Cormorant

Tags

cormorant, double-crested cormorant, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, postaday

This time of the year, birds are very busy building their nests. A male Cormorant at the refuge emerged from the water with a stick.

Cormorant just found a stick in the water.

Cormorant getting ready to take stick back to the nest.

Cormorant taking off.

Cormorant flying back to nest.

In nest building, the male Cormorant only gathers building materials. The female Cormorant is the one that arranges such materials into a nest.

Monochrome Monday

Tags

cormorant, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great blue heron, great egret, photography, postaday

These are some shots I have taken earlier this year, rendered in monochrome.

Great Blue Heron.

Cormorant.

Great Egret.

Caught Fish

Tags

cormorant, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, photography, postaday, ring-billed gull

At high tide, ocean water pours into the salt marshes at the refuge, and provides a fish bonanza to the birds that hover near the sluice gates. I saw a band of Seagulls diving with abandon into the churning water and I began shooting them. Only when I came home and looked at the images on the computer did I see that some of them actually had caught small fish.

Ring-billed Gull with fish.

Ring-billed Gull with fish.

Ring-billed Gull with fish.

A Cormorant was equally successful, though they usually catch much bigger fish. Perhaps this one was young and still learning.

Cormorant with fish.

Sunday Odds and Ends

Tags

avocet, cormorant, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, photography, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

As a side effect of hurricane Philippe, we are being drenched with rain today, and I am staying home. Here are a few shots taken over the past several weeks that did not fit into any previous post.

Cormorants. They were moving fast in the water as evidenced by the wake they created.

Another group of Cormorants taking off.

Squirrel eating a walnut from our trees.

American Avocet.

American Avocet.

I am guessing the following two birds are immature Yellow-crowned Night Herons. October has been warm this year, and these two had not yet migrated South.

Juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

New and Familiar

Tags

cormorant, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, european starling, great egret, photography, postaday

Last week, at the Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, I saw for the first time an American Avocet standing among other familiar birds. In fact I did not know what it was until I got home, saw a strange bird in the photo and looked it up.

American Avocet, on the right, and Mallards.

Great Egret.

The following photo is unusually wide so that all the Cormorants in that one spot can be seen.

Cormorants drying their feathers.

Finally, many smaller birds were flying around: Grackles, European Starlings, and Red-winged Blackbirds. I did not get a good shot of the Red-winged Blackbirds, although they appeared to be leading packs of small birds around the marshes.

Grackles.

European Starling.

Great Egret.

Wordless Wednesday

Tags

cormorant, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, hellebore, photography, postaday, ring-billed gull, snowy egret

Insect on Hellebore petal.

Ring-billed Gull.

Cormorants.

Snowy Egret.

Snowy Egret.

Peregrine Falcon, Snowy Egret, Cormorants

Tags

cormorant, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, peregrine falcon, photography, postaday, snowy egret

First a brown shape dove straight down from the sky, at a blazing speed. It was gone almost instantly. Then I saw a Snowy Egret floundering among a group of Cormorants swimming at the spot where the dive bombing occurred.

Snowy Egret floundering among Cormorants.

Snowy Egret trying to lift off.

Snowy Egret trying to fly.

Snowy Egret after falling back into water.

Then the Cormorants began fleeing the scene.

Cormorants.

Eventually the Snowy Egret managed to fly away and went hiding among the tall grasses of the marshes. Meanwhile, a Peregrine Falcon was perched on top of a nearby pole, watching. I wonder if it was the same one who had dive bombed and scared every bird away. Peregrine Falcons are super fast and capable of reaching 200 mph (320 km/h) on a dive. They are also known to attack mid-sized birds and ducks.

Peregrine Falcon.

Peregrine Falcon. Note band on right foot.

Cormorants With Words

Tags

cormorant, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, photography, postaday

Cormorants: “She can swim, but I bet you she can’t fly that well.”

Cormorant: “You talking about me?”

Cormorants: “I told you, she’s just going to stand there.”

Cormorant: “Ha, ha… What are you saying now?”

2014 Photos: Odds and Ends – 1

Tags

cardinal, chicadee, clematis, cormorant, photography, postaday

Between now and the end of the year, I will post some of the photos I took in 2014 that did not make it, for one reason or another, into any of this year’s posts. I thought you may like them, even though there is no common theme to them.

Cormorants

Chicadee

Cardinal

Clematis

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: The Color Blue

Tags

blue, blue heron, cormorant, photo challenge, postaday

Late, but nevertheless this is my entry for Cee’s challenge.

I saw this Blue Heron looking a little bit envious of a cormorant who had just come up for air after diving in the water, with a fish firmly held in its bill:

Blue Heron: what’s up cormorant?

http://ceenphotography.com/2014/09/23/cees-fun-foto-challenge-the-color-blue/

 

Under and Over a Bridge

Tags

bridge, Carnegie Lake, cormorant, geese, photography, postaday, Princeton

Last weekend I was at the foot of the bridge going over Carnegie Lake into Princeton, NJ. I took this photo just as a Princeton University rowing team passed under it while a flock of geese noisily flew overhead.

Nearby, other geese were having their siestas,

 

while two cormorants were drying their wings.