I got out briefly this morning in the rain and fog and managed to get a few shots of the above light morph Rough-legged Hawk. This bird was located on Jessup Switch Road in Goshen, but I initially went out to Indiana Road where I had five RLHAs yesterday evening (2 dark morphs and 3 light).
NOTABLE OBSERVATIONS:
Just a couple of quick notes: In the afternoon I had a flock of approximately 60 Snow Buntings on MIssionland Road. Also present were a couple of smaller flocks of Horned Larks, one of which had 5 Snow Buntings in it. In the morning, I made it out to Lippincott Road and had 10 Common Goldeneyes. Thanks to Ken McDermott for posting about them, they were great fun to see. They were a bit distant for photos, but here is one shot:
This post is a few days late, but I did not have time to get it together before now. For my final outing of 2013, I made it out to Rye, New York. I knew that Rye was considered a good birding location, but I had never been there before. I turned to John Haas, who provided me with the lay of the land. He let me know there are three good spots to bird in Rye – Read Wildlife Sanctuary, Rye Town Park, and the Marshlands Conservancy. All three places are really easy to get to, close to one another, and most importantly, very birdy. I had a total of 40 species for the day, and I made out particularly well with water birds, identifying 15 species, including my favorite of the day, two Long-tailed Ducks, which were seen at a great distance from Rye Town Park. Water birds I was hoping for which I missed out on were: Brant, Common Loon, and Great Cormorant.
I think what I enjoyed most about the day was the variety of birding that was available. At both the Read Wildlife Sanctuary and the Marshlands Conservancy, I birded the woods and trails while also looking out for water birds. At Read, you can bird both the Long Island Sound and Playland Lake from the road into the sanctuary. At the Marshlands Conservancy, there is a great trail that borders along Milton Harbor. I did well with passerines at both locations; a Fox Sparrow at Read and a total of 6 Carolina Wrens for the day were highlights.
I found it interesting that I did not have any raptors while I was there. I was hoping for Purple Sandpipers, but the only shorebirds I had for the day was this group of Dunlin, which seemed to appear out of thin air:
I highly recommend taking a trip to Rye for some birding; I had a super day of birding. If you are interested in more details on how to get around in the area, leave a message and I will get the information to you. Finally, I decided to try something a little different with my species list for the day:
Tricia and I were back on Long Island this week to spend Christmas with our families. The day after Christmas, I went birding out east with with Tricia’s Brother-in-law Bill. We basically started out at Cupsogue County Park (a spot I’ve been wanting to get to, having seen many reports of good birds there), and then we headed east on Dune Road. The highlight of the day was locating two (!!!) SNOWY OWLS. Both owls could be seen easily from the car on the beach side of Dune Road and the light was nice which made for some nice photos. Aside from the Snowies, we did pretty well, identifying 28 species and seeing a few more than that; I did not have my scope with me which meant leaving some of the more distant birds unidentified. The birding on Long Island is pretty amazing, the birding hotspots seem endless. Thanks once again to Bill for showing me around; it was a super day of birding.
Here is my species list for the outing:
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
American Black Duck
Black Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-throated Loon
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Northern Gannet
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Northern Harrier
Black-bellied Plover
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Dunlin
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove 9
Snowy Owl
American Crow
American Robin
European Starling
Snow Bunting
On Sunday morning I was birding out at Indiana Road. I had pulled to the side of the road to get a look a several Horned Larks on the dirt road. Before I knew it, I had larks in front of me and behind me, probably close to 100 birds in all. The larks were taking a dust bath, a behavior that I find fascinating.
DUST BATHING
Birds take dust baths to maintain their plumage. They will scratch out a small depression with their feet and then get very low to the ground while wriggling their bodies and flapping their wings. This raises up the dust which falls between feathers and to the bird’s skin. Afterwards the bird will typically shake vigorously and then preen.
The dust bath helps the birds to maintain a proper amount of oil on their feathers. The dust absorbs unwanted oil on the feathers and also helps get rid of dry skin and debris. It may also help keep bird lice, feather mites and other parasites in check. Regular dust baths will keep the bird’s plumage both clean and flexible.
According to Wikipedia, dust bathing is a social behavior for some birds. I like this idea, and seeing all the Horned Larks dust bathing together makes me want to believe that there is a social element to this behavior in addition to the obvious hygienic element.
Sources:
Outside My Window Blog by Kate St. John
I went out to the Shawangunk Grasslands NWR this afternoon in hopes of getting some photos of Northern Harriers. I had seen reports that the Short-eared Owls were back, but only one report where they up up before dark. I walked out to the north blind without seeing much bird activity, just a couple of harriers in distance. I was not in the blind long when I had a Northern Harrier fly in close:
Not much later, at 3:55 pm, I was pleasantly surprised to see a single Short-eared Owl come up from the grasses. I started to click away and more owls came up. The owls put on quite a show, flying all around the blind, tangling with each other and with the harriers too. The light was beautiful, and I clicked away trying not to miss any good opportunities.
I spoke to Scott Baldinger in the parking lot on my way back to my car and he gave a count for the night: He had 8 Short-eared Owls and 6 Northern Harriers in a single sweep, not too bad! What a great night of birding and bird photography!
