Last Days of February

Second post in a row to start with a picture of a male Red-bellied Woodpecker. The difference? This picture was taken with our new Sigma 18–250 mm zoom lens. This picture and those that follow show that 250 mm is plenty for many bird pictures, so the lens is an excellent choice for walk-around photography.

Song Sparrow under the feeder.

House Finch atop the feeder.

Male Northern Cardinal under the feeder.

This picture was taken through the glass of one of the sidelight windows next to the front door. Still using the new Sigma lens.

These were taken through the double-glass of the living-room main window.

Here's where I expect to see a Song Sparrow, atop a tree. Usually, when it's up there, it sings.

The Mute Swan was in the southern arm of Deal Lake, just west of the railroad tracks at Interlaken.

Northern Mockingbird in the small park at the eastern entrance to Interlaken.

On the bank of the north branch of Deal Lake in Interlaken, this Great Blue Heron watched me warily as I walked by.

I took this picture from the bridge where Westra becomes Monmouth Road. The Hooded Merganser obliged with a little show.

This Doubled-crested Cormorant popped up from nowhere right below me.

It was this Great Blue Heron that had me on the bridge in the first place.

The lead, female, Hooded Merganser had emerged from a dive with food. The other bird chased and harassed it rather than go find its own food.

Knowing that I might be taking long-distance shots of small ducks, I took the 150–500 mm on this outing to Shark River. And so it was. This Bufflehead was flapping its wings as I took this shot.

And here, I believe, is a picture of a Greater Scaup. It certainly looks larger than the shots I took last month of the Lesser Scaup, and it lacks the notch at the back of its head.

Here's a female. It too decided to spend some time out of the water.

In this picture you can see that the male is considerably larger than the female, but that seems to be par for the course for this species.

One of the few birds to come really close to shore was this Mute Swan. As usual, there was quite a sizable flock of them on the water, but this one separated itself from the rest for a walk on the beach.

I took this shot of a female Bufflehead over on the Belmar side of the Shark River Inlet. As so often happens, it saw me coming and set off for deeper water.

This is one of a small flock of Brant Geese that showed up in the parking lot.

This murder of crows was very noisy. No wonder I followed them to get this shot.