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December 2011

12/18 Cape May, NJ: Cape May came through again as a Bell’s Vireo must have made a left hand turn early in its migration to Mexico. Sure hope this little guy heads south soon as its running out of time….

12/4 Cape May, NJ: A Painted Buntingshowed up in Cape May just a week after I was temped to chase one that was reported up in Connecticut. A walk around Cape May Point resulted in nice looks of a White-winged Dove and 3 Eurasian-collared Doves all of them on the same tree at one time!

October 2011

10/2 Cape May, NJ: A mini reunion of the 1000birds.com Word Series of Birding team this weekend in Cape May. I met up with Jonathan Wasse (a.k.a the British birder who saw a Black-throated Gray Warbler on 9/30 – the 1st day of his 2 week trip) and Bob Hoopes. No new species but many good birds around including Cape May Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers, Chestnut-sided Warbler and other local and migrating birds.

September 2011

9/18 Cape May, NJ: My first visit to Cape May for the Fall migration resulted in 2 new species: Blackburnian Warbler and Philadelphia Vireo. Many other birds were coming through including this beautiful Magnolia Warbler.

August 2011

8/28 Ocean City, NJ: With Hurricane Irene passing by my area, I went out to see what birds were on the move. Nearby Ocean City was a safe 15 minute drive and yielded some good birds (Sandwich, Royal & Caspian Terns, Red Knot) but nothing compared to what was seen in Cape May..

8/21 Cape May, NJ: A good weekend indeed as I added 2 new species to my total. A Brown Booby was spotted in Jarvis Sound just a couple of miles away from Cape May on 8/12. Luckily it stayed around long enough for me to get down there and take a few photos. The other addition is courtesy of a split of the Common Moorhen to Common Gallinule and Eurasian Moorhen.

8/13 Pelagic Trip, NJ: I tagged along on a fishing trip some 90 miles offshore. The highlight by far was an awesome look at a Cuvier’s beaked Whale

leaping some 15ft off the water. We also had some nice birds including Great Shearwater

, Cory’s Shearwater and Wilson’s Storm-Petrels.

8/7 Egg Harbor Twp, NJ: I was finally able to spend some time at the local Black Skimmer

colony. The state biologist responsible for monitoring the colony told me that this was a very successful year for them. The numbers are impressive (more than 1,500 individual birds) and there was always something happening in the 4 hrs I was there.

July 2011

7/23 Egg Harbor Twp, NJ: I woke up this morning and I could hear the resident Eastern Bluebirds making a lot of noise. AT first I thought that brood #2 must have fledged and the parents were on high alert because of the odd squirrel or domestic cat that may have been near by. After an hour of persistent chatter, I decided to investigate and as I walked to the back yard I saw an immature Cooper’s Hawk standing on the ground. [more]

June 2011

06/10 Web Site : The new web site is finally up. Hope you like it!!

May 2011

5/22 Dividing Creek, NJ: I was happy to discover a nice sized colony of Bank Swallows and spent some time observing and photographing them. It got even better when I got home and looked at the photos only to discover that a Cliff Swallow (bird #642) was amongst them

5/1 Bellplain : Was able to photograph a nice male Cape May Warbler while performing my scouting duties for the World Series of Birding.

April 2011

4/30 Cape May, NJ Eagle vs Osprey : There can only be one winner in this areal dual…

March 2011

3/1-3/6 Mexico : Family vacation to Riviera Maya resulted in 37 new species (120+ total). Full report to follow shortly.

Website Update : Updated Reports for my Las Vegas outings.

January 2011

Count Update : After a couple of splits and some cleaning up, my count now stands at 600+. I am hoping to add another 40-50 species this year.

December 2010

12/31 Back Yard : A big snow storm dumped over a foot of snow a couple of days ago. As a result, a Brown Creeper was a welcome addition to the more common visitors to my back yard feeders. Surprisingly, this is a new species in my photo library although I have seen a number of them in the past.

November 2010

11/21 Stamford, CT : Finaly I chase a bird and it is there for the taking. A Fork-tailed Flycatcher that was seen for the past few days in Stamford, CT was still there this morning. I had to get up at 3:30am (after 1 hr of sleep) and drive for 3 hrs but it all paid off in the end.

11/8 Barnegat Bay, NJ : Well it happened to me again: Back in 2/1/09, I chased an Ivory Gull only for another one to pay me a visit a few months later and a few miles south of where I live. Then on 10/10/10, I chased a White-tailed Kite and missed it by a day, only for it to show up a few miles north of where I live. I made sure I got bird #592 this time around although it stayed off in the distance.

October 2010

10/31 Cape May NJ : Massive migration through Cape May this weekend.
Hermit Thrushes and Purple Finches among the 100,000+ birds that came through.

10/10 Stratford/Milford CT : After a long birding hiatus due to crazy hours at work I had time to chase a White-tailed Kite which had been seen up in Stratford, CT area for 67+ days. No luck there but I managed to get a new species in the Monk Parakeets that have been established in the wild there since the early 1970′s.

May 2010

5/15 Cape May County, NJ : The 1000birds.com team had a very succesful World Series of Birding covering Cape May county and recording 151 birds (3rd in our category).

5/14 Brigantine NWR : One day before the big race I was able to get a quick look at a Bar-tailed Godwit at the Brig.

April 2010

4/9-4/12 SE Texas : A long weekend trip to SE Texas produced 28 new species.

