I’m a day late and a dollar short with this bird – this is probably the most photographed bird on Facebook right now. Still, it is a beautiful bird to see and the pond in Algonquin park where the bird is located, is rather small, allowing for very good looks at this bird. Huge thanks to Bruce Nott for locating the bird and having someone post about it, even though he was still out in the field.
I took a quick but productive tour of the Black Dirt Region after work today. I was unable to relocate any large flocks of Snow Geese, but did find some larger groups of Canada Geese, and among them some gems:
Maybe there are still some large groups of Snow Geese around – there are certainly areas I did not get to tonight. Maybe this weekend will produce a Barnacle Goose or even a Pink-footed Goose? A Ross’s Goose? Who knows?
While I was at work on Thursday, I spoke to Rob Stone and John Haas; the Snow Geese in the Black Dirt Region continued in large numbers. They also continued to be restless, changing locations often. After work, I joined John Haas and Karen Miller as they scanned and photographed a group of 1,800 Snow Geese that included a single Tundra Swan as well. The birds picked up and we relocated them easily enough. The field that they had landed in made it easier to see the birds and after scanning them for a while we were confident that there was not a Ross’s Goose among them.
Just before noon today, Rob Stone called to let me know he had approximately 2000 Snow Geese at the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge, just across the road from the Liberty Loop. By the time I got out of work after 3:00, the birds had moved on. I got in touch with Curt McDermott and John Haas who were hot on the trail of the birds. They had relocated the flock (which had grown to 8,000 birds), but the birds lifted up once again. The flock had split into two groups and I followed Curt and John in my car as we (they!) relocated the larger of the two groups out in the Black Dirt Region. The three of us agreed that there were perhaps 5,000 Snow Geese in the group. We spent probably over two hours looking for a Ross’s Goose among them without success. With any luck the birds will stick around long enough and someone will find a Ross’s.
These photos of a Barn Owl in Orange County, NY are from early February, 2014. In the best interest of the bird, I have waited until now to post. I put the Barn Owl in the category of Birds I Never Thought I Would Photograph. What a pleasure and a privilege to see and photograph such an awesome and beautiful bird.
Notable Observations for 3/16/14:
Curt McDermott was birding the Black Dirt Region today and located a total of 4 Snowy Owls. Additionally, I joined him at Onion Avenue, where he had 5 Greater White-fronted Geese and one Snow Goose.
I spent Thursday and Friday afternoons of this week in the Black Dirt Region looking for geese. I spoke to John Haas on Thursday during the day and he had located a Greater White-Fronted Goose out on Onion Avenue and a very large flock of mixed blackbirds. On Thursday evening I made it out and I found the flock of blackbirds easily enough; I estimate maybe over 5,000 birds in the flock? Also present were perhaps 2,000 Canada Geese, but I was not able to relocate the GWFG. It was a VERY cold night, which made it tough for me to stay out and sort through thousands of geese!
I went back on Friday and the flock of Canada Geese had grown to maybe 3,500 birds. Out in the fields, within the flock, I had what appeared to be one leucisitic Canada Goose, one Canada Goose hybrid (maybe with a greylag?), many Mallards and American Black Ducks, 3 Wood Ducks (!), and I had 2 Snow Geese that flew over, circled, but never joined the flock. Still no sign of the Greater White-fronted Goose though. Additionally, the number of black birds was down (perhaps 800?), but they were still present as well.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day and I could barely wait to get out of work to do some birding. Today was the first day that felt like spring to me and I took advantage by heading over to Warwick, NY to look for waterfowl. My first stop was at the pond across from Town Hall where I did well, accumulating 7 species waterfowl: Canada Geese (15), Mallards (12), Ring-necked Ducks (22), Wood Ducks (3), Gadwall (5), Hooded Mergansers (3) and a single Green-winged Teal.
My next stop was at Schervier Pavilion in Warwick, which has a small pond that apparently gets Hooded Mergansers regularly. Nine were present today and they were joined by 2 Canada Geese, 4 Mallards, and 1 Ring-necked Duck.
Finally, I did some driving around the black dirt region to see what I could find. It ended up being a banner night with three species of owl: Snowy Owl (1), Short-eared Owl (3), and Great Horned Owl (1 heard). Additionally, I got my first Killdeer (3) of the season for Orange County:
I have been passing through Warwick NY regularly lately just to see if I could relocate and photograph the Leucistic Red-tail Hawk there. It has been just over a year since I posted my first shots of this bird. In the last two weeks, I had distant looks at the bird a couple times, but yesterday the bird was perched relatively close to the road so I was able to get the above shot. I am fascinated by this bird and I would have really liked to see it fly, but it was not to be. The bird stayed put and I was on my way.
It was cold but very beautiful out, and I was lucky enough to locate TWO very distant Snowy Owls in Orange County after work this evening. I spent an hour and a half watching these two incredible birds interact with one another – what a privilege!
Additionally, I had two Short-eared Owls, one of which landed not very far from my car just as the sun was setting. This photo was taken at ISO 12800!
WALLKILL RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE – 2/28/14
It was for some reason unexpected that I had a nice evening shooting raptors on Friday after work. But, the light was nice and I was lucky enough to have a few birds close enough for some decent shots. Also noteworthy were my first Red-winged Blackbirds for the year in Orange County.
RONDOUT RESEVOIR – 3/1/14
I had a nice outing at Rondout Resevoir on Saturday afternoon. I knew there was a good collection of waterfowl present because I read about it on John Haas’ blog, Bashakill Birder. I got all the birds John reported in his post, including three first of the year birds for me: American Wigeon (5), Redhead (7), and Killdeer (1). It was not a great outing for photos, the birds were for the most part distant and from where you view the birds, in the afternoon all the birds are backlit. I did have a Common Merganser that didn’t seem to mind my presence at all:
SOUTHERN ORANGE COUNTY – 3/2/14
This morning I made the rounds in southern Orange County without seeing much of note. I did see a single Common Grackle and a single Red-winged Blackbird, both on Celery Avenue. I sorted through MANY Canada Geese without anything out of the ordinary. American Crows rivaled the Canada Geese in numbers and seemed to be everywhere.
