05/02/2026
Birding
Island Beach State Park, NJ
Wednesday April 29 2026
⚠️ New Species Alert ⚠️
Northern Mockingbird.
For clarification, I have seen hundreds of Mockingbirds in my lifetime, but this is the first one I have successfully photographed.
This particular Mockingbird has an imitation list to die for, including many life birds for me.
They include:
Blackburnian Warbler, American Pipit, Hudsonian Godwit, Yellow-Headed Blackbird, Bobolink, Snow Bunting, Alder Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, all of which kept showing up regularly on Merlin, which was driving me crazy, until I spotted him perched on top of this Scrub Pine. Throw in a squeaky gate as one of his calls as well.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Sigma 100-400 f5-6.3