I took my first trip to John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge this morning. It is certainly an interesting NWR as it’s viewing distance from Philadelphia International Airport. You can see planes taking off and landing in the background, yet there is an abundance of wildlife. It’s so great that we can have some of these areas set aside to go and enjoy wildlife, even within minutes from a large city such as Philadelphia.
It was an incredibly cold morning and we are expecting our first snow storm in the northeast tonight so I think some of the wildlife was getting ready. There is a pair of nesting bald eagles and I managed to snag a shot of one of them gathering sticks for the nest. There really wasn’t a ton of action this morning but there was a good variety of birds, especially song-birds. Towards the end of my walk, the wildlife management team stopped and asked me if I would be interested in photographing a deer drive (so they could take an approximate count). I gladly obliged but didn’t really get any good shots as most of the deer were running through forest and it was near impossible to get a shot of them. It was still really cool to see how they do that at the Refuge. I will definitely be revisiting John Heinz NWR again – hopefully soon. It’s a great place and I totally recommend making a stop if you get a chance.

I saw quite a few of these guys fluttering around at John Heinz NWR

It was a cold winter morning, this Great Blue Heron was trying to stay warm in the sun

Northern Mockingbird looking out towards the sun

American Robin feeding on berries

White-Throated Sparrow

Northern Mockingbird getting up close and personal

Squirrel getting ready for winter

Downy woodpecker banging away on a branch, you can even see some of the wood flying off to the right

One of the Bald Eagle nesting pair at John Heinz NWR was in the process of collecting sticks for the nest.