Month: August 2018

Least Bitterns, 08/05/18

Kyle Dudgeon and I spent some time very early this morning with the LEAST BITTERNS at Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge’s Liberty Loop. It was great to see good numbers of LEBIs, and we got lucky with one particularly accommodating individual, which landed not very far off the path – I’ve included four photos of this bird.

In birding news, Karen Miller watched the ROSEATE SPOONBILL fly north over Oil City Road and into Orange County. Kyle and I searched for the bird down Liberty Lane, and John Haas joined us to help search the area, but unfortunately, as of this writing, the bird had not been relocated.

08/04/18 – Orange County WHIMBREL!

~Wow! Whimbrel in the rain at Skinner Lane, 08/04/18.~

Last night and this morning I was having a feeling we might get a good bird in the county today. For some reason I was thinking it would happen at Turtle Bay, but instead it was at Skinner Lane, where I located a WHIMBREL in the rain around 7:30 this morning. I was super pumped; I put the word out and several birders were able to run for the bird. Rob Stone, John Haas, Karen Miller, Kathy Ashman, and Bruce Nott all saw the bird while I was still there; it was a lifer for both Kathy and Bruce. Clay Spencer reported the bird in the late morning as well. Whimbrel is a bird I have daydreamed of finding in our area for a while, and it is the 252nd bird on my Orange County life list.

~WHIMBREL at Skinner Lane, 08/01/18. Other shorebirds present include: approximately 40 Killdeer, 1 Least Sandpiper, 3 Semipalmated Sandpipers, and 1 Lesser Yellowlegs.~ 
~I, of course, ran around the area looking for more shorebirds but did not come up with much. Pine Island Turf Nursery had several Killdeer and a Spotted Sandpiper. Camel Farm had several Killdeer. Turtle Bay had 8 Least Sandpipers and 2 Semipalmated Sandpipers (as well as several Killdeer). This Killdeer was at PITN, 08/04/18.~