Lovely Golden Background

 The Spicebush's were illuminated by the low early fall sunshine and provide a lovely golden backdrop so I decided to screw the chores and take a few photo's. The Myrtle Warblers were very much in evidence, there must have been thousands passing through the yard today because everywhere you looked there were Myrtles flashing their yellow bums. Heres some of the shots from this morning and a few from this afternoon.

Blue Jay

Blue Jay

Blue Jay

Downy Woodpecker 

Downy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Myrtle Warbler

Starling

Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch

Sunday Morning at the Feeder

 I decided to have a go at the feeder this morning as the yard was full of migrating Myrtle Warblers aka Yellow-rumped Warblers, (Myrtle is less typing). Here's a few of the 1500 + shots I took.

Blue Jay

Mourning Dove

Mourning Dove

Myrtle Warbler

Myrtle Warbler

Myrtle Warbler

Starling

Starling

Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch

Brigantine, photos I forgot I took.

 I went out to New Jersey early October 2nd. Starting off at Brigantine a.k.a Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. I took these scenic shots driving round the 8 mile loop road.

Brigantine 8 Mile Loop

Brigantine 8 Mile Loop

Brigantine 8 Mile Loop

Brigantine 8 Mile Loop

Brigantine 8 Mile Loop

A break from yard work

While working in the yard this morning I noticed the yew trees and winterberry bushes were popular with the migrating Myrtle Warblers eating the berries. I decided to have a go at the waterfall for an hour this morning and about an hour after lunch.The light wasn't great early on and a bit harsh in the afternoon but I wasn't complaining as I wasn't cutting the grass and taking the clippings up to the compost heap. Here's a few from today.

American Robin

Blue Jay

Chipmunk

Grey Squirrel

Myrtle Warbler

Tufted Titmouse

Memorable Photos from the last year.

As I'm going to loose the blog I was using from October 2023 until now I'm posting a few from the last year occasionally.

Hershey Park Independence Day Fireworks

American Avocets

Bombay Hook Sunrise

Bald Eagle Conowingo Dam

Eastern Bluebird

Northern Mockingbird

A New Old Blog

About a year ago I decided I was going to try a different blog to keep my 2 or 3 avid readers entertained. I chose to use Wordpress and selected Bluehost as the hosting company. It was $1.99 a month plus the domain name registration and a few other necessary items. All in all it was quite cheap and as I don't make any money for creating the blog posts it was a great price. I enjoy writing the posts mostly and add the photos as a reminder of where I was and what I was doing, a diary almost. I just received the reminder of the next billing cycle and the $1.99 a month was going to be $19.99 a month. As I did enjoy the power that Wordpress gave after a steep learning curve I decided I was going to bite the bullet and pay the $250 or so renewal. As I've ditched the credit card I initially used I needed to change to a different card to complete the renewal. Thats where I hit a roadblock which led me to alter my decision to renew with Bluehost. I tried to change my credit card details using my iPad and the Safari browser. It hung up and would not let me complete the change. After trying several times and verifying the data I started a Support Chat. It went downhill from there. For a leading hosting company I did not appreciate being told to used Google Chrome instead of Apple Safari to give them more money. In the end I told the support guy to go and do unnatural things with the rough end of a pineapple. So here I am back using free Blogger on a new blog. 

Rather than resurrect my old blog with the lengthy address of http://mikes-photographs.blogspot.com/  I decided on the shorter https://mike17042.blogspot.com/. The Blog for the last year is here though most likely only for a short duration. https://mike17042.com/

On Wednesday I drove out the 3 hours to Brigantine in New Jersey. I made a single pass around the 8 mile loop and took a few photographs along the way. I booked another 3 hour Dolphin and Whale Watch Cruise and headed South along the Garden State Parkway to Cape May. Initially I carried on past the marina and visited the Hawkwatch at the lighthouse. Lots of birds in the area including many thousands of Tree Swallows that were spooked by all manor of raptors. I had a walk along the beach then headed up into Cape May town and walked out along the beach looking for the Black Skimmers which I didn't find. Around midday I drove up to the marina to board the Atlantis for the 3 hour cruise. We headed out to the East into the 20kt NE wind. Unlike my previous Dolphin and Whale cruises I didn't manage to get a single decent Dolphin photograph. I was too busy trying to hold on with both hands to the railings. It was a 3 hour cruise which ended up being a thrilling 2 1/2 hour white knuckle roller coaster ride. It was awesome! People were puking, a fair bit of screaming at times and lots of whooping. Great fun. We saw lots of Dolphin but again no whales. Next time, but I'll pick a less windy day.

Forsters Tern

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Laughing Gull

Great Egret

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Swallows

Belted Kingfisher

Sanderling

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Greater Yellowlegs