I walked Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge’s Liberty Loop first thing this morning. It was mostly just the usuals, until I found an apparently distressed Great Horned Owl owlet perched on the ground, only about 20 feet off the trail. Last night Linda Scrima forwarded me a Facebook post where someone had found this same owlet the day before. So that meant the bird had been there for a full day already (the bird was not really on my radar – I figured it had been helped already). I let Linda know the bird was still there; she shared the contact information for The Avian Wildlife Center. I got in touch with Giselle (some readers may remember she helped me with Carson C. Waxwing back in 2020), and we made arrangements for her to come out and get the bird.
Linda joined me on the trail and we kept an eye on the bird until Giselle arrived. We made a quick plan to catch the bird, and it went pretty smoothly – Giselle really knows what she is doing. Upon initial examination, Giselle observed that the bird was underweight, but not emaciated. There were no obvious injuries, but Giselle did note that the bird’s eyes looked a little weird. We hustled back to Giselle’s car and she took the bird back to her place, where it will get the care that it needs. I will post an update on the bird when I hear something. For any readers who would like to donate to the Avian Wildlife Center, you can click here to do so. Thanks!
So that was the excitement for the day! Otherwise, the loop was birdy and I observed over 50 species. The most interesting to me was over a dozen Great Blue Herons (it seems early for them to be congregating there already), a single Great Egret, and a single Greater Yellowlegs. Here’s a few photos from the morning. I’m also including a complete list of birds observed – I haven’t done that in a while.
- Canada Goose
- Wood Duck
- Mallard
- Mourning Dove
- Yellow-billed Cuckoo
- Common Gallinule
- Killdeer
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Great Egret
- Great Blue Heron
- Black Vulture
- Turkey Vulture
- Bald Eagle
- Great Horned Owl
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- Eastern Wood-Pewee
- Eastern Phoebe
- Great Crested Flycatcher
- Eastern Kingbird
- Yellow-throated Vireo
- Warbling Vireo
- Red-eyed Vireo
- Blue Jay
- Tufted Titmouse
- Tree Swallow
- Barn Swallow
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Marsh Wren
- Carolina Wren
- Gray Catbird
- Northern Mockingbird
- Wood Thrush
- American Robin
- Cedar Waxwing
- American Goldfinch
- Chipping Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Swamp Sparrow
- Eastern Towhee
- Bobolink
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Brown-headed Blackbird
- Common Grackle
- Northern Parula
- Yellow Warbler
- Northern Cardinal
- Roe-breasted Grosbeak
- Indigo Bunting
Matt, thank you for being one of those people who care enough to help those in need and sharing this story! It’s great to donate to a good cause and I wouldn’t have known about this otherwise. Cheers and keep on keep’n on!
Monica you know I’ll keep on keep’n on! Thanks for donating and for checking in. Matt