I birded in the black dirt this morning and didn’t have any out-of-the-ordinary sightings but the light was nice and I took a lot of photos, so I’m going with basically a photo post.
The highlight of the day was being able to spend some time with some Horned Larks in several locations in the black dirt. These two shots preceded the photo at the top of this post:
It’s that time of year again, when my evening birding time is severely reduced by the shortened days and Canada Geese gather in numbers in Orange County. Tonight I made it out to the Black Dirt Region and located a flock of approximately 1,700 Canada Geese with 3 blue morph Snow Geese among them. It was a distant look, but still nice to sift through the geese and find some gems. Oh, and it is also that time of year when it is COLD! Windy and low temps made for some uncomfortable birding. Here are some shots of the Canadas:
QUICK POST: I took a driving tour of the Black Dirt Region this morning to see what was going on. It was an uneventful morning; I had relatively few species (25 in the black dirt), and most were expected. American Pipits are still present in decent numbers, I saw several smaller flocks in various locations. I had many Horned Larks for the day, but never got any good looks at some of the larger groups to sift through them for longspurs. I did have a couple of interesting birds – there was a single Snow Goose way out in a field with about a dozen Canada Geese on Celery Avenue. The highlight of the morning for me was locating a BRANT among a group of approximately 100 Canada Geese on Missionland Road. From what I read in the Crossley Guide, this is a juvenile because of the white fringes to the coverts and the lack of a white necklace, which will grow in through the fall. The light did not lend itself to good photography, but here are some shots from the morning:
Today was my final day of the season at Mt. Peter Hawk Watch, and it ended up being a really good one. It was a sunny, cool, and crisp day with very few clouds in the sky (which makes it difficult to locate birds). I had one major goal for the day: to surpass 9,000 birds for the season at the watch. We started the day needing 60 migrating raptors to reach this goal. We were successful, thanks to the help of fellow counters Ken Witkowski, Ajit Antony, Denise Ferrel, and Judy Cinquina and once again the young eyes of Kyle Dudgeon. By the end of the day, we had counted 71 birds moving through, which put our total for the season at 9,012 migrating raptors. I was, of course, also hoping for a Golden Eagle or a Northern Goshawk, but both eluded me for this season. It was a tough day for photos, but here is a distant shot of one the adult Bald Eagles that we saw today.
And here is my report for the day:
Mount Peter
Warwick, New York, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 15, 2014
Species Day’s Count / Month Total / Season Total
Black Vulture 8 90 232
Turkey Vulture 15 216 570
Osprey 0 1 111
Bald Eagle 2 9 79
Northern Harrier 0 9 46
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 28 1119
Cooper’s Hawk 1 23 122
Northern Goshawk 0 1 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 58 136
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 5685
Red-tailed Hawk 43 428 658
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 7 10
American Kestrel 0 4 139
Merlin 0 1 23
Peregrine Falcon 0 1 12
Total: 71 889 9012
———————————————————————-
Start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 7 hours
Official Counter Matt Zeitler
Observers: Ajit I. Antony, Denise Farrell, Judith C. Cinquina, Ken Witkowski
Visitors:
Kyle Dudgeon, Bobby Kerr, and Liza Antony.
Weather:
Sunny and cold with very few clouds. Winds out of the NW at 10-15 km/hour. Temperatures ranged from -2 to 2 degrees Celsius.
Raptor Observations:
Two migrating Bald Eagles, one adult and one immature. An additional adult was observed heading NNE.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other Species: Common Loon (7), American Goldfinch (25), Black-capped Chickadees (4), American Robin (37), Ring-billed Gull (12), Canada Goose (22), Pine Siskin (60), American Crow (22), Eastern Bluebird (6), Common Raven (3), and Cedar Waxwing (15).
Quick Post: I tooled around the Black Dirt Region for a little while this morning, mostly in hopes of relocating a Lapland Longspur that had been reported from the Mearns Bird Club field trip the day before. I dipped on the longspur, but there were plenty of Horned Larks and American Pipits to sift through. The birds were in loose flocks and most were quite distant, but I did have a few closer birds which allowed for some photos. I really enjoy seeing and photographing these birds, and although it didn’t happen for me today, it’s really exciting because there is always the possibility of finding Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings among them.
I had a nice day at Mt. Pete today. The weather was nice – sunny, crisp, and cool without being too cold, and I had enough birds flying to keep it interesting. Thanks to Kyle Dudgeon and Bobby Kerr (whose young eyes helped to locate many birds), and also to Rob Stone and Ajit and Liza Antony for their help. Here’s my report for the day:
Mount Peter
Warwick, New York, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 08, 2014
——————————————————————-
Species Day’s Count / Month Total / Season Total
—————— ———– ————– ————–
Black Vulture 9 31 173
Turkey Vulture 7 82 436
Osprey 0 0 110
Bald Eagle 0 5 75
Northern Harrier 2 7 44
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 20 1111
Cooper’s Hawk 1 17 116
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 8 49 127
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 5685
Red-tailed Hawk 25 316 546
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 6 9
American Kestrel 0 4 139
Merlin 0 1 23
Peregrine Falcon 0 1 12
Total: 57 550 8673
———————————————————————-
Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 7 hours
Official Counter: Matt Zeitler
Observers: Ajit I. Antony, Rob Stone
Visitors:
Liza Antony, Kyle Dudgeon and Bobby Kerr.
Weather:
Sunny and cool with some clouds. Temperatures ranged from 1 to 8 degrees
Celsius, with moderate winds from the southwest.
