BirdingGirl

The majority of 2011 was spent planning my wedding, but now that it's over I'm finally catching up things I've neglected...like my blog! I still squeeze in birdwatching when I can (today I had pine siskins, black-capped chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches at my bird feeder, plus saw a golden-crowned kinglet while on a walk at Carver Pond), but sadly I haven't had the time to sit down and blog regularly. That's going to change in 2012. I've really missed going birding and now I have considerably more time on my hands. I also changed jobs around the time of my wedding, and instead of commuting 2 hours into Boston I now drive 30 minutes to Plymouth. I found an amazing job at SmartPak Equine, a horse supplement and equestrian supply company . Now that the holidays are over I finally have time to go through all my wedding photos. I've been working putting together a book for us, one for my parents and one for Steve's parents. Hopefully that will be done...

Back on June 14 th I was home on the Cape for my dad's birthday. He got a shellfishing license for the first time this year (we've been saying we wanted to do it for years) and we went quahoging on Sunday. We didn't realize the restrictions , but you can only go on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays and you need to do it before 7:00pm I believe. The way the tides fell that Sunday we timed it just right and got in just before the cut-off. On our way to Monk's Cove I asked my dad to stop at Monument Beach so I could take pictures of the osprey fledglings in the nest there. The nest is located to the left of the bridge out to Tobey Island. I always enjoy watching the osprey family at Monument Beach . Last summer I got a picture of the mother in flight, after being alerted by the cries of the babies. She flew right over Shore Rd. and the beach itself but the babies were off on the other side of the street near the safety of the trees. Look at the size of that fish she...

These pictures are from my trip to the beach with my mom last Thursday. I was hoping to get some pictures of the Osprey (and her fledglings if they were still around) and sure enough she was out making some passes over Shore Road. I was also following this Northern Mockingbird, who was very active. I followed it down to this dead tree where some sparrows were also hanging out. The Mockingbird was jumping and climbing about the tree like a monkey until finally perching atop one of the tallest branches of the tree, shown in the right-hand side of the picture. Here's the close-up of that shot. Later on I heard the Osprey, which alerted me to get my camera out quickly. I wish I had had it with me back in July when the fledglings were out for practice flights. Their "bleating" calls caught my attention and there they were- probably four or so- flying in the exact same spot over Shore Road. About two minutes later their mother came from the other side of the road (where there ...

I was at my friend Chelsea's house on Sunday and was lucky to see some lively birds in her backyard. Her grandmother has one of those wire basket birdfeeders in the backyard that is actually pretty big and can feed a lot of birds at once. She had a lot chickadees, titmice and other small birds on there. One bird that I saw a lot of and I'm having trouble identifying is a small sparrow or finch with a red mark on its crown. I'm sure if I spend some more time with my Sibley Guide I can figure it out, but I'm anxious to get posts up so I'll come back to it later. Another Mashpee sighting that was pretty exciting was an osprey. Osprey are pretty common on the Cape, and there are several nest perches within my town. I usually notice the mother up there with her chicks, but I've never really paid attention to one in flight, and certainly when there isn't a nest in sight. I saw what looked like a hawk with a white head flying above me while I was in Mashpee I belie...