Category: Swimming Waterbirds

Yesterday during the day I received my eBird “Needs Alert” for Ulster County, NY. In it, many grebes had been reported – Pied-billed, Horned, and Red-necked Grebes had been seen in good numbers. Mark DeDea reported 12 Red-necked Grebes and 32! Horned Grebes at Ashokan Reservoir on Monday. With these reports in mind, I headed over to Glenmere Lake after work to see if I would have any luck. It was just this past Friday that I observed 9 Pied-billed Grebes there; I was hoping for some Red-necked and Horned. When I arrived, I was surprised to find a motor boat cruising the lake and several buoys floating at various locations. I eventually talked to one of the guys involved, and he told me that they were installing an aeration system in the lake; the goal is to eventually improve the health of the lake. Meanwhile, in the short term, there were hardly any birds on the lake. I saw several Double-crested Cormorants, a Great Blue Heron, and one single Pied-billed Grebe. Fortunately the grebe was close to the shore and I was able to get some photos before the motorboat came by, at which time the grebe made itself scarce.

It was late in the day and the clouds were passing by, so I shot this grebe in different light conditions. When the bird was closest, I unfortunately had the worst light of the evening. Here’s some more looks at the bird:

SATURDAY

With the days being at their shortest, Christmas on the immediate horizon, and the cold gray evenings we’ve been having, I have not gotten much birding in during the week. So, when Saturday finally rolled around, I was dying get out. I met up with Karen Miller at Wallkill RIver NWR early in the morning. It was a warm, beautifully sunny morning. We walked part of the loop but it was not very birdy and walking in the melting snow was taking the fun out of it for both of us. We decided to jump in our cars and hit a few spots. As we were getting in our cars we had our best bird – a light morph Rough-legged Hawk.

We headed over to Missionland Road, where Rob Stone told me he had Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs the day before. We mostly struck out, finding only a small flock of Horned Larks.

Next we went to Skinner Lane, where there was much hunting going on and the road still had enough snow on it to make me nervous about driving on it.  We decide to head over to Goshen to hit 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary. This was the best stop of the morning, with the highlight being a small group of American Tree Sparrows. I tried in vain to get a shot of one of them, but they would not cooperate.

It was a nice day to be out birding, but it was also frustrating for me because it was a beautiful sunny day I would have loved to have seen some more birds and to have taken more photos.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning was gray and cloudy, with light rain falling. I was heading up to the Shawangunk Grasslands NWR as the rain seemed to be getting heavier. I pulled over and checked the radar, and saw that bands of rain were passing to the north. So, I reconsidered and decided to bird the Hudson River instead. My first stop was in Newburgh where I birded from the Beacon Ferry parking lot. It was still raining, so I stayed in the car mostly, getting out from time to time. I had a single Common Merganser and a Double-crested Cormorant as well. I also really enjoyed seeing the Greater Black-backed Gulls among the Ring-billed Gulls and Herring Gulls.

I wanted to go to Croton Point Park next, mostly because I had never been there. I made a quick stop at Plum Point Park on the way, where I had an additional 10 Common Mergansers and an adult Bald Eagle, perched way off in the distance.

Croton Point Park was pretty good birding but not great for photography. I had a nice showing of songbirds as well as a Cooper’s Hawk around the feeders at the Nature Center. On the river I had 22 Buffleheads, 2 Common Mergansers, and a single Common Goldeneye. The Common Goldeneye very distant and I watched it for a long while hoping it would come in a bit closer. It was not until I got home that I figured out that the bird was likely a first winter female Common Goldeneye.

I covered a lot of ground today in search of waterfowl in Orange County. I started early and headed north and worked my way south as the morning progressed.

Chadwick Lake Park:

Canada Goose  30
Mute Swan  2
Mallard  5
Lesser Scaup  4
Ring-billed Gull  1
Great Black-backed Gull  1

**I received a phone call from Bruce Nott in the afternoon – 4 Common Goldeneye continue at Chadwick Lake Park (I failed to locate them while I was there).**

Lake Washington and Masterson Memorial Park: 

Canada Goose  9
Mute Swan  2
Gadwall  32
Mallard  2
Hooded Merganser  28
Bald Eagle  1
Ring-billed Gull  75
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  1

Brown’s Pond: 

Canada Goose  145
Mute Swan  5
American Wigeon  4
Ring-necked Duck  18
Hooded Merganser  15
Common Merganser  36
Ruddy Duck  48
Bald Eagle  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Ring-billed Gull  7
Belted Kingfisher  1
Northern Flicker  1

Orange-Rockland Lake:

Canada Goose  18
Ring-necked Duck  24
Ruddy Duck  7
Pied-billed Grebe  2
Downy Woodpecker  1

Glenmere Lake: 

Mute Swan  1
Ruddy Duck  4
Pied-billed Grebe  3
Dark-eyed Junco  2

In the evening I decided to try for the Short-eared Owls again. It was sunny and beautiful when I left the house. By the time the owls got up, which was early at 3:30, it was very gray and dark out. Here’s my best effort: