Rarities – Page 10 – Orange Birding

Sunday Shots, 12/15/19

I was back at Sterling Lake before sunrise this morning. And the funny thing is that Bruce Nott was there already, ha ha. We were happily surprised to see that the KING EIDER had remained on the lake. Rob Stone and John Haas both joined us a little after, to get better views and photos (last night in the rain and fog was tough!), and they weren’t disappointed. I took the opportunity to try and use my 1.4x extender, since the bird remained at a distance. I set it up on my scope tripod for some added stability; I think the results were decent but certainly not amazing. We also had a Winter Wren (nemesis!), so I finally got that bird for the year.

~KING EIDER at Sterling Forest State Park, 12/15/19. Super bird for the county.~

~I think this shot looks pretty good for ISO 5000. I cleaned it up a little, but still. Huge thanks to Bruce and John for getting me this Winter Wren. This bird hates me and would never let me get it on my own, ha ha. Sterling Forest State Park, 12/15/19.~

~As usual, when looking for a Northern Shrike, you know a Northern Mockingbird will be found. Kendridge Farm, 12/14/19.~

~One more shot of the KING EIDER, Sterling Lake 12/15/19.~

KING EIDER It Is!

So everyone that I sent my photos to came back with the ID of KING EIDER, including Tom Burke (John forwarded to him). As I posted below, either bird would have been exciting, BUT, I was hoping for King Eider because it is a life bird for me (#421). It’s also my 259th bird in Orange County. I’m going to head back first thing tomorrow morning with the hopes that the bird is still present and I can maybe get some better looks and photos.

Wow! Orange County Eider!

Today was almost one of the worst days of birding I’ve had all year. The weather was crappy and I wasn’t finding any birds. But then, birding bud Maria Loukeris passed on an interesting alert from one of the New Jersey birding apps. Daniel Carola, Hugh Carola, and Ivan Kossak reported a KING EIDER on Sterling Lake at Sterling Forest State Park. I immediately turned my car around and started heading that direction. I connected with Linda Scrima and we made our way to the lake.

When we first arrived, we viewed the lake from behind the visitor’s center; it was raining pretty good and the fog was thick as pea soup. We could barely see more than 75 yards into the lake. We decided to relocate and we followed the blue trail on the west side of the lake. The viewing was much better and the fog seemed to be lifting just as we located a lone duck in the distance. I got it in the scope, and sure enough, it was an eider; very exciting! Now, the question was is it a King or a Common? We put the word out and tried our best to study and document. Photos were tough; between the lack of light and the distance, our ISOs were cranked up high so the photos would certainly be grainy. In my scope, I had some good looks that, to me showed some good King Eider field marks: warm brown coloring, a shorter, all dark bill will a little bit of slope and a pale area above the eye. But, neither of us had previous experience with the species, so I was hoping for help.

~One more shot of the EIDER SP. at Sterling Forest State Park, 12/14/19.~

Eventually Rob Stone, John Haas, and Bruce Nott showed up. Viewing the bird in our scopes, we all discussed the bird and went back and forth on the ID. Once home, I quickly edited pics and sent them around; now we await confirmation on the ID. I’ll be happy either way – both are Orange County life birds for me and both are super exciting. Excellent birding! Huge thanks again to Maria for the intel; I’ll post a follow up as soon as we know more about the ID.

Wow! Three Orange County ICELAND GULLS, 12/06/19

One of these days I’m going to write a post about timing and luck in birding. This afternoon I had an appointment in Newburgh. I scheduled it perfectly (do we create our own luck?), finishing my appointment in time to go to the Newburgh Waterfront to try for gulls before sunset. As luck would have it, there were many gulls present, mostly floating out on the river. I started scanning, and quickly got on a first winter ICELAND GULL.

~One of three ICELAND GULLS at the Newburgh Waterfront this evening, 12/06/19.~

Shortly after I got on the bird, many of the gulls picked up and and then put down on the roof of Gully’s. They didn’t stay for long and moved back onto the river. It took me a little while to relocate the bird, but when I did, it was with a second ICELAND GULL! I was able to document the two birds together before they once again flew from the river to the roof of Gully’s. John Cavalari joined me at that point and got his lifer Iceland Gull, which was awesome.

