I haven't been doing much birding lately... summer and gas prices are mostly to blame. Our usual backyard birds are still around - house sparrows, house finches, grackles, catbirds, mockingbirds, robins, mourning doves, a lone rock dove, and thankfully an occasional titmouse.
My boyfriend and I decided to get out of the house for a short hike in Watchung Reservation (in mountainside, nj) yesterday. We hiked to a small man-made wildflower meadow with a couple of nest boxes. From the box came chirping and out of the box came a little Wren! Seemed like a house wren, but maybe its beak was a little more curved. I've added the picture to my gallery as a mystery Wren. Its belly was all black and seemed featherless - probably plucked to keep the eggs warm with its body heat. It was fun watching the little guy/gal come and feed its chicks. A murder of crows flew overhead and landed in a dead tree - which was kind of cool.
Soon after, we decided to take a hike in an area behind the wild flower field. Soon we saw the quick movement of a small and surely wonderful, new bird. We slowly chased it, my camera snapping away hoping to catch an image of our mystery bird high in the tree canopy. We were so focused on our little friend that we didn't see the Sharp Shinned Hawk until it flew right over my boyfriend's head! It quickly disappeared back into the forest, heading towards the open wild flower field. Finally after 15 more minutes I was able to take an Identifying photograph of our mystery bird. A titmouse. Argh! I have to admit though, it was a lot of fun. And my boyfriend almost got a 'birding badge' as we like to call it, from a sharpie flying overhead. Disheartened and starting to get eaten by mosquitoes, we moved on, hoping to find the sharpie resting in a tree. We saw bunnies, cardinals, and catbirds, but the sharpie was gone or at least hiding.
Oh well, it was still a good change of pace and a nice adventure.
