Category Archives: Waders

For the Birds: Camping trip yields quality bird sightings

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Photo by Chris Bosak – A great blue heron stalks the edges of North Pond in Pillsbury State Park in New Hampshire.

A recent camping trip with my son to Pillsbury State Park yielded a slew of quality wildlife sightings.

It started right away as I made my first entry to our remote camping site on the edge of North Pond, one of the smaller ponds at the park. A greater yellowlegs, a relatively large shorebird often seen at freshwater ponds and lakes during migration, worked the shallow water around the rocks looking for morsels.

Three half-mile walks to the car and back later, I headed out for my first canoe ride. It proved to be a bit of a challenge to launch, as the extremely dry weather in New Hampshire had the pond as low as it’s been in years, according to the park ranger.

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Green heron in the rain

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Photo by Chris Bosak Green heron at Presque Isle State Park, Erie, Pa., May 2025.

I missed an opportunity to photograph a least bittern (it would have been my first photos of that species) when I noticed it too late, and it quickly and silently disappeared into the reeds never to be seen again.

A few hours later, I found this green heron as a consolation prize. Not that I consider the heron a lesser bird, but I already had plenty of photos of green herons. A light rain was falling and at one point the heron shook its body to get rid of the excess water.

One day I’ll get that least bittern.

Photo by Chris Bosak Green heron at Presque Isle State Park, Erie, Pa., May 2025.
Photo by Chris Bosak Green heron at Presque Isle State Park, Erie, Pa., May 2025.

For the Birds: Sandhill crane not on my Bingo card

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Sandhill crane, Presque Isle, Erie, Pa., May 2025.

What is rare and causes excitement in one area is often commonplace and taken for granted in other areas.

For instance, a roseate spoonbill caused quite a stir in southern New England a few years ago. People came from all over the region to see it. If you visit the right places in Florida, however, roseate spoonbills, while I’m sure still appreciated, are no big deal to the locals.

Conversely, there are birds common to New England that sometimes stray into other regions where they are not common and are a thrill for the people in that region.

Last week, while visiting my brother in Erie, Pennsylvania, I had one of those out-of-place bird experiences. We were walking along a trail looking for warblers and other migrating songbirds when I heard in the distance a very loud song from a bird that I did not recognize. Even though I didn’t know what the song was right away, I knew it was something special as I was certain I had never heard it before. The call was extremely distinctive, loud and carried a long way. 

My brother had his Merlin app activated and sandhill crane came up. I had no idea that there were sandhill cranes at Presque Isle State Park as we have visited there frequently and had never seen, heard or even heard mention of the large birds being there before.

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Sandhill cranes at Presque Isle. Who knew?

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Sandhill crane, Presque Isle, Erie, Pa., May 2025.

I recently visited my old hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, and took several trips to Presque Isle State Park with my brother Paul. Presque Isle is one of the country’s birding hotspots due to its location on Lake Erie. We have been birding there for many years, but this year we were surprised to see sandhill cranes there. I believe it is the first year sandhill cranes have stayed for an extended period of time at the park. A ranger expressed hope that the birds will breed there. More on the cranes coming to birdsofnewengland.com in a future column. In the meantime, here are several photos of the beauty.

Sandhill crane, Presque Isle, Erie, Pa., May 2025.
Sandhill crane, Presque Isle, Erie, Pa., May 2025.
Sandhill crane, Presque Isle, Erie, Pa., May 2025.

Christmas Bird Count 2024 photo highlights

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Photo by Chris Bosak – A merlin at Taylor Farm in Norwalk, CT, December 2024.
Photo by Chris Bosak – A pine warbler at the esplanade in Norwalk, December 2024.

On Sunday (December 22, 2024), I participated, as usual, in the Christmas Bird Count and covered my usual area of coastal Norwalk (SW Connecticut). Instead of my usual birding partner Frank, I covered the area with Adam and Jo. It was 13 degrees when we started and didn’t seem to get much warmer as the day went on. In fact, the wind picked up and made it seem even colder. The things we do for the birds.

We had a successful day with plenty of highlights, including bald eagle, peregrine falcon, merlin, pipit, pine warbler, yellow-rumped warblerf and both types of kinglet.

Here are some photo highlights of the day:

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Green heron on a green pond

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Photo by Chris Bosak – A green heron lurks among an algae-covered pond, May 2024, New England.

Here’s a green heron hunting among the algae.

Green heron highlights walk

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Photo by Chris Bosak – Green heron

Waders (herons, egrets, bitterns) are one of the easier birds to photograph. I’m not saying they are easy by any stretch, but compared to other types of birds like warblers or other songbirds, they are easier. Waders are bigger, which alone makes for an easier photograph, but they can also often be approached stealth-like to fill the frame even more. Plus, they are all pretty cool looking. Green herons are among my favorite waders, and some of my better photos over the years have been of green herons.

I got these photos at Patterson Park in Baltimore, Maryland, when I was visiting my son at school a few weeks ago. Not New England, I know, but still acceptable on this site.

Photo by Chris Bosak – Green heron

For the Birds: Surprises big and small

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Surprises come in all sizes in birdwatching.

Sometimes, or more accurately, rarely, a big surprise happens. You look out at your feeder and a bird you hadn’t seen in years is perched enjoying a meal. Or you are taking a winter stroll on a New England beach and notice a snowy owl resting in the distance.

The other day, I was treated to a few surprises on a much smaller magnitude. They came at a small park with a tiny pond in suburbia that typically has your normal birds. Crows and sparrows are the main birds with a few mallards in the pond.

On this particular day, however, things were a little different. 

I normally drive right past the park without stopping or even casting a glance toward the pond, but something big and white caught my eye as being out of the ordinary. It was a great egret standing near the edge of the water. It wasn’t right at the edge where you would typically see an egret but rather 10 to 15 feet into the grass away from the pond. A sizable flock of Canada geese roamed around the grass near the egret.

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Next wader up: Yellow-crowned night heron

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Photo by Chris Bosak A Yellow-crowned Night Heron in Norwalk, Conn., summer 2017.
Photo by Chris Bosak A Yellow-crowned Night Heron in Norwalk, Conn., summer 2017.

The yellow-crowned night heron resembles the black-crowned night heron (featured a few days ago) with a few differences. The yellow-crowned night heron has a skinnier neck, for one. Just like the great egret may be found on the coast or inland, while the snowy egret tends to hug the coast; black-crowned night herons are more likely to be found away from the coast than yellow-crowned night herons.

Next wader up: Snowy egret

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Photo by Chris Bosak A Snowy Egret looks for food in Norwalk Harbor.
Photo by Chris Bosak A Snowy Egret looks for food in Norwalk Harbor.

Just like yesterday’s great egret photo, this photo of a snowy egret has stood the test of time. The copyright says 2015, but the photo was taken many years before that, in the Norwalk Harbor in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Snowy egrets are less likely to be seen away from the coast than great egrets, which can often be found far inland. Snowy egrets are much smaller than great egrets, as the name suggests. The photo below is pretty low in quality, but it gives you an idea of the size difference between the two. The snowy egret is on the left.