Several birders got a chance to see a rare-for-these-parts Sandhill Crane from the Boy Scout Platform at the Celery Farm yesterday morning. (I checked today and didn’t see any.)
Turns out there were more than one. Margie Nicolai McKeon got a shot of four flying (below). Chris Takacs took the photo above. (Thank you Chris and Margie.)
More about Sandhill Cranes here.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds have been arriving at local feeders since late April. Photo by Darlene De Santis
My latest column for The Record is a hummingbird how-to. You can read it here:
Continue reading "My Column: Hummingbird How-To" »
The Marsh Warden
A poem By Patricia Price
Birds chatter.
Geese trumpet a call.
Downtrodden underbrush bends low an ear to the ground
Listening for a distinctive footstep.
And in the center of it all, a pond languishes, arms out-stretched,
floating on a dream of long ago.
Then a burst of wing
And when the air settles, he stands there before them.
A man as old as Moses.
With a white feathered crown, on two long denim legs,
The Marsh Warden slowly picks his way along the path to the Warden’s Watch.
He knows a thing or two of flying. His bones are hollowed out.
Vines reach out to greet him.
Burrs cling to his ankles.
Mud sucks at the soles of his shoes.
A soiled and heavily mended jacket attests to years of wear and tear
of their mutual attachment.
Slowly now in advancing age their faithful guardian climbs the stairs
One by one
To reach the platform where he steadies himself a bit
Before raising his binoculars to his one and only true mistress – morning.
Pat Price also wrote this prose poem about a marsh at dusk. I think it features Stiles as well:
https://www.celeryfarm.net/2021/12/a-prose-poem-to-cap-the-year.html
And she wrote ‘The Snapping Turtle.” You can read it here:
https://www.celeryfarm.net/2024/04/snapping-turtle-by-pat-price.html
I love the way she writes.
Stephanie Song saw this bird in Maywood last week. What is it? (Thanks, Stephanie!)
Attending New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Spring Birding Festival or Maine’s Acadia Birding Festival later this month?
Don’t miss one of my talks about my latest book, The Screech Owl Companion.
In Cape May, I’ll be speaking at the Grand Hotel at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 17. I’ll also be helping with owl prowls at Cape May State Park on the nights of May 17 and 18.
In Southeast Harbor on Maine’s Mount Desert Island, I’ll be speaking at the Wendell Gilley Museum at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 31, live and via Zoom.
The Cape May Spring Festival is May 16 to May 19. You can read more here:
https://njaudubon.org/cape-may-spring-festival/
The Acadia festival is from May 29 to June 2. You can read more here:
https://www.acadiabirdingfestival.com/
Both festivals are terrific. Don’t miss out.