SATURDAY MORNING
With all the exitement of getting the Short-eared Owl photos on Saturday evening, I never got around to posting about the birding I did on Saturday morning. I made several quick stops just to see what was going on.
Glenmere Lake:
Canada Goose 25
Mute Swan 6
Mallard 1
Bufflehead 1
Common Merganser 1
Ruddy Duck 2
Pied-billed Grebe 5
Ring-billed Gull 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Lower Wisner Road:
Canada Goose 300
Turkey Vulture 1
Northern Harrier 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Rock Pigeon 20
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 2
Northern Shrike 1
Blue Jay 6
American Crow 35
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 50
Field Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 4
Dark-eyed Junco 1
Common Grackle 12
Warwick Town Hall Pond:
Canada Goose 10 Gadwall 9 Northern Pintail 2
Skinner Lane:
Canada Goose 55
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Killdeer 1
American Crow 250
Horned Lark 40
American Goldfinch 1
Citgo Pond Trail (Goshen):
Canada Goose 10
Mallard 35
Northern Shoveler 2
Green-winged Teal 8
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 25
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Song Sparrow 6
Swamp Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 4
So it was my last day of the season as official counter out at Mt. Peter Hawk Watch. On my way to Mt. Peter, I stopped at Lower Wisner Road to look for the NORTHERN SHRIKE that Rob Stone reported yesterday. I relocated the bird in the distance right after my arrival. The bird flew and I didn’t track it very well – I think I was expecting it to return to its perch. Well, it never did, and I only got a brief and distant look at the bird. So, I tried for it again after the watch and I apparently missed it by 15 minutes. Several folks got to see the bird today, so that is good. Hopefully the bird will stick around and I will get a better look and possibly a photo.
At Mt. Peter, I had another slow day, but I had some decent photo ops of the birds I did see. Here is my report:
Mount Peter
Warwick, New York, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 09, 2013
——————————————————————-
Species Day’s Count Month Total Season Total
—————— ———– ————– ————–
Black Vulture 0 5 53
Turkey Vulture 4 31 110
Osprey 0 1 124
Bald Eagle 2 15 109
Northern Harrier 1 11 50
Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 34 1021
Cooper’s Hawk 2 9 60
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 2 20 106
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 7611
Red-tailed Hawk 7 350 429
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 3 4
American Kestrel 0 0 112
Merlin 0 0 14
Peregrine Falcon 0 1 14
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 3
Unknown Buteo 0 0 6
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 0 1
Unknown Raptor 1 5 26
Total: 19 485 9853
———————————————————————-
Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 15:30:00
Total observation time: 6.5 hours
Official Counter: Matt Zeitler
Observers: Rob Stone
Weather:
Cold and cloudy with temperatures from 1 degree Celsius to 9 degrees
Celsius. Light winds all day; from the west in the morning and shifting to
southwest in the afternoon.
Raptor Observations:
Bald Eagle: 1 Adult, 1 Immature
Red-shouldered Hawk: 2 Unknown
Northern Harrier: 1 Male
Non-raptor Observations:
Non-raptor Species: American Robin (66), Cedar Waxwing (20), Dark-eyed
Junco (5), Ring-billed Gull (1), Common Raven (4), American Crow (13),
Red-bellied Woodpecker (1)
Today’s early rain gave way to beautiful sunny skies in the evening, so I made my way out to Skinner Lane after work. The flock of Horned Larks continues at Skinner Lane with 2 Snow Buntings among them. Unfortunately the Snow Buntings never got close enough for photos, but I did get some Horned Larks that were not too far away. I hope these birds stick around because I would love to get some really close shots.
After work today, I drove over to the Clay Avenue Wetlands, located in Lyndhurst NJ. I had received a rare bird alert email from eBird, indicating that an American Avocet had been seen at the wetlands. The bird was easily located and what a beautiful bird it is! Unfortunately the bird was pretty heavily backlit and there are not many spots to view the birds from, which made taking photos difficult. I am not really thrilled with the above photo for various reasons, but I had to post this awesome bird. I hope to get back in the morning when the sun will be at my back. Stay tuned for more photos.
Here’s one more from today: 
I went out on a photo mission to Glenmere Lake first thing this morning. I was on the lake in my kayak before the sun was up, with the goal of trying to get some Pied-billed Grebe photos. Last year I got some grebe photos out at the Basha Kill, but this year I never saw a Pied-billed Grebe while I was kayaking there. I have stopped by Glenmere Lake without the kayak several times recently and noticed a decent number of grebes present. I was thinking it would be pretty easy to get some good photos by just paddling out to the birds. Boy, was I wrong. The grebes were VERY aware of my presence and kept their distance and dove under when I got too close. I was thinking that the reason I was able to shoot the Pied-billed Grebe out at the Basha Kill was because the channels out there are so narrow, so I think they might get a little more comfortable with kayak/boat traffic passing close by. I finally floated very slowly towards one grebe, the light was very pleasing, and I was able to shoot about 12 photos. Here is my best effort:
I only had a little bit of time to be out this morning, but on my way in I found this Ruddy Duck, who was much more cooperative than any of the grebes, and the light was pretty nice too.
