Twelve favorites from 2009

A migrating warbler, the Northern Parula, was drinking and bathing at my pond and then flew up and landed eight feet from where I was standing. I was waiting with camera in hand and thrilled to be so close to this beautiful and cooperative (and usually very elusive) little bird.

I didn't expect the rabbit statue to be a perch for the squirrels, but it is a good look out. They often jump off with so much power that they topple the poor rabbit!

This is a juvenile black-crowned night-heron found in Brigantine, NJ. I had one chance to get the shot and he flew across the marsh out of range.

This young bullfrog in my backyard pond was the first to not dive under the lilly pads when I sneaked out the back door with my camera. He held still as I took several shots, each one small step closer than the last.

It took me a long time to figure out what this bird is. It's a female red-winged black bird. There is an almost impercetible bit of red on the shoulder. The other way to help indentify the females is by the males who are flying overhead trying to take my attention away from the females.

This is fledgling day for this blue-gray gnatcatcher and his siblings. His mother arrived with an insect lunch right after I took this photo. See story in previous blog on May 31st.

I was visiting Spring Farm CARES nature sancturary in Clinton, NY and found a beaver pond. The beavers started showing up to eat the apples that had been left for them. I thought this was a baby beaver, but discovered it is a muskrat. Muskrats co-exist near beavers and share their aspen twigs and sometimes even their dens.

For this shot, I pointed the pre-focused camera into the air near the female tree swallow and waited for the male to come circling around. He cooperated beautifully.

I've taken many chipmunk photos, but this one had such a great expression and fine fur, he had to make it into the top 12.

Typically geese swim away from you when you get too close so it's hard to capture their faces. Two parents led and followed these goslings right up to the bank where I was standing.

I've taken so many bee pictures, but this is the first time the bee wasn't fuzzy from all his buzzing. I don't know why this one worked; maybe it was the brightness of the Texas sun that allowed a quick enough shutter speed. (I have been corrected by Doug Wechsler, an expert in the field, and now I know this is a hoverfly.)

I took this during the spring migration when the toads cross the road to get to the Roxborough Reservoir (Philadelphia) to mate. I used a flashlight to focus on him because the toads cross at night time. Approximately 100 volunteers stopped traffic and carried the toads across the road to safety (see story on April 1 photoblog).