Huge thanks and congratulations to Bruce Nott who located thirteen Black Scoters on Lake Washington today. Bruce gave me a call, as did John Haas to alert me about the birds. Luckily, Tricia and I were in Beacon and were able to stop by our way home. We got very good looks in Bruce’s scope and I was able to take a few photos that are distant and backlit, but still helpful I think. Thanks again Bruce – nice one!
I had a really nice afternoon of birding after work on Monday. The weather was nice, cool and sunny. My first stop was at Glenmere Lake to see if anything interesting had come in. There was still a pretty good collection of waterfowl present, including Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, many Bufflehead, and the highlight was definitely a a single TUNDRA SWAN floating with a group of Mute Swans.
Afterwards, I headed over to my favorite spot, Wallkill River NWR, to walk the Liberty Loop. There was plenty of activity there; I spent most of my time looking at waterfowl and shorebirds. I struggled with the shorebirds as usual, but it was a lot of fun getting my first good dose of shorebirds for the year. I ended up with 28 species, and it was really nice to just walk the loop and enjoy being outside.
Mute Swan X
Wood Duck 2
Mallard 4
Blue-winged Teal 8
Northern Shoveler 10
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal X
Bufflehead 1
Great Blue Heron 7
Turkey Vulture 5
Northern Harrier 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Killdeer 5
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 8
Lesser Yellowlegs 2
Pectoral Sandpiper 8
Wilson’s Snipe 22
Mourning Dove 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
American Kestrel 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee 1
American Robin X
Song Sparrow X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
… is another life bird for me! I went out to Glenmere Lake this afternoon to try for the Long-tailed Duck again and to see if the second round of storms brought in any new birds. I was very happy to find this Red-necked Grebe:
This is another distant shot that I have cropped pretty heavily. It has been a little frustrating that these birds are too far away for decent photos, but that is easily outweighed by the excitement of seeing a new species for the first time. There were fewer birds present today, but it was still a productive stop:
Thanks again to Rob Stone for turning me on to Glenmere Lake, it has been awesome for me this week!
…is a life bird for me. Thanks to Rob Stone alerting me, I was able to get to Glenmere Lake in Florida NY today after work to see some really good birds, including a beautiful Long-tailed Duck. Here is a very distant photo, heavily cropped:
When I got home I read John Haas’ post at Bashakill Birder and learned that due to the thunderstorms that passed through last night, there was a major fallout of birds. John wrote specifically about Sullivan County, but I imagine that I saw these birds in Orange County for the same reason. I had never birded at Glenmere Lake before, but it is now on my radar for birding spots. Here is my species list for the day:
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan 2
Wood Duck 4
Mallard 5
Greater Scaup 1
Lesser Scaup 8
Long-tailed Duck 1
Bufflehead 10
Pied-billed Grebe 4
Horned Grebe 3
Double-crested Cormorant 5
Turkey Vulture 3
Osprey 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Tree Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee 1
American Robin X
Red-wing Blackbird X
Here’s one more photo that includes five different types of water birds floating together:
Click on the photos to enlarge.
Derby Hill Bird Observatory 3-30-13
Tricia and I spent the holiday weekend with her family in Baldwinsville New York, which is just outside of Syracuse. Shortly after we arrived on Saturday we took a family excursion to Derby Hill Bird Observatory, which is a good hawk watch for spring raptor migration. Turkey Vultures and Red-tail Hawks were the most numerous migrants, but we saw a good variety of migrating raptors. Highlights included a young Bald Eagle that flew over soon after our arrival, and a low flying Merlin that we saw while we were exploring the shore of Lake Ontario.
Turkey Vulture – many
Bald Eagle – 1
Red-tailed Hawk – many
Red-shouldered Hawk – 1
Cooper’s Hawk – 1
Northern Harrier – 1
Merlin – 1
Canada Goose – many
Snow Goose – many
Later that evening we had a large skein of Canada Geese, a large skein of Snow Geese, and a smaller group of swans fly over the house at the same time. I went running for my camera and managed a shot of the swans:
6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary
On Monday after work I stopped by 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary where it was pretty dead. I did not stay long as I was under-dressed for the cold; for some reason I thought it was much warmer out. Song Sparrow numbers were up, as were Green-winged Teal numbers, and the Ring-necked Ducks are still hanging around.
Wallkill River NWR
I met Karen Miller out at Wallkill River NWR after work on Tuesday. We walked the Liberty Loop, it was cold but very enjoyable. We put together a respectable species list and took a lot of photos. 
