West Coast Birds of North America

There were so many amazing birds on our trip to California. And so very different! I had to look them all up in the Field Guides we borrowed from the library.

Black skimmer

Black skimmers in action. Cool!

Common Tern

Elegant Tern

Foster's Tern

Heerman gull

Killdeers (so cute! They are getting endangered in the East)

Least Sandpipers

Long-billed Curlew

Marbled Godwit

Willet

Sanderlings

Double-crested Cormorants

Pelagic Cormorant

Clark's grebes

Pied-billed Grebe (so teeny!)

Snowy Egret

Surf Scoter

 If I've named them wrongly, please let me know!

Ducks! Ducks! Ducks!

Ducks are a beginning birder's best friends. They are colourful and pretty. You can learn binoculars skills and how to photograph them because they won't fly away. After all, they are sitting ducks!

Ringed Neck Ducks (Duxbury, MA)

Male Northern Shoveller (Central Park, NYC) 

His wife, female Northern Shoveller

Female ruddy duck (Fresh Pond, Cambridge)

Her husband, male ruddy duck (Central Park, NYC)

 

Bufflehead husband and wife (Central Park, NYC)



American Coot (Duxbury, MA)

American wigeon (Plum Island, MA)



Green winged Teal (Plum island, MA)



Male wood duck (Muddy River, Brookline, MA)

His wife, female wood duck (Muddy Pond, MA)

 And my all-time fav........ (*drum roll*)

Female Hooded Mergenser

Her husband Hooded Merganser (Fresh Pond, Cambridge)

Husband & wife team having a great time!

My first raptor

I LOVE raptors!!

My first hawk encounter was with the most common hawk in North America......

 Guess who??

The Red-tailed Hawk!!

Great Adventures at the..... POND!!??!!

When I first went birding at Leverett Pond, I noticed that the ducks kept swimming away. Even though they were far away from me, whenever I moved nearer, they would turn in the opposite direction. Dad tried hiding in the bushes and creeping towards them. But they were far too clever for him! They saw him a mile away!! We only managed to take pictures of their backs.

We finally decided that ducks had fantastic eyesight and could spot humans a great distance away. We only saw them properly with a pair of binoculars. It was great when dad got a spotting scope. Then, we really saw them!  

 Sis & I birding at Jamaica Pond

Male hooded meganser (weird but beautiful! My fav duck :))

Backyard Birds

I never really, REALLY looked at birds until I started bird-watching. Then I realised we never actually appreciate how gorgeous birds right in our backyard are.

We stayed outside Boston city with 2 ponds and many gardens surrounding us. These are pics of some common but pretty birds in our backyard:

Mum nicknames me "chickadee-dee-dee" because like me, it's small and adorable!

European Starling

Male Mallard

Male American Black Duck

Great Blue Heron (he lives at the pond. He's always there!)

A pair of Northern Flickers

American Robin (the commonest bird around)



First Encounters

It was an awesome 1 year that I spent with my parents in Massachusetts, USA when mum was sent to work there last year.

We went to cape cod  for a seaside vacation and that's when dad bought me my first binoculars. Nature came to life for me when I signed up for my first ranger-led hike. My first encounters with a blue jay and a northern cardinal made me realise birds were so colourful and beautiful!

 Blue Jay (aww....so adorable!)

 Northern Cardinal (male)

Now, I'm a bird-a-holic!! My favs are owls and hawks.