Saturday, August 8, 2009

Oystercatcher; Osprey



We ran aground on a bar in the Westport River the other day and as we were trying to get unstuck we saw what we took to be an American Oystercatcher, the first we have ever seen. The next day (ah Summer at last!) we we had what we took for an Osprey hovering over us. It was the first picture of one in flight that I've gotten. I guess I'll have to spend more time sitting on the beach.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

What is this bird?



We had been hearing what we took to be a family of Goshawks in our yard in Westport Ma. We even saw [and took a poor quality picture of] an immature hawk on our lawn.
Then driving home one evening we saw the bird depicted here sitting
under our apple tree. We looked it up in Sibley but weren't sure what
it was. We thought it was most likely a Goshawk, but what are those
strange "trousers" it seems to be wearing? It flew around the yard for
a time, but we couldn't make any other useful observations.