~Two Iceland Gulls on the Hudson River at the Newburgh Waterfront, 12/06/19.~

John left and I decided to scan the remaining birds on the river one final time. When I did, I found a third Iceland Gull! I immediately pointed my scope back at the roof of Gully’s, and sure enough the other two were still there! Those of you who know me know how crazy I am for gulls; to get a single good gull in an evening makes me freak out. Imagine how I was with three! Awesome birding.

~Flying back to the roof of Gully’s, Iceland Gull 12/06/19.~

~Join the party! Iceland Gull landing on the roof of Gully’s at the Newburgh Waterfront 12/06/19.~

Orange County Northern Shrike, 11/17/19

This morning at Wisner Road in Warwick, I located a NORTHERN SHRIKE. I was freaking out because this bird is among my all time favorites. That was the good news. The bad news is that the bird was not very cooperative. Within five minutes of finding it, the bird took off from its distant perch and flew north. I tracked it in my scope as it disappeared behind trees in the distance.

~Northern Shrike at Wisner Road in Warwick, NY 11/17/19.~

Rob Stone joined me to help relocate, and then Bruce Nott after him. We checked the areas north as well as the area where I first saw the bird for a good long while (I tried for the next three hours), but unfortunately we were unable to relocate it. Hopefully that bird is still around; I was thrilled to get it, but for me a lot of the joy gets zapped if no one else gets the bird. Time will tell, I guess.

~Bruce and I had 3 Bald Eagles while we were trying to relocate the shrike, 2 adults and one young bird. Wisner Road in Warwick 11/17/19.~

Good Day in the OC, 11/16/19

I got a nice early start this morning, meeting Linda Scrima at Wickham Lake just after sunrise. It was relatively uneventful, but we did have a single CACKLING GOOSE, which we first saw in my scope and then heard calling periodically while we were there. With the wind whipping pretty good, it was brutally cold on the lake, so after determining there were no other interesting waterfowl on the lake, we were happy to move on.

~These guys (gals?) were tough to photograph! They were moving around so quickly! One of three Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers at Lake Osiris, 11/16/19.~

After a quick and unproductive stop at Glenmere Lake, we decided to follow up on some of the great birds that were reported this week. We headed to Lake Osiris to try for the GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE that Bruce Nott found on Tuesday. There were many Canada Geese on the lake, but after scanning pretty thoroughly we were ready to leave without any luck. Just as we were getting ready to leave, several skeins of geese flew in and landed on the lake. We scanned again, and voilà, there it was! We did our best to get some decent shots of the bird. The light was nice, but, as it goes with these geese, the bird was quite distant. Interestingly, just like the Cackler earlier, the bird started calling from time to time. It was a first for both of us and it was really cool. The bonus for the stop was watching an interesting exchange between three young Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. They seemed to be playing, chasing each other through the trees right next to us, oblivious to our existence. It was awesome.

~Always a favorite of mine. When I was thinking about what birding I wanted to do over the weekend, this bird was tops on my list. GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE, Lake Osiris 11/16/19.~

From there, we headed to Orange Lake to chase yet another Bruce find – a WHITE-WINGED SCOTOER from earlier in the morning. It was a good stop; we located the bird, an adult male hanging out with 4 adult male LONG-TAILED DUCKS. Unfortunately the birds were just too distant for even documentary shots. The heat shimmer just rendered my images useless.

~Great Cormorant at Brown’s Pond, 11/16/19.~

Next stop was Brown’s Pond to try for the GREAT CORMORANT that Ken McDermott reported last Sunday. Fortunately, the bird was still present and after a little searching, Linda located the bird on the far side of the pond.

~American Pipit at Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge, 11/16/19. Apparently this bird had an injury on the right side of its face; I never actually photographed that side. It seemed to be getting around and feeding well, so I’m hoping for the best for this cutie.~

For our final stop, we met up with Maria Loukeris and walked the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge’s Liberty Loop trail. It was a nice, brisk walk which was mostly uneventful, but we did have two birds that I was pretty excited about: Fox Sparrow and American Pipit. Mostly, however it was nice to get out with friends for a walk and be outside for a while.

