A Full Day of Birding, 10/13/18

~Cape May Warbler at Mount Peter Hawkwatch, 10/13/18.~ 

This morning’s rain delayed the start of hawkwatch, so I spent the morning in the black dirt looking for shorebirds. Although it was not raining all that hard, the weather was tough on my gear today. The humidity must have been through the roof, because frustratingly, every time I lifted my binoculars to my eyes they seemed to fog over. I had two sets out and I was alternating just to be able to see with any consistency. Even my scope developed some moisture between the filter and the lens, leaving a perfect circle of condensation which lasted for most of the day. Regardless, I ran around for shorebirds and here’s what I had:

Skinner Lane: 4 American Golden-Plovers

Missionland: 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, 18 Killdeer

Turtle Bay: 1 Least Sandpiper, 15 Killdeer

Camel Farm: 20+ Wilson’s Snipe, 4 Killdeer, 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 12 Lesser Yellowlegs

Pine Island Turf Nursery: 18 Killdeer

~Lesser Yellowlegs at Missionland. This shot was from Friday evening, 10/12/18.~ 

The rain let up and I was up at Mount Peter for Hawkwatch at 11:45. It was a really good day to be on the mountain, with cool temperatures and a steady northwest wind. Birds were flying and I had a decent number of birds (total of 83 migrants), with very good variety (11 species). Linda Scrima, Rob Stone, and Bob Klenk all visited and helped me out. Sharp-shinned Hawks were the number one migrant, and highlights for me included a couple of Merlins, a Peregrine Falcon, and a couple of Northern Harriers ( a bird we see frequently in our area, but to me it’s awesome to see them flying high over the hawkwatch in migration). Non-raptors had some good highlights too, with a couple of CAPE MAY WARBLERS, and two skeins of BRANT flying over. See my full report at the bottom of this post.

~BRANT! I was super pumped to have a couple skeins fly over the watch today, Mt. Peter Hawkwatch 10/13/18.~ 

After hawkwatch, I stopped at Glenmere Lake, where the Mearns Bird Club was holding a big sit. They spent the whole day, sunrise to sunset, at the lake counting birds. I joined Kathy Ashman and Karen Miller, who had a long but good day of birding along with 12 other members of the club. They finished the day with 47 species, which I thought was pretty good.

I headed home, tired but happy with a full day of birding behind me.

~Ahhhh… the obligatory Turkey Vulture photo returns. Mt. Peter Hawkwatch 10/13/18.~ 
~One more Cape May Warbler shot, Mt Pete, 10/13/18.~

4 thoughts on “A Full Day of Birding, 10/13/18”

  1. I was able to add about Six year birds this morning. Decided to chase the black throated gray just east of the Trenton this morning .Thankfully I did not have to wait long to see it. It was a state bird for me.

    1. Six year birds in October is really good. My friend Maria ran for the Black-throated Gray Warbler too, maybe you saw her there. That’s a super looking bird, in my opinion. Matt

    1. Good to hear from you Wayne; I’m glad you are enjoying the blog. Hope to run into you again one of these days. Matt

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