Sunday Shots, 12/17/23

I really enjoyed my birding this weekend. It’s that time of year when the days are just too short to fit any birding in during the week, so when I get out on the weekends it seems just that much better.

On Saturday I took an eight mile hike out at Black Rock Forest. My target species was Red Crossbill, but unfortunately I didn’t have any luck with them. It was a relatively birdy walk though; I had a total of 23 species with my highlight being a trio of Purple Finches. Afterwards, I went to the Newburgh Waterfront, thinking about gulls and waterfowl. Little did I know that I should have been thinking about warblers! On Watefront Trail, I was pleasantly surprised to find a Palm Warbler and then a little later, a Northern Parula. Bruce Nott later found a Tennessee Warbler! Not bad for December.

On Sunday I stayed closer to home; I hit the black dirt early and then checked a few nearby lakes. In the black dirt, I enjoyed sifting through some large flocks of mixed blackbirds, looking unsuccessfully for a Yellow-headed Blackbird in the mix – a total long shot, but if you don’t look, you’ll never find one. The flocks consisted of nearly all Common Grackles, with a smattering European Starlings, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and Red-winged Blackbirds as well.

Afterwards, I found a single Common Goldeneye loosely associating with a small flock of Buffleheads at the northernmost part of Greenwood Lake. At Wickham Lake, surprisingly the Common Loon that I found there back on December 1st was still present. I watched the bird for a good while – it was pretty far out, so I was just enjoying looking at it in my scope. Then the bird appeared to try to take flight – taking a long runway, flapping like mad, but it never got airborne. It did this 3 times, and I started to figure that this was probably why the bird was still present. I waited it out, because the bird still seemed itchy. On the fourth attempt, the bird got airborne! It took a few laps around the lake, only clearing the treetops a few times, before landing in the lake again. I’m choosing to believe that this was finally a successful test flight. Hopefully the bird will have enough strength and get over whatever is ailing it soon so it can continue its migration.