indian River Cemetery in Clinton which overlooks a marsh. There was a light rain falling at the time.

 It had a nice experience get very close to a Great Blue Heron I saw at Devil's Hopyard. I could have reached out and touched it. 

  I wanted to get a photo of the whole bird with the sun behind my back. I was trying to explain that to the heron little but I don't think it understood English. At least we seemed to hit it off fairly well.

 This Ruby-crowned kinglet actually flew right toward my camera 3 times. Maybe it was attracted to the beeping sound or a reflection off of the lens. It does have an eye but it's hard to tell when no light is reflecting off of it.

What's going on with this Little Blue Heron? Hairon gel? wind? or maybe just a bad hair day? Every picture tells a story but not always the whole story.

State Park Pass For Summer Birding

I've tended to avoid the shoreline state parks during the summer  due to beach crowds and not wanting to pay the state park fees. Splitting the cost of a season park pass ($67) with one or more birders and then carpooling for birding trips is one way to save a buck.The summer birding is good at places like Harkness Memorial, Hammonasset, and other state parks.There's a lot of nesting activity and young birds roaming around that don't get spooked as easily as the adult birds. This makes for good viewing opportunities. Osprey (above) are everywhere because of all the nesting platforms but I enjoy seeing them in a more natural setting.

This was taken at Harkness Park which offers a nice change of pace from the more popular Hammonnasset. As you can see there are some nicely landscaped areas of the park but there are also wild meadow areas and areas that are good for shorebirds. I was able to see a Dowitcher while I was there which is a shorebird I don't often see.

Hammonasset is always good birding just about any time of the year. I regularly see Little Blue Heron (above) there during the summer as well as Glossy Ibis.

I like to call this spot cormorant rock. There are often seals spotted in this area as well.

We saw dozens of Great (above) and Snowy Egrets while we were out birding. I'm no longer using the excuse of it being too crowded for birding at the shore in the summer. The beaches don't start getting busy until about 10am so that gives you a few hours of morning birding before the crowds show up. I decided paying  the State Park fees to have access to some of the best birding spots during the summer is worth it in the long run.