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan 2 (photo right)
Wood Duck 17
American Black Duck 2
Mallard X
Blue-winged Teal 4
Northern Pintail 8
Green-winged Teal 150
Great Blue Heron 2
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 3
Northern Harrier 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Killdeer 2
Mourning Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Eastern Phoebe 1 (photo right)
American Crow X
Common Raven 1
Tree Swallow 3
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 1
American Robin 6
Song Sparrow X
Northern Cardinal 1
In spite of the cold and windy weather, yesterday morning I attended John Haas’ waterfowl walk along with 18 other hardy souls. We were not disappointed, as there were many bird species present, waterfowl and otherwise. Visit John’s blog, The Basha Kill Birder to see his post which contains his account and a list of all species. Normally for me the highlight of any birding outing has to do with seeing and identifying a particular species, or maybe seeing some sort of new behavior. In this case it was being able to spend a few hours with John, who has a wealth of bird knowledge that is incredible. He is a fantastic teacher; he touched on basics for the beginners in the group, but also got more in depth for some of the more experienced birders in the group. On top of all this, John is a “bird magnet”. We were not on Haven Road for very long when he spotted an accipiter flying overhead…could it be? Yes! A NORTHERN GOSHAWK!
We got good looks at most of the waterfowl, but only because John and several other people brought scopes. Most of what we saw was quite distant, making it tough for photos. Here are a couple of Common Goldeneyes, a life bird for me on a visit to the Basha Kill earlier in the week:
Huge thanks to John for a very enjoyable and rewarding outing, and also thanks to my birding buddy Karen Miller for the group shots. Here’s a shot of me and the rest of group:
Later in the day I spent some time out at the Shawangunk Grasslands in the south blind. It was my first time in that blind and it paid off as I got many good looks at the “Gray Ghost”:
I haven’t been feeling well and actually went to the doctor’s today. On my way back I made a short but, oh so sweet, stop at 6 1/2 Station Road. During my brief visit, I identified 17 species in addition to the adult Bald Eagle pictured above. A nice variety of waterfowl make up exactly half of my list:
Canada Goose 27
Mute Swan 2
American Wigeon 3
American Black Duck 3
Mallard 2
Ring-necked Duck 11
Bufflehead 1
Hooded Merganser 1
Common Merganser 5
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 4
Bald Eagle 1
Red-tailed Hawk 4
Ring-billed Gull 3
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 6
European Starling 8
Song Sparrow 2
I made a quick stop today at 6 1/2 Station Road in Goshen after work and found three Snow Geese among approximately 170 Canada Geese out on the ice. Very Exciting! Here’s a couple quick photos…
Here’s one more that I like:
I feel like it has been forever since I got out for a full day of birding with any success. Karen Miller and I met out at Wallkill River Wildlife Refuge right around sunrise this morning. It was really cold out, 25 degrees Fahrenheit with a substantial wind chill. We sat in the car for a while and then on the platform for a bit until it got too cold. There were many raptors to be seen – Red-tail Hawks, Rough-legged Hawks, a juvenile Bald Eagle, and several Northern Harriers. We decided to follow up on a post seen on the Mearns Bird Club site; we went to Greenwood Lake.
Neither one of us had ever been birding at Greenwood Lake, so it was a bit of an adventure for us as we drove around and explored the lake. We ended up having a great visit with many birds. The highlight for me was a large raft of Common Mergansers that we estimated at approximately 500 individuals:
We stumbled upon Browns Point Park, in West Milford NJ. I totally missed the sign, but Karen saw it and had me turn around. Thank goodness too, because the park provided the best look at ducks that we had all day. We got very good close looks at: Buffleheads, Ring-necked Ducks and Mallards.
After Greenwood Lake, Karen and I headed back to Wallkill River Wildlife Refuge. We decided to walk the Liberty Loop trail; it had warmed up considerably but it was still really windy. Walking through the wind and snow was tough but we were rewarded by seeing many sparrows, Northern Harriers, and a surprise showing of a Short-eared Owl at 12:45 pm. What a great day of birding! Pretty good for January nineteenth.
After work today I went to Darlington Park in Bergen County NJ looking for a female Eurasian Wigeon that had been reported on eBird. Reports said that the bird was among 15 American Wigeon. I was happy to see that the birds were still present. It took me a little while to figure out which one was the Eurasian Wigeon, but once I did it was pretty obvious. I wonder if I had happened upon this group of birds without any prior knowledge if I would have picked out the Eurasian Wigeon among the American Wigeons? I’m not so sure I would have, or if I did I probably would not have had a clue what it was. Here are some photos from the day – I was disappointed because it was yet another very gray day that I was out birding in…
There was also a couple of Pied-billed Grebes present. One was larger and light colored while the other was darker and smaller – noticeably shorter at all times. I really enjoy these birds, I had fun just watching them interact with one another.
