The last couple weeks have been kind of an odd haze to me. There has been a lot of death swirling around my family. Around this time last year my grandma passed away, so this has been the first Christmas without her and without the normal family traditions. My second cousin was killed in Iraq (hit by a rocket) the week before Christmas and my great uncle passed away the week after Christmas (cancer). A woman I went to high school with was murdered on Christmas day, I can’t say that I knew her well, but I imagine Christmas will be forever ruined for her family. Oh and I made a stupid mistake and cut of finger on accident and ended up getting stitches. This is probably the first year that I can ever remember being glad Christmas is over. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the time that I did get to spend with the family that was local and one of my sisters that flew in from the Air Force Academy in CO.

My new year resolution? I resolve to continue in the journey of finding my place in this world. And being happy with what I find.

So, today is the Gerald M. Ford day of mourning for federal employees….which means I didn’t have to work today. So, thanks to Ford I spent the morning birding at some new spots on the Cape. I received an excellent book as a gift from a friend of my mom, “Birds of Cape Cod and the Islands” by Roger S. Everett. There is some beautiful photography and what’s more, Everett detailed most of the places he found the particular birds. This is good for me since I have been having trouble finding successful spots. I knew today was going to be a good day when on my way to my first destination I saw a huge flock of snow geese flying over head.

Unfortunately, the quality of my pictures are kind of sketchy, partially because of the quality of camera, but mostly because my index finger has 5 stitches and is still bandaged up, which has made for some frustrating moments while trying to focus my camera.

A common eider was my second spotting for the morning. My bird book describes their sound as a “low crooning and short growl” so I had to go to the Cornell website to hear it for myself since the fellow in front of me did not vocally perform. Check it out, I think you will get a giggle out of it.

My next spotting was of male and female Buffleheads. Unfortunately, none of my gazillion shots of the males turned out. Bummer. The males have what is described as a ‘white scarf’ around their black head. But here is a pic of one of the females, they are quite different with a white ear spot instead.

Next, I saw one of my favorite birds, but only for a brief second. A male Northern Harrier was swiftly scanning the tall grasses of the marshes; I was able to get this one lone picture of him before he disappeared behind the dunes for good.

I don’t know why I am so fond of the Northern Harriers, but I have been trying for a while now to get a good picture of a particular male that I see every week on my way to work. I work on a military reserve base and there are a ton of open fields there. Several days a week I see the same (I think) male scanning a particular field near my building. Practically every morning at the same time I spot him…sometimes chasing an odd sparrow, sometimes just gliding casually over the fields, and sometimes just perched on the top of a pitch pine watching his field. I have had no luck on getting a picture of him though, camera shy I guess.

Something that I am always trying to get a good picture of is a great blue heron. They are constantly eluding me though, they are pretty skittish. But this morning, after I left my first destination and was on my way to a second location I spotted this GBH.

This bird was being so photogenic and patient with me that I ended up causing a traffic congestion (you caught me, I was doing ‘drive by birding’)….several cars stopped to watch the bird as I was taking pictures of it. This eventually unsettled him enough to find a new spot.

For my last destination of the day, I went back to the spot where I saw the red-breasted mergansers in attempt to get a better picture, but no such luck.

All in all, it was a beautiful morning for being January in the Northeast.

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