September 2021 – Orange Birding

Shorebirds, Mt. Peter, & Reservoir #3

I went out to the black dirt first thing Saturday morning. I was counting at Mount Peter in the afternoon, so I wanted to get an early start. As always, I was looking for shorebirds – any new species or some better looks and photos of some of the birds we’ve been seeing. Well, I didn’t see any new species, and the best I could do for photos was a decent shot of a Greater Yellowlegs. But it was still a decent morning with 6 species of shorebirds: Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Pectoral Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Greater Yellowlegs.

~Greataer Yellowlegs at the Camel Farm, 09/25/21.~

~Fogbow at Skinners Lane Saturday morning 09/25/21. According to Wikipedia, “a fog bow, sometimes called a white rainbow, is a similar phenomenon to a rainbow; however, as its name suggest, it appears as a bow in fog rather than rain.”~

MOUNT PETER HAWKWATCH

In the afternoon I was the official counter at Mt. Peter Hawkwatch, taking over for BA McGrath who, unfortunately had a terribly slow morning. The afternoon, in general, wasn’t much busier but ultimately, I counted a total of 67 migrating raptors. A surprise kettle of 39 Broad-winged Hawks accounted for most of that number. I had (3) migrating Bald Eagles, and there were several Common Ravens putting on a show on the cell tower and in the air over the platform. You can see my report for HMANA at the bottom of this post.

~~ The Common Ravens helped pass the time when it was slow at Mt. Peter on Saturday, 09/25/21.~

~Broad-winged Hawk directly over the viewing platform, Mt. Peter 09/25/21.~

RESERVOIR #3

This morning I decided it was finally time to give the shorebirds a break. So I headed to Port Jervis and I birded Reservoir #3. It was just what the doctor ordered, birdy, peaceful, perfect weather, and some good photo ops. I tallied 30 species for the morning, with highlights of Brown Creeper (Res 3 is money for that bird!), several Red-breasted Nuthatches, and a pair of Blue-headed Vireos. Actually the real highlight for me came afterwards – after shooting distant shorebirds and raptors, it felt good to look at some decent photos of songbirds.

~ I am generally not to quick to ID silent flycatchers, but I’m thinking this bird is a juvenile Eastern Wood-Pewee due to the buffy wing bars.~

~Eastern Phoebe at Reservoir #3, 09/26/21.~

~One more of the Brown Creeper, Res 3 09/26/21.~

~One of several Yellow-rumped Warblers at Reservoir #3, 09/26/21.~

~And, one more Pine Warbler shot. Res 3 09/26/21.~

~I was struck by how beautiful Beaver Pond looked on Saturday morning, so I took a photo with my phone.~

Sunday Shots – A Pretty Good Week, 09/19/21

I enjoyed some pretty good birding this week and into the weekend. As regular readers of this blog know, I’m obsessed with shorebirds and that’s how I spent most of my birding time. I did not add any new species to my year list, but I just enjoyed the variety we’ve been having and trying for photos. The highlight was seeing the largest flock of American Golden-Plovers I’ve ever seen in the black dirt, a remarkable 76 birds. Two Buff-breasted Sandpipers continued up until Thursday evening, but I haven’t seen or heard any reports since then.

~American Golden-Plover at Skinners Lane, 09/17/21.

~Flock of American Golden-Plovers in flight over the fields of Skinners Lane, 09/14/21.~

On the weekend, I also went up to Mount Peter to see how the hawkwatch was going. Right now should be primetime for Broad-winged Hawk migration and I was hoping to see a kettle or two. I went Saturday for a about an hour or so, and unfortunately it was a bust. Sunday was another story and I enjoyed my most successful flight of Broad-winged Hawks ever. When I left in the early afternoon, over 2,500 BWHAs had been counted. We had over 1,500 in a single hour! I also saw the largest kettle I’ve ever seen, consisting of approximately 700 birds. It was remarkable. Will Test was the official counter, and nearly every other counter from Mt. Pete was there as well, giving him a hand and enjoying one of the best days of the season.