GOLDEN Day at Mount Peter, 11/02/19

I had a great day at Mount Peter Hawkwatch today, with the highlight being not one, but TWO GOLDEN EAGLES! The first one was a subadult bird that I located over the valley to the west of the viewing platform in the morning. I watched this bird for the nearly 5 minutes it took for it to slowly rise up over the valley and eventually head southwest. The second was an adult bird, which I also located over the valley, in the afternoon.

~Cedar Waxwing at Mt. Peter Hawkwatch, 11/02/19.~

That was the exciting part. The less than exciting part is that both birds where quite distant, so I didn’t get any photos. And, what was really unfortunate is that fellow counters Judy Cinquina and Tom Millard (who both help me tremendously today) didn’t get to see either bird. When Judy arrived, she had missed the first bird by mere moments. The second bird was a heartbreaker; it was a distant bird and I had it in the scope. Judy and Tom tried to get on it with bins without luck. I had Tom try to see it through the scope; I think I may have bumped the scope because when he looked he didn’t see the bird. I tried to jump back on the scope but there were no landmarks in an all blue sky and I never got back on that bird.

~Red-tailed Hawk at Mt. Peter Hawkwatch, 11/02/19.~

All told, we had respectable 75 migrating raptors for the day. Other highlights included a nice showing by Red-shouldered Hawks with 9 migrants. And I always love to find unusual non-raptors in the sky; today we had 2 Common Loons. As always, I’ve included my HMANA report at the bottom of this post.

~I had my first Dark-eyed Juncos of the season. Mt. Pete Hawkwatch 11/02/19.~

~American Crow at Mt. Peter Hawkwatch, 11/02/19.~

~There were loads of American Robins around the watch today. This one is enjoying a snack. Mt. Peter Hawkwatch, 11/02/19.

Orange County Cackling Goose, 10/27/19

It’s funny how things work out sometimes. I woke up with the startings of a sore throat, so on my way out for the morning I stopped at QuickChek to get some cough drops. This took my out of my usual way to Glenmere Lake, and past Goshen Reservoir. I’ve done this before; I should probably do it all the time but I never seem to remember. Anyways, when I got to the corner of Reservoir Road and Conklingtown Road I could see there was a number of Canada Geese present. I pulled over and quickly scanned with my binoculars. I quickly got on a goose that I thought was a good candidate for a CACKLING GOOSE, so I ran for my scope to get a better look.

~CACKLING GOOSE with three Canada Geese, Goshen Reservoir 10/27/19.~

I liked it for a Cackler, significantly smaller that the surrounding Canadas, with a short stubby bill. I ran for my camera (all this in the steady rain!), and documented. It was a dark and rainy morning, so much so that the above shot was taken at 10,000 ISO! So, I’ve applied a fair amount of noise reduction to the photo and the result looks more like a painting than a photograph.

I spent the rest of the morning birding in the rain, an endeavor which has proven extremely fruitful in the past, but unfortunately that wasn’t entirely the case today. I kayaked Glenmere Lake hoping for shorebirds – I found none. I went to Wickham Lake to follow up on a report of an American Coot there earlier, but the bird was either gone or hidden from sight while I was there.

~Dowitcher Sp. with what I think are two Green-winged Teals in the background. Wallkill River NWR, 10/27/19.~

My best stop also had the worst weather. I visited the south end of the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge’s Liberty Loop. Karen Miller and the Mearns Bird Club had a couple of dowitchers there yesterday, as well as some other shorebirds. Well, it poured down buckets almost the entire time I was there – making for some very difficult birding. Just keeping my gear usable with all the water was a task. BUT, I got some good shorebirds: Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, at least a dozen Pectoral Sandpipers, and the pair of Dowitcher Species. Timing and my overall impression have me leaning towards Long-billed, but I just don’t know. I birded my way home through the black dirt, mostly sorting through sparrows (so many!). The rain lessened and then stopped as I pulled up to the house.

