Favorite Photos of 2023 and the winner is...the Northern Wheatear! 1/01/2024

I have assembled a collage of some of my favorite photos for 2023 and, in spite of the fact that I love photographing owls, raptors, and vagrant visitors, my absolute favorite for the year was this little, male Northern Wheatear. This little guy was a visitor to Plymouth Beach at the end of September and he hung around for quite a few days. Besides his gorgeous breeding plumage and black mask, the Northern Wheatear has quite the migration journey and this one took a wrong turn. There are two populations that breed in the Arctic of Eastern and Western Canada and both populations winter in southern Africa.

This Wheatear is likely from Eastern Canada but took a wrong turn and came straight down our Eastern coast rather than crossing to Greenland and then down through Europe to Africa. I may be anthropomorphizing his behavior, but the little bird loved to perch on the rocks at the breakwater and gaze eastward. It was as if our bird knew where it needed to go and that the journey across the North Atlantic would be a big one. I hope he made it, and that this Northern Wheatear is enjoying his first days of 2024 in the warm sun.