KP birdwatching

  Oradell Reservoir      Waterfowl/dabbling duck migration season starts in September and ends in February. I’m not talking about Mallard or Wood Duck migration, I’m talking about Merganser, Grebe, and Loon migration; these birds are rarely seen in the summer or spring. November and December are the peak time to go birdwatching for these birds, wherever you are. With these ducks lying around in large, open bodies of water, I decided to go and try to find some of these colorful waterfowl. I decided to go to Oradell Reservoir & Emerson Woods, which is a large reservoir surrounded by forest. This place is amazing during the spring, too, because warblers and other songbirds come to the riparian woods as a stopover point. Here is a comprehensive list of the 11 species of birds I saw: Canada Goose 50 Mallard 30 Hooded Merganser 3 Common Merganser 300 Red-breasted Merganser 1 Ruddy Duck 27 Ring-billed Gull 100 Herring Gull 100 Double-crested Cormorant 200 Great Blue ...

Common Nighthawk (Courtesy of All About Birds) In this blog post, I will explain everything about a lesser-known bird family commonly called the nightjars . Let me begin. Nightjars are a diverse group of bird species that belong to the family Caprimulgidae . There are 97 species in this family, with all species having brownish-grey mottled plumage, long tails, and pointed wings. Nightjars are found on every continent except Antarctica, with the USA having six species of nightjars. Identification Nightjars are commonly seen at dusk or night, idly perching on tree branches or the ground. If you find one during the day, pat yourself on the back; its camouflaged plumage and ability to stand still make them nearly invisible to a normal viewer. For this reason, the most common way to identify nightjars is through their sound. They will most likely be perched parallel to a tree branch. Within the USA, there are six species of nightjars: the Lesser Nighthawk, Common Nighthawk, Common Pau...

  House Sparrows fighting                I have always noticed that, whenever my family puts out leftover bread on our deck, the birds always reach it first in the early morning. They create a ruckus of sounds at around 6-7 AM as they fight over measly morsels of food. Let me give you a comprehensive timeline of their breakfast endeavors. At around 6 AM, a few birds(scouts, you can call them) from a variety of species come to survey the deck for any food. If they find some, they give a single, screeching call as a way to quickly tell their flock that they found food. They immediately fly away afterward. The most common species of bird that I have noticed doing this behavior is the Blue Jay, but I have also noticed other species such as Sparrows, Juncos, and Red-Headed Woodpeckers doing this too. Blue Jays tend to send only a single scout, while all others send at least two or three. The scouts give information to their respective flock...