Raptors – Page 23 – Orange Birding

Hawk Watching

_MG_7159 — An immature Bald Eagle flies right over the Mt. Peter Hawkwatch, 10-14-12

I have been spending much of my birding time this fall hawk watching. I volunteer at Mt. Peter Hawk Watch, which is located on Kain Road in Warwick NY (just across the street from Bellvale Farms Creamery), so I have been out there on many days. I have been thinking about why I enjoy hawk watching so much and I came up with a few good reasons. It is really amazing how many birds you can see if you sit in one spot for a while. On September 20th, Mt. Peter had its highest count of the year – 1,281 migrating raptors! Over a thousand of them were Broad-winged Hawks! And this is not even considered a “big day” for Broad-winged Hawks. You don’t just see hawks either, I have seen Brant, a Great Blue Heron, Gulls, Common Ravens, Common Loons, and even Glossy Ibis fly over hawk watches! There is also plenty of time to look for songbirds when there is a lull in the hawk activity.

I also find hawk watching to be extremely challenging. It is certainly a different way of birding for me. Some days it is difficult just to to find any migrating hawks in the sky, depending on wind and weather conditions, how high the birds are flying, and what the cloud cover is like (among other things). An all blue sky is the most difficult sky to find hawks in. Sunny with some clouds seems to make the hawks most visible for me. Some days it can be tough to just locate the birds, but identifying the raptors is by far the most challenging and rewarding aspect of Hawk Watching. It is so much fun trying to figure out what species of bird you are looking at – sometimes at a great distance, often in silhouette, usually with no size comparisons to be made.

Finally, there is an aspect of hawk watching that would never have guessed would become so enjoyable to me – the camaraderie. I always enjoyed birding alone – sort of an escape, but I am finding more and more that I am enjoying birding with other people. Mt. Peter is extraordinary, the people there are amazing – so friendly, knowledgeable, generous. I highly recommend a visit.

If you are interested in seeing the data collected by the Mt. Peter volunteers, please visit: http://www.hawkcount.org/.

2012-09-23 10.43.42 — A busy day out at Mt. Peter Hawk Watch 9-23-12

_MG_6130 — One of the local Red-tail Hawks at Mt. Peter 9-23-12

Tricia and I also made it out to Hawk Mountain for the first weekend of October. The highlight for me was 9 Peregrine Falcons on Saturday.

hawkmt2-001 — Me at Hawk Mountain. Photo by Tricia.

_MG_6545 — An Osprey flies on the West side of the North Lookout at Hawk Mountain.

_MG_6597 — At Hawk Mountain, many of the looks are from above. I have this as a Cooper’s Hawk 10-6-12.

_MG_6790 — One more Osprey. They counted 55 Osprey migrating over Hawk Mountain on 10-6-12

Basha Kill 9/15/12

I put my kayak into the water at the Basha Kill right at sunrise this morning. It was a chilly paddle at first, but as the sun made it over the mountain it warmed up quickly. There were many Wood Ducks flying over and I came across at least a half a dozen Great Blue Herons as I paddled the channel. I spotted a couple of falcons that darted behind the trees before I could get a good ID on them. Ironically the highlight of my paddle this morning came when I stopped at Haven Road and got out of my kayak to chat with fellow birder/blogger John Haas (The Bashakill Birder). We watched as a Merlin flew across Haven Road and then chased a Mourning Dove over the kill and around the corner. The Merlin was overhead again shortly after that and then perched on a tree right on Haven road, giving me a good opportunity to get a photo:

_MG_5815 — Merlin on Haven Road at the Basha Kill

_MG_5777 — Two of the many Wood Ducks that flew over as I paddled the channel.

After my paddle, I headed over to the Deli Fields to have a look around:

_MG_5832 — Eastern Phoebe at the Basha Kill Deli Fields

_MG_5843 — A sad looking American Goldfinch at the Deli Fields

_MG_5861 — Song Sparrow posing at the Deli Fields

Basha Kill By Kayak 7/1/12

_MG_1383 — The recently fledged Bald Eagle, Basha Kill WMA

I read John Haas’ blog, The Bashakill Birder on a regular basis. Recently John has posted about the great birding he has been doing from his kayak. He has been seeing some of the birds that are little more interesting to me: American Bitterns, Least Bitterns, Common Gallinules and high numbers of Great Blue Herons and Wood Ducks. Inspired by this, I made it out to the Basha Kill early this morning to do some birding by kayak. It was a beautiful morning and it was very refreshing to be out in the marsh all alone. While I did not have success with some of the harder to find birds, I did get to see many Wood Ducks (almost at every turn!) and Great Blue Herons too. I was able to get out much closer to the Osprey’s nest where I watched the two adults going after a Great Blue Heron that decided to land in a tree a little too close to the nest. I also got some amazing looks at all three Bald Eagles. I was a little disappointed that I was unable to see (or even hear!) any Common Gallinules or Bitterns, but this is just something I will work towards. It was a great day of birding and I did alright with the camera. Here are some photos from the day:

_MG_1354 — This adult Bald Eagle was keeping a close eye on its young one.

_MG_0997 — Wood Ducks were everywhere, many of them were ducklings.

_MG_1149 — One of the many Wood Ducks I flushed as I kayaked the channel.

_MG_1018 — This Mallard put on a show for me, dipping under the water several times and then flapping her wings like mad.

_MG_1369 — Adult Bald Eagle, Basha Kill WMA

Just another boring Sunday evening in Goshen…

_MG_7629 — An adult Bald Eagle flies over 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary

Yesterday evening I took a walk on the Heritage Trail which is just a block or so from my house. The trail runs along side 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary which, according to the Orange County Tourism web site (see links), is a “62 acre wetland bird sanctuary owned and maintained by the Orange County Audubon Society”. It is a great spot for birding and just happens to be a short walk from my house.

I headed out without high expectations. I have been struggling with the camera lately, not getting good exposures, so I just wanted to go out and experiment and try to work on a few things. For some reason I did not think there would be many birds. Boy, was I wrong! I had a slow start with a lot of the usual suspects – American Robins, Red-winged Blackbirds, Gray Catbirds, and a couple different kinds of warblers. Then things started to get good. A Green Heron flew across the water giving me a great look and then landed in a tree on the far side of the sanctuary. Not long after that I spotted a beautiful bright orange male Baltimore Oriole. As I was checking out the oriole, I heard some crows making a racket and I looked up to see two crows mobbing an adult Bald Eagle right above me. The eagle flew over several times giving me a really good look and a chance to get some photos. Moments after that I saw my best bird of the night – a COMMON LOON. I stayed for a while getting photos of the loon and got to hear it make its call. What a great evening! I ended up with twenty-four species in all, here are some additional highlights and some photos:

(2) Wood Duck
(6) Green-winged Teal
(4) Spotted Sandpiper
(6) Least Sandpiper
(1) Alder Flycatcher
(1) Yellow Warbler
(8) Canada Goose – two pairs with goslings