Sunday, November 28, 2010

Late Migrants and Some Photos

On Thanksgiving morning, I was out birding along the Delaware and Raritan Canal near DeMott Lane in Somerset. The sky was overcast and light was poor, but there was still a lot of bird activity, starting with a group of crows chasing a Red-tailed Hawk. Right at the access bridge, there was a mixed flock of sparrows and other birds. It included my first Fox Sparrow of the fall among the more common birds. The highlight of the morning was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak that was lingering around the spillway. The bird was in winter plumage, as one might expect, but it should have been spending the weekend somewhere far south of here. Unfortunately I was not able to get a recognizable photograph of it while the bird was in front of me since I forgot to unscrew the close-up filter from the front of my lens.

The top photo is from the canal; the rest of the photos are from the Sourlands Mountain Preserve. All of them link through to Flickr photo pages.