Best of 2017

My favorite photos from each month of 2017 (links go to larger images at my Flickr account):

1. Winter Wren, 2. White-breasted Nuthatch, 3. Song Sparrow, 4. Yellow Trout Lily, 5. Black Vulture, 6. Tawny-edged Skipper, 7. Tree Swallow fledgling, 8. Barred Owl, 9. Pandora Sphinx caterpillar, 10. Staghorn Sumac, 11. Snow Bunting, 12. Myrtle Warbler

My favorite sighting of the year was probably the Barred Owl pictured above, which was exceptionally cooperative — one might say confiding — to the delight of many refuge visitors that day. My best bird of the year was probably the Wood Stork that showed up at Sandy Hook and that I was lucky enough to see shortly before it left. The year also included another Middlesex Merlins run in the World Series of Birding.

Happy new year and good birding in 2018!