Raptor Observations:
One immature and one unknown Northern Harrier.
Three adult, two immature, and three unknown Red-shouldered Hawks.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other Species: Ring-billed Gull (15), Canada Goose (17), Dark-eyed Junco
(2), White-breasted Nuthatch (2), American Robin (22), American Goldfinch
(2), Common Raven (2), American Crow (12), Blue Jay (8), Tufted Titmouse
(4), Eastern Bluebird (1), Rock Pigeon (1).
On Friday evening I hit the Black Dirt Region and tried again with the American Pipits:
I was on the road for work today and I was passing near State Line Hawk Watch right around lunch, so I stopped in. The raptors were certainly flying; I was there for less than a half hour and I saw: Turkey Vulture (8), Black Vulture (2), Peregrine Falcon (2), Red-tailed Hawk (4), Sharp-shinned Hawk (2), and a single Merlin. Not too shabby for some unexpected birding!
Right before sunset, I was in the Black Dirt Region and I finally got a half way decent shot of an American Pipit (which are plentiful in the area right now).
Since we have not been getting many ducks in southern Orange County, Karen Miller and I decided to head up to Sullivan County and get our fix. It was a very cold and windy day, probably not the best day for going for waterfowl. We went to Swan Lake, the Neversink Reservoir, Morningside Park, and Kiamesha Lake. We did pretty well, but honestly the cold an the wind made it difficult to bird. At the Neversink Reservoir, it was so windy that we could barely see through our scopes – our eyes were constantly tearing and the scopes were shaking in the wind terribly. Bufflehead were the bird of the day with many being seen at all locations except for Morningside Park. In the end we got our fix with 10 types of swimming waterbirds seen and even had some cooperative Ruddy Ducks in sunny weather at our finals stop – Kiamesha Lake for some photo ops. Here’s my list:
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Mallard
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
This morning before heading over to Mount Peter for the Hawk Watch, I stopped in Warwick to look for the Cattle Egret but could not locate it. I figured that the bird had certainly moved on. I continued to Mt. Pete, and just as I started to unpack my gear I got a call from Karen Miller, who had relocated the bird. I whizzed down and joined Karen, but the bird flew before I had my camera ready, so once again I only got flight shots of the bird. Karen, on the other hand, got some fabulous shots of the bird perched. Huge thanks to Karen for the heads up, and for the photos that she emailed to me for this post:
I headed back up the mountain and counted hawks. It was cold, gray, and I did just alright with migrating raptors, with 63 for the day. Thanks to PJ Singh and Maria Loukeris for their visits, which really helped on a day like today. Here is my report for the day:
Mount Peter
Warwick, New York, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 01, 2014
——————————————————————-
Species Day’s Count / Month Total / Season Total
—————— ———– ————– ————–
Black Vulture 5 5 134
Turkey Vulture 24 24 361
Osprey 0 0 110
Bald Eagle 0 0 68
Northern Harrier 1 1 37
Sharp-shinned Hk 3 3 1079
Cooper’s Hawk 0 0 99
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hk 6 6 78
Broad-winged Hk 0 0 5685
Red-tailed Hawk 19 19 229
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 3
American Kestrel 0 0 134
Merlin 0 0 22
Peregrine Falcon 0 0 11
Total: 63 63 8110
———————————————————————-
Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 15:45:00
Total observation time: 6.75 hours
Official Counter: Matt Zeitler
Observers:
Visitors:
PJ Singh, Maria Loukeris
Weather:
Cloudy and cool with the temperature hovering right around 5 degrees
Celsius all day. Winds were over 10 km/hr for the duration of the watch.
Rain caused the watch to start one hour late and end fifteen minutes early.
Raptor Observations:
Four unknown Red-shouldered Hawks, one adult Red-shouldered Hawk, one
immature Red-shouldered Hawk, and one unknown Northern Harrier. The heavy
cloud cover and low light made it challenging to locate and identify
migrating raptors.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other Species: Canada Goose (507), Downy Woodpecker (1), Black-capped
Chickadee (6), Tufted Titmouse (4), American Crow (32), White-breasted
Nuthatch (1), Red-bellied Woodpecker (1), Pileated Woodpecker (1),
White-throated Sparrow (1), Common Raven (2), Pine Siskin (22),
Double-crested Cormorant (1), Snow Goose (1)
Just as I was leaving work today, I received a call from Rob Stone – a CATTLE EGRET had been located in Warwick, New York by Charlie West. I hustled out of work, but when I arrived at Wisner Road, I could not locate the bird. Eventually, I noticed a glimpse of white, distant in the field, among some cows. I needed to go back to my car for my scope, by the time I got back, I could not relocate the bird. Cattle Egrets are on the small side, only 20 inches in length (Great Egrets are twice as big), so I could not see the bird very well because of the tall grasses. The bird flew just as Ken McDermott pulled up, and landed in an area which was a little more distant, but the grass was short so the bird was more visible. John Haas showed up moments later and we all got good looks in the scope. Not too long after that, the egret, which was being chased by the cows, flew behind some trees and out of view. It made another short flight away from us and down over a hill. At this point, I thought I would not see the bird again; John and Ken left. Ten minutes later, Bruce Nott showed up and the bird made its final appearance; it was chased around for a bit by the cows and then took flight, making a couple large loops around the field before heading southeast and not stopping (that we could see).
I looked on eBird, and according to their records this is the third Cattle Egret in Orange County. There was one at Wallkill River NWR back in 2011 (I got to see that bird as well), and also in 2004.