March 2010

3/21 Barnegat Light, NJ : Another visit to Barnegat gave me the chance to photograph Long-tailed Ducks, Black Scoter, Common Eider and Red-breasted Merganser.

January 2010

1/30 Backyard (EHT, NJ) : We’ve had record setting snow this year so my backyard feeders have become very popular with the locals including Dark-eyed Juncos and Tufter Titmice.

1/23 Barnegat Light, NJ : My customary visit to Barnegat in the winter time produced some close up photos of Black-bellied Plovers inluding one missing a foot!

1/16 Brigantine NWR, NJ : I was hoping for one new species but ended up with two at the Brig out of all places (first new species there since June 1 2008!!). I first checked for a Bald Eagle but found a Northern Goshawk instead! After waiting for it to fly away for a couple of hours (it did but in the opposite direction), I looked for the reported Purple Finches and was lucky enough to find them fairly easily. A very nice visit to my local refuge indeed

1/4 Cape May, NJ : There were several reports of a Cackling Goose seen in Cape May for the past couple of days. I was able to locate it among a flock of 200+ Canada Geese minutes before they all took off. My first new bird of the new decade!

November 2009

11/29 Cape May, NJ : An Ivory Gull made it down to Cape May just 10 months after I unsuccesfully chased another one up in Plymouth, Massachusetts. I had much better luck this time around and I was also able to track down a Swainson’s Hawk which has been in the area for a couple of weeks now.

11/16 Las Vegas, NV : Five new species from my latest trip to Las Vegas inluding Chukar and Pygmy Nuthatch at Mt. Charleston and
Townsend’s Solitaire, Juniper Titmouse and Lewis’s Woodpecker at Lovell Canyon.

11/8 Cape May, NJ : Went on a Pelagic trip some 15 miles off of Cape May with limited success. Only saw and photographed one new species a Parasitic Jaeger.

October 2009

10/11 Cape May, NJ : Some nice birds in Cape May today as a result of NW winds and a good migration push overnight. I finally took a photo of a Broad-winged Hawk in soaring flight as well as Blackpoll and Tennessee Warblers feeding before they moved on.

September 2009

9/23-24 London, UK : My daughter’s orientation at UCL required my presence in London for a couple of days. I did manage to spend a few hours birding in the capital of England. In fact I was able to tally 12 new species without using a car!!

9/5 Delta, LA : A quick trip to Mississippi gave me hope for Mississippi Kite, Wood Stork and maybe even a Painted Bunting but I had to settle for Cattle Egrets found in big numbers (100s) across the river in neighboring Louisiana.

August 2009

Grand Canyon National Park, AZ: A resent trip to Las Vegas allowed me to visit the Grand Canyon and get 4 new species: California Condor, Black-throat Gray Warbler, Mountain-Chickadee and Rock Wren.

8/10 Bavington, PA: I finally got to #14 for the year at a recent business trip in Pittsburgh PA. Thanks to the help of some local birders, I was able to locate and photograph a Henslow’s Sparrow. It was an overcast day and I couldn’t get close but I got close enough…

July 2009

7/19 Somers Point,NJ: I spent some time this weekend at a local Least Tern colony.

Las Vegas, NV: I am posting images of Virginia Rail, Redhead, Cinnamon Teal & Yellow-headed blackbird that I took during my visit to the Henderson Bird Viewing Reserve in Las Vegas back in May.

May 2009

World Series of Birding 2009: 1000birds.com participated in this year’s World Series of Birding with mixed results. This was the 4th straight year we’ve entered into this great competition.

Las Vegas, NV: Witnessed an epic territorial battle between American Coots in my resent trip to Las Vegas

5/25 Dividing Creek, NJ: Went back to clean up Grasshopper Sparrows. Also got Wood Thrush and Acadia Flycatcher as new species but images are not anything to shout about.

5/17 Dividing Creek, NJ: Grasshopper Sparrows were reported in an area fairly close to home during WSB and I was lucky enough to find one singing early in the morning. Also got to see a pair of Ring-necked Pheasants before heavy rains forced me to head back home.

April 2009

4/4 Bellplain, NJ: Succesfully went after Yellow-throated Warblersone of the warbler species I was missing to date.

March 2009

3/29 Brigantine NWR, NJ: It’s Owl month for me as I got good looks at two Short-eared Owls hunting at the refuge one.

3/8 Northern, NJ: Two new species from a trip to a well known area in North Jersey. Two Long-eared Owls have been roosting on a tree right next to the road. In addition, I took some distant photos of a pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers.

February 2009

2/22 Cape May, NJ: 0 for 2 on the Gull front as the Little Gull seen in Cape May on Friday, did not make an appearance on Sunday.

2/8 Trenton, NJ: White-winged Crossbills have been reported throughout the state for a few weeks now but they have been showing up regurarly in the Trenton Area. Much shorter trip (see bellow) and better results this time around.

2/1 Plymouth, MA: Unsuccessful attempt at finding and photographing the Plymouth Ivory Gull. Took the 13 hr round trip by car only to come back empty handed (bird was last seen on Friday afternoon – I got there Saturday evening and returned Sunday afternoon).

January 2009

1/25 Collingswood, NJ: Finally made the trek down to a Philadelphia suburb to take photos of the Green-tailed Towhee that’s been there for close to 3 weeks now.

1/25 Florence, NJ: Quick visit to Florence hoping to get some of the winter Gulls but had a flyby Great Cormorant instead.

1/4 Reports: Uploaded report from 2008 trip to Costa Rica.

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