~On Saturday I had a golf game with some coworkers, so my birding window was limited. American Goldfinch at Wickham Lake, 10/26/19. Oh, and by the way, it was an amazing golf match which came down to the final putt on the 18th green.~

~Young Cedar Waxwing at Wickham Lake, 10/26/19.~

What a Weekend!

I had an excellent weekend of birding, which frankly is not something I’ve been able to say too much recently. I’ll start with today, Sunday, because it was most exciting. While I was at Citgo Pond searching for shorebirds first thing this morning, Kathy Ashman put out an alert on the Mearns Bird Club app – she was at 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary and had located a LARK SPARROW! I did my best to make sure I wasn’t missing anything good at Citgo and headed directly over to 6 1/2, where the bird was not only still present, it was also very accommodating, allowing for some decent photos in spite of the low light conditions.

~Wow! LARK SPARROW at 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary, 09/29/19.~

The LARK SPARROW was a life bird for me – #420. It was, of course also a county (#258) and state (#305) bird for me. Huge thanks and congratulations to Kathy on an awesome find.

~I loved this bird! What a fabulous looking sparrow. It spent most of the time I was there down in the grasses but would intermittently return to the tree line. LARK SPARROW, 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary, 09/29/19.~

From there, I finally did some kayaking at Glenmere lake. I’m shorebird obsessed as most of you know, and I’ve had some shorebirds there recently, but it’s so tough to see from the shore with all the foliage in the way, so I wanted to get out on the water and see what I could find. While I didn’t come up with any new birds, I did have a good collection of shorebirds (Killedeer, Least Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Wilson’s Snipe). I got a much better look at the habitat at the south end of the lake – it’s good for shorebirds and it’s also vast! And then there is the magic of being in a kayak with shorebirds. If you move slowly and smoothly, they just don’t seem to know you exist and pay absolutely zero attention to you (except for the Killdeer!). It’s really amazing and allows for some incredible looks excellent photo ops. I was particularly happy to get the snipe up so close – I don’t think I’ve ever had them like that before.

~Wilson’s Snipe up close and personal. Glenmere Lake, 09/29/19.~

~It’s interesting to me, as I looked through my photos (I took a lot!), the quality of the light changed with the passing of the clouds. I love the overall color palette of this shot and, although the bird is pretty sharp, there is an soft almost pretty quality to the photo that I enjoy. Lesser Yellowlegs at Glenmere Lake, 09/29/19.~

~Lesser Yellowlegs at Glenmere Lake, 09/29/19.~

~Wilson’s Snipe at Glenmere Lake, 09/19/19. Another thing about getting so close to these shorebirds is that they are all very small. In Orange County we are nearly always looking at shorebirds in a spotting scope, but when you have one right next to you, they are tiny.~

SATURDAY 09/28/19 – HAWKWATCH AT MOUNT PETER

~A low flying Broad-winged Hawk flies over the platform at Mount Peter Hawkwatch, 09/28/19.~

I had low expectations for hawkwatch on Saturday. The winds were not good (SE and SW), and plenty of birds had moved through during the week. I didn’t imagine there would be all that many moving for me on Saturday. But, I ended up having a pretty darn good day. With the help of fellow counters Ken Witkowski and Jeanne Cimorelli, I tallied 139 birds for the day. Highlights included 12 Ospreys, a massive and gorgeous Peregrine Falcon, and 3 Bald Eagles. My HMANA report is included below.

~Common Yellowthroat from last weekend at Glenmere Lake, 09/22/19.~

Sunday Shots, 09/01/19

Wow, September already. The only real birding excitement today was a revisit to the STILT SANDPIPER from yesterday. Bruce Nott relocated the bird first thing this morning and reported it on the Mearns app. He was still there when I arrived; we were joined shortly by Linda Scrima and then John Haas. The bird cooperated and came in pretty close, but unfortunately I didn’t really improve on my photos from yesterday because the bird was backlit. Anyways, not too much else going today, so here’s some shots from the past few days.