Winter Oriole & Fighting Procrastination

I went back to Hammonasset looking for a warbler I never ended up finding but this oriole was still there! It might as well hang out here until spring at this point!

Closer to home I found a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker during a walk down a neighborhood street.

I look forward to picking up the birding pace once I'm able to shrink my high priority to do list. Did you ever notice that thinking about things you should be doing can be worse than actually doing them? 

Whenever I start procrastinating, I have a flashback of a poem I read when I was a kid titled "When Thomas Takes His Pen"

Starting 2026 With A Ride Along River Road

It was cold this morning but worse than that it was very windy! I wanted to start the year off with a little bit of birding so I hopped in my car and took a cruise along river road. I stayed in the car with my heater on and the window rolled down. I only saw about a dozen species in the short time I was there. This mockingbird seemed a bit rude.

I told him to turn around and he seemed to listen to me.

I saw a dozen or 2 Common Mergansers but I enjoyed seeing this one keeping company with a solo Ring-necked Duck.

A slow and feeble start to the 2026 birding year but I still have 364 days to make up for it!