~Broad-winged Hawks kettling, Mount Peter Hawkwatch 09/19/21.~

~Most of the birds were quite high; these BWHAs were a little on the lower side. Mount Peter Hawkwatch, 09/19/21.~

~A young Bald Eagle in a field off of Turtle Bay Road…~

~…it was enjoying a snack of who-the-heck-knows-what. Turtle Bay Road 09/18/21.~

~Another American Golden-Plover, Skinners Lane 09/17/21.~

AMGPs in flight at Skinners Lane, 09/17/21.~

~If you are sick of the American Golden-Plovers, you are in luck. I looked for them early this afternoon and didn’t have any luck. AMGPs at Skinners Lane, 09/17/21.~

~Sandhill Crane stretching it out in the black dirt, 09/18/21.~

A Good Monday Evening, 09/13/21

As far as birding went, this past weekend was a total bust. My niece got married, so I spent much of the weekend down on Long Island to attend. But, tonight’s outing definitely took some of the sting out of it. I went to Skinner’s Lane after work, and after a slow start with just a single shorebird (a Black-bellied Plover), things heated up a little bit. First a flock of American Golden-Plovers flew in – twenty birds. They circled around several times before putting down in a distant field. Then a small group of Killdeer flew over; I noticed one bird appeared to be different, so I stayed on it until it landed… and it was a beautiful BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER.

~Black-bellied Plover at Skinner’s Lane, 09/13/21.~

I put the word out, but it was getting dark. Linda Scrima joined me and we enjoyed watching all the birds work their way closer to the road until they were quite close. At that point there was barely any light left, and normally I would have abandoned taking pics, but I really wanted to try for the Buff-breasted. They are all super grainy, but I’ve included my best shot of the BBSA below. It’s always nice to have an unexpectedly nice Monday night after spending the day getting back into the swing of things at work.

~I used some setting that I hardly ever venture into – ISO 10,000 and f/4 aperture. Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Skinner’s Lane 09/13/21.~

~American Golden-Plovers in flight over Skinner’s Lane, 09/13/21.~

~And thinking about landing. American Golden-Plovers at Skinner’s Lane, 09/13/21.~

~What a cutie. Semipalmated Plover in the black dirt last week, 09/09/21.~

~Also from last week, Baird’s Sandpiper in the black dirt, 09/09/21.~

More Good OC Shorebirds, 09/06/21

This morning I met up with birding bud Bruce Nott and we once again hit the black dirt looking for shorebirds. Early on it was not looking good; we were not finding the multitudes of shorebirds we were hoping for, and the puddling was greatly reduced. We did have a single Baird’s Sandpiper at Skinners Lane, so that was nice. Our fortunes changed at Pine Island Turf Nursery. First off, the office was closed for the holiday, but luckily we ran into some of the folks from the nursery in the parking lot as they were leaving, and they gave us permission to go in and look for birds.

~A nice look at a Lesser Yellowlegs at Pine Island Turf Nursery, 09/06/21.~

There was a good number of shorebirds present and we had a pretty darn good list with a cool dozen species when it was all said and done:

Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
SANDERLING
BAIRD’S SANDPIPER
Least Sandpiper
WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs

~Wow, a relatively close Pectoral Sandpiper! PITN 09/06/21.~

~Sanderling in flight at Pine Island Turf Nursery, 09/06/21.~

~Baird’s Sandpiper alongside a Lesser Yellowlegs, PITN 09/06/21.~

~Great Egrets in a field at Pine Island Turf Nursery, 09/06/21.~

~I got lucky with this shot – I was focusing on the Lesser Yellowlegs, but happened to also catch what I believe is a Baird’s Sandpiper in flight ahead of the yellowlegs.~

Sunday Shots, Catch Up Edition, 09/05/21

Last weekend was a total bust for me. We had a sick cat which took up all my time (and money!) on Saturday, as I took my sick little girl to two different veterinarians. I spent Sunday staring at the cat, trying to will her back to health. A week later, the cat is doing better and my mind is no longer all consumed by the state of her health.

Meanwhile, this week the tail end of Hurricane Ida came through our area, leaving the black dirt flooded in many areas, creating great conditions for shorebirds. While storm did not bring in as many birds as I might have thought, afterwards and through the week and into the weekend, we accumulated quite a nice shorebird list in the black dirt:

BLACK-BILLIED PLOVER
AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER
Killdeer
BAIRD’S SANDPIPER
Least Sandpiper
WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Wilson’s Snipe
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs

~A number of Lesser Yellowlegs gather in one of the large puddles found in the black dirt, 09/04/21.~

I also made a relatively quick but very productive stop at Mount Peter Hawkwatch on Saturday afternoon (yes, hawkwatch is starting already!). I joined official counter Ken Witkowski for just about an hour, and we were lucky enough to have nearly 50 migrating raptors – forty something Broadwinged Hawks, 2 Bald Eagles, and an Osprey.