Sally Alexander

We decided to head down to Lakewood to see whether we could spot the Screech owl. Kevin had read that he had been spotted. We saw him last year – check out blog post and photo here.
We parked our car, and were very excited to see a pair of birders at the spot. I tiptoed forward and Kevin raced to get the telescope. I arrived at the pair of birders, but no – no screech owl in evidence. We were so lucky to spot him last year, and get that photo.
After we had inspected every inch of his tree, Kevin put the telescope back into the car and we decided to walk around anyway. The birders we met were trying to find a greater horned owl nest. We decided to have an amble and see what we could see. There were a number of pairs of mallards in the stream. The males keeping a close guard on the females. There were also pairs of gadwells (I am quite fond of gadwells.) and a pair of blue winged teals.

I spotted the familiar shape of a cormorant flying overhead. Then we decided to go and check out the ducks at the small lake near Belmar. There were quite a few Canadian geese present, and stacks of shovellers. I saw a number of Hooded Mergansers diving for food. It was so windy and chilly we just couldn’t hang out too long. On the way back to the car I spotted a Belted Kingfisher.

We did not see any sign of the friendly little wood duck who we had spotted last season. (He loved Kevin, and ended chasing him around – Kevin’s lens was too long – he kept moving further away, and the wood duck kept following him.)
Check out the wood duck post here.

Please visit Rich Stevens’ Bird Trips for some wonderful bird watching information. Thanks to Rich Stevens we got to see the Screech Owl last year, and the Burrowing Owls.

I am always impressed on what generous people fellow birders are.