Quick post tonight – huge thanks to Karen Miller for letting me know that this Long-tailed Duck was at Haven Road at the Basha Kill today. This is hands down my favorite duck, I just think they are such an attractive bird; it was great to get such good looks at one, and so close to home too.
I have been passing through Warwick NY regularly lately just to see if I could relocate and photograph the Leucistic Red-tail Hawk there. It has been just over a year since I posted my first shots of this bird. In the last two weeks, I had distant looks at the bird a couple times, but yesterday the bird was perched relatively close to the road so I was able to get the above shot. I am fascinated by this bird and I would have really liked to see it fly, but it was not to be. The bird stayed put and I was on my way.
It was cold but very beautiful out, and I was lucky enough to locate TWO very distant Snowy Owls in Orange County after work this evening. I spent an hour and a half watching these two incredible birds interact with one another – what a privilege!
Additionally, I had two Short-eared Owls, one of which landed not very far from my car just as the sun was setting. This photo was taken at ISO 12800!
WALLKILL RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE – 2/28/14
It was for some reason unexpected that I had a nice evening shooting raptors on Friday after work. But, the light was nice and I was lucky enough to have a few birds close enough for some decent shots. Also noteworthy were my first Red-winged Blackbirds for the year in Orange County.
RONDOUT RESEVOIR – 3/1/14
I had a nice outing at Rondout Resevoir on Saturday afternoon. I knew there was a good collection of waterfowl present because I read about it on John Haas’ blog, Bashakill Birder. I got all the birds John reported in his post, including three first of the year birds for me: American Wigeon (5), Redhead (7), and Killdeer (1). It was not a great outing for photos, the birds were for the most part distant and from where you view the birds, in the afternoon all the birds are backlit. I did have a Common Merganser that didn’t seem to mind my presence at all:
SOUTHERN ORANGE COUNTY – 3/2/14
This morning I made the rounds in southern Orange County without seeing much of note. I did see a single Common Grackle and a single Red-winged Blackbird, both on Celery Avenue. I sorted through MANY Canada Geese without anything out of the ordinary. American Crows rivaled the Canada Geese in numbers and seemed to be everywhere.
