Hooded Merganser

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Stellar's Jay

Blue-winged Warbler

Barred Owl

American Goldfinch

American Bittern

Tufted Titmouse

Herring Gull

Eastern Bluebird

I'll be honest: this painting sucks. I think it reflects the sense of complete failure I carry around because I've never actually seen one in the wild, even though they're totally common birds. Shame shame shame.

Horned Lark

Semipalmated Plover

A Dandy Ruddy Turnstone

I painted this a while back; he looked so plain and boring at first so I added in the top hat and cane. I think it suits him well.

Poor Little Warbler

Saw this tiny friend stuck in a real jam outside the Jet Blue terminal at JFK. He had flown into an archway by the elevators, and couldn't figure out how to get out. He kept flying against the glass window and falling back down the ground. I stayed with him, trying to work up the nerve to pick him up to carry him out of the archway (ew bird germs!). And then suddenly he just flew straight out and away.

Bon voyage, little friend!

Fowl

Bird Costumes

Which mascot should I get of myself?


For more eagle mascots, click here.

Scott's Oriole in Union Sq. Pt. 2

I got up early for once and went into Union Sq. before work this morning to check out the scott's oriole that had been sighted. A small crowd of birders were there, and they told me the bird had just flown off a few minutes before, but it came back a few minutes later. It was high up in a tree right across from Coffee Shop, so it wasn't in a great viewing or photographing location.

For me, the best part was when a well dressed girl around my age on her way to work stopped and asked what we were looking. One of the men explained it was a rare bird and pointed it out in the tree. I offered her my binoculars, and she got a look at it, and said "well, now I have something great to tell my boss why I was late today!"

Here's my best two photos:

Scott's Oriole

I got an email from the Metro Birding Briefs that a Scott's Oriole has been around Union Square park all month, but only a few people have noticed and it wasn't reported until today. This is a southwestern US bird, and its range is Utah down to into Mexico; this could possibly be a first for NY state!

The report came from Ardith Bondi, who posted some beautiful photos on her website.

Ardith's photo:


I hope to be able to get there to check it out tomorrow!

Long Billed Murrlet in PA

On Friday, there was a rare bird alert that a long billed murrelet, a bird with a typical range in northern Asia, was seen in the Lake Nockamixon state park outside Allentown, PA. Eric and I drove out there Saturday afternoon, but when we got there, it was no where to be seen. We chatted with a guy who had drove there from Baltimore, and he said that a long of people had been there looking, but it hadn't been seen all day. This guy wrote about seeing it in his blog - The Birdchaser.

The best part of the story is that apparently on Saturday morning, someone told the state park ranger that some hunter had shot the bird. So the ranger had to check to check every hunter that had come through that day to make sure they didn't have the murrelet tucked away in their loot. It seemed to be a false alarm, although no one had seen the bird alive all day. I think it's a goner. Someone's having murrelet soup for dinner tonight.

Long billed murelet in happier times: