Jay
allthornnorose.bsky.social
Jay
@allthornnorose.bsky.social
You can usually find me out in the mountains. Obviously I’m more of an outdoorsman than a photographer 😄


West Virginia, USA
We’re hitting the big leagues now! I’ve acquired a proper camera! Big jump up from my Nikon P-950 point and shoot. Excited to get out and lug this big gal through the mountains!

Canon 7DmkII, Sigma 150-600
#birding #wildlifephotography #photography #birdwatching #canon
November 27, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Today’s #birdoftheday theme is #mottled so how about Marbled Godwits, that’s close enough right? 😄
#birds #birding #birdwatching #photography
November 18, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Sweet-gum trees are a vital source of winter long seed food for finches like this American Goldfinch, they also make for neat pictures 😄
#birds #birding #birdwatching #photography 🪶
November 15, 2025 at 1:49 PM
This Purple Gallinule is the first reported sighting in West Virginia in over a decade! What an exotic and special bird!! Lifer #239, and one I never thought I’d see! @aba.org

#birds #birding #birdwatching #photography 🪶
November 14, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Now that we’re down to the last few fall leaves clinging to the trees it’s becoming MUCH easier to see and photograph the birds. This Downy Woodpecker is a year round resident here, but difficult to see in the summer!
#birds #birding #birdwatching #photography 🪶
November 13, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Lifer #236 was this neat little snow bunting! A county first for us! I like the way they crawl on their bellies 😄
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
November 13, 2025 at 2:33 AM
This is a leucistic Red Tailed Hawk I saw today. What a beautiful and rare creature! It’s easy to see why many Native American tribes saw animals like this as sacred, because they are certainly nothing less than otherworldly!
#birds #birding #birdwatching #raptor
#naturephotography #leucistic 🪶
November 12, 2025 at 9:19 PM
First snow of the season, had to practice my photography on the House Sparrows some
#birds #birding #photography
November 12, 2025 at 9:12 PM
@aba.org got my #lifer Clay Colored Sparrow way out of it’s typical range on the North Carolina outer banks recently! Then I got home to get my #lifer American Avocet in West Virginia of all places! Great luck with vagrant birds so far this fall! Excited for waterfowl this winter 😃
#birds #birding
November 9, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Sanderlings are only one of three species of shorebirds with a nearly world wide distribution. The Ruddy Turnstone and Whimbrel being the other two. Unless you go to the high arctic breeding grounds you’ll probably only see their black and white non breeding plumage though. Still beautiful!
#birds 🪶
November 8, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Brown pelicans are one of only two species of pelicans that plunge dive for their food, and the only one you could see do it here in the US. Watching a flock hammer the water like cannonballs is really something else! Here is a striking male in breeding plumage I saw recently!
#birds #birding 🪶
November 6, 2025 at 6:49 PM
American Oystercatchers are my favorite bird! They have such goofy little personalities! I got lucky enough to see a few in North Carolina recently. Even more lucky, it was a banded pair!

#birds #birdwatching 🪶
October 29, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Piping Plovers are pretty endangered due to the destruction of the dry sand habitats they nest in for human development. The world probably needs a few less beach rentals, and a few more plovers, so let’s save two birds with one stone and protect habitat!
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
October 23, 2025 at 5:15 PM
It wasn’t until I was editing the photo did I notice the PORTUGUESE MAN-O-WAR in the background!!! Oh, there’s a Marbled Godwit in there too I guess…😄
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
October 20, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Here’s one I don’t see every day, a Sora! I was sitting waiting for a swamp sparrow to come up out of the reeds when she peeked out. Never saw the swamp sparrow again, but the consolation prize isn’t too bad! 😄
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
October 9, 2025 at 6:03 PM
I promise it’s a Golden Winged Warbler! This bird is exceptionally rare where I live, only the third sighting in my county this year! Had a good look through my binos and almost forgot to even attempt a photo. Unfortunately this Zapruder film level quality is all I got 😔
#birds #birdwatching 🪶
October 1, 2025 at 5:04 PM
The fall colors are here!

This Cape May Warbler just melts into the autumn foliage.

A good crisp morning in the woods is a nice reprieve from the troubles of the world
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
September 20, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Happy 14k! Shake your tail feather!
September 17, 2025 at 1:04 AM
Black-and-White Warblers are like a warbler in a little Nuthatch costume. They’ll hang and climb on the trunk and larger branches just like a nuthatch too!
We’ve had quite a few this year. Always happy to see a species thriving! 🙂
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
September 10, 2025 at 10:37 PM
It’s nothing short of awe inspiring to think that this Blackburnian Warbler could fly from Canada to Colombia! Good luck little one!
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
September 9, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Got a fantastic look at a Yellow Billed Cuckoo yesterday. He was much less excited about the migrating warblers in his tree than I was 😄
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
September 9, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Stunning Wilson’s Warbler this morning.
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
September 7, 2025 at 4:48 PM
An Indigo Bunting resting in the Pokeweed.
Pokeweed is a lovely plant native to the eastern US that produces deep pinkish-purple berries that are an excellent source of late summer food for birds, and a bane for nearby car windows! 😄
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
August 9, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Found this absolute beauty of a Chicken Of the Woods this week
#fungi #mushroom #foraging
August 8, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Some of the sticks Ospreys build their nests with are more like limbs! Very impressive!
#birds #birding #birdwatching 🪶
August 8, 2025 at 2:30 PM