Well, pretty much took the weekend off in terms of birding. Every once in a while, I think I just need to go out and not worry about identifying and counting every bird I see. Instead I just went out and just enjoyed looking for birds and trying to get some decent photos.
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).
Rob Stone texted me this afternoon to let me know he had located four GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE on Onion Avenue in New Hampton, NY. When I got there later in the afternoon, just after 4 pm, I could only locate one GWFG among approximately 1200 Canada Geese. I spoke to John Haas after I had left, and he let me know that while he was there, a total of five Greater White-fronted Geese were present. Huge thanks to both Rob and John, what a “great” way to make my day!
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:
When I woke up this morning, the thermometer read zero degrees Fahrenheit. With this information in hand, I decided it would be best to bird by car today. So I did a driving tour of the Black Dirt Region, hitting many of the usual spots: Pumpkin Swamp Road, Skinner Lane, Mt. Eve Road, Big Island Road, Missionland Road, Scenic Farms Golf Course, and Wallkill River NWR. Raptors were plentiful, I had eight (!!!) Rough-legged Hawks, one American Kestrel, four Northern Harriers, and I lost count of how many Red-tailed Hawks I saw (at least 15?).
I had two small flocks of Horned Larks at Skinner Lane and at Missionland Road I had a larger flock of about 50 HOLAs that included a single SNOW BUNTING. White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos were a constant roadside bird throughout the morning, Song Sparrows were also seen in lesser numbers, and I had a pair of WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS at Skinner Lane. I ran into the Antonys (fellow Mearnsers) on Mt. Eve Road where they also had WCSPs.
I took advantage of the snow day today by snowshoeing down the Heritage Trail that borders 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary. It was a pretty cold journey, but it was nice to get out and see some birds. I did not see anything out of the ordinary, just a good showing of many of the expected birds. Here’s my list:
Quick Post: Yesterday morning I did a quick tour of some of the hotspots in the Black Dirt Region and Indiana Road was by far the most productive, with the following present:
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 got out and birded the black dirt region both Saturday and Sunday mornings, but compared to all the recent Snowy Owl excitement, both days were relatively uneventful. Here’s a few things that folks might find interesting:
SHORT-EARED OWL SURVEY
The highlight of my birding weekend was participating in the First Annual Unofficial Orange County Short-eared Owl Survey. The survey was organized by Curt McDermott and Rob Stone, who wanted an answer to the question of how many Short-eared Owls were currently in Orange County. The idea was to get birders out to known Short-eared Owl haunts both Saturday and Sunday evening to get a total for the county. So, on Saturday evening, Karen Miller and I went out to our designated area to count, which was the Wallkill River NWR. The plan was to get the best count we could there and then shoot over to Scenic Farms Golf Course on Glenwood Road and get a count there. We had a fabulous evening, counting 10! SEOWs at Wallkill River NWR and then picking up an additional 5 at the golf course, totaling 15 for the evening. Late edit: It should be noted that for the owls seen at Wallkill River NWR, for the purposes of this survey we are assuming that the birds pass back and forth over the county border as they work the open areas of the refuge (Thanks for keeping me in check Marianne!). On Sunday my spot was Pumpkin Swamp Road. It was really freezing cold, but it was worth it when I got a count of 6 SEOWs there. When all the locations were combined, the survey revealed a total of 31 Short-eared Owls in Orange County this weekend – very exciting!
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