House Wren out at Denning’s Point State Park, 6/1/13.
I got up early to try to beat the heat this morning and headed out to Denning’s Point State Park. I had not been out there since last year, so I was hoping to have some luck with Green Herons and Black-crowned Night Herons. As it turned out, the park was not extremely birdy on this day and I did not see any herons at all. All told I had 22 species, many of which were only heard. On my way back to the car I enjoyed the highlight of the visit, an amazing Red-tail Hawk with beautiful markings.
I love the markings on this bird, particularly the very light head and the very dark area at the base of the bill – I’m not sure if that would be considered the Mustachial stripe or the Malar (or both?). Red-tailed Hawk on a light post at Denning’s Point State Park, 6/1/13.I sat on a rock and watched this bird for a good while. Periodically a Red-winged Blackbird would dive-bomb the hawk……eventually the hawk had had enough and took off, giving me a great look at its gorgeous red tail.
I left Denning’s Point and then headed to Kenridge Farm. I walked the extensive trails there for close to two hours and although I did not see or hear anything our of the ordinary, I did pretty well, identifying 28 species of birds. My “best birds” where: Brown Thrasher, four Killdeer (two of which I believe were immatures), a female Mallard with ducklings, and a pair of Green Herons.
I finally got a good enough look at a Green Heron for a photo. Kenridge Farm 6/1/13.Three of four Killdeer out at Kenridge Farm, 6/1/13.
The heat was getting pretty unbearable and the harsh sun was making for difficult photography when I wrapped it up at 11:30 am. It was a morning of enjoyable, but not amazing, birding.
Stilt Sandpiper (left) and a Dunlin (right) at Wallkill River NWR 5/22/13.
Thanks to John Haas informing me earlier this week and also an alert from Rob Stone today, I was able to see a really nice collection of shorebirds at Wallkill River NWR after work this evening. I particularly wanted to see the Stilt Sandpiper, a bird that I have seen before but it has been a couple of years and I feel like I saw the bird today with different eyes. I also want to thank Tom Burke (I hope I spelled that correctly) who I met for the first time today. He gave me a crash course in shorebird identification and help me compile a really nice list today:
Karen Miller met me out there a little later and we walked the Liberty Loop on our way to seeing 41 species. The highlight for me was my first of season Indigo Buntings. Here’s a Downy we had on the east side of the loop:
I went to Wallkill River NWR and walked the Liberty Loop this morning. I went out primarily looking for warblers, but I only managed to find several Yellow Warblers and Common Yellowthroats. I was pleasantly surprised to find my first Bobolinks of the season, and to make it even better they were within decent photo distance. These photos are a bit noisy; I had the ISO very high because the morning was very gray.
One of two Bobolinks seen at Wallkill River NWR, 5/11/13.Here’s another shot of the same bird with a closer crop.Two of two. Bobolink out at Wallkill River NWR, 5/11/13.An extremely buttery Goldfinch at Wallkill River NWR 5/11/13.It has been fun and challenging getting back to shooting song birds. Song Sparrow at Wallkill River NWR, 5/11/13.
On my way to the bank this afternoon I spotted my first Green Heron of the season at the small pond right around the corner from our house. I know I say this about a lot of birds, but Green Herons really are one of my favorite birds; I look forward to a summer of having them at that pond.
First Green Heron of the season for me, Goshen NY 4/27/13.
On Monday evening, Herb Stein posted that he had seen two Sandhill Cranes and a Glossy Ibis out at Wallkill River NWR. I always enjoy walking the Liberty Loop, so today I went to see what I could find. It was a nice warm evening, a little bit windy, but very pleasant. It made for a nice afternoon of birding. I had 23 species during my walk, with two highlights. The best bird of the night was definitely a single SANDHILL CRANE. What a fabulous bird, I feel so lucky to have seen this bird and to have managed a couple of distant photos, which I have cropped:
Sandhill Crane at Wallkill River NWR 4-24-13.What a beautiful bird!
The second highlight for me was a DUNLIN in adult breeding plumage. This bird confounded me until I got home and looked it up. This bird was pretty far out, so here again is a distant photo that has been cropped:
A Dunlin alongside a Greater Yellowlegs out at Wallkill River NWR 4-24-13.
What a great night of birding! Many thanks to Herb Stein for posting. Here’s my list for the evening:
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan 4
Wood Duck 1
Mallard X
Northern Shoveler 1
Green-winged Teal 8
Great Blue Heron 5
Turkey Vulture 1
Northern Harrier 1
Bald Eagle 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Sandhill Crane 1 First reported by H Stein
Killdeer 8
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Dunlin 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow X
Eastern Bluebird 1
American Robin X
Song Sparrow 1
Red-winged Blackbird X
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.
Here is an shot of the Tundra Swan on its own, though it spent most of the time with a group of Mute Swans. Glenmere Lake 4/15/13.
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.
A couple of Blue-winged Teals come in for a landing. Wallkill River NWR 4-15-13.
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
This is one of the better shots I’ve gotten of a Green-winged Teal. There is much less water out at the reserve right now so I think the birds were more likely to stay put as I approached.Greater Yellowlegs at Wallkill River NWR, 4-15-13.
… 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:
Mute Swan 4
Canada Goose 8
Wood Duck 10
Mallard 6
Lesser Scaup 4
Bufflehead 12
Common Merganser 9 (fly over)
Pied-billed Grebe 4
Red-necked Grebe 1
DC Cormorant 9
Turkey Vulture 4
A. Crow 2
Tree Swallow 75
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:
A Long-tailed Duck, two Horned Grebes, and three Lesser Scaups in the distance out at Glenmere Lake 4/10/13.
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:
Osprey at Glenmere Lake 4/10/13/
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.
In this photo: 1 Bufflehead, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, 2 Horned Grebe, 1 Greater Scaup, and 10 Lesser Scaup at Glenmere Lake 4/10/13. I struggled with the Lesser Scaups vs Greater Scaups while I was in the field. I was fairly confident that I had one Greater Scaup while I was out there, though I don’t know if I would have picked up on it if I didn’t know that Rob Stone had both scaups there earlier in the day. In this photo, I think the 2nd bird to the right of the Pied-billed Grebe might be the Greater Scaup, but it is really tough to tell.
I hit the Shawangunk Grasslands Friday evening and sat in one of the blinds for a few hours. I finally got lucky with the Short-eared Owls. It is always such a rush to shoot these birds, especially when they come up right before sunset and the light is changing very quickly. I was happy to get one more chance to get some SEOW photos this year.
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.
An immature Bald Eagle flies over Derby Hill Hawk Watch in Mexico, NY 3-30-13.
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:
Although I don’t think there is any way to tell, I am thinking that these are Tundra Swans because of the number of birds. Apparently Trumpeter Swans tend to be in smaller groups.
6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary
Song Sparrows were plentiful at 6 1/2 Station Road, 4-1-13.
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.
I really enjoy the Killdeer. I’ve been trying to get a good flight photo of one, but no luck yet. Wallkill River NWR, 4-2-13.
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
A couple of the many Mallards seen out at Wallkill River NWR, 4-2-13.Green-winged Teals were easily the most numerous bird at Wallkill River NWR 4-2-13.A male American Kestrel shows off his “string of pearls”. Wallkill River NWR 4-2-13.The Blue-winged Teal is a BEAUTIFUL bird. I can’t wait to get a good photo…Wallkill River NWR 4-2-13.
