Sunday Shots – Raptor Edition, 11/16/25

I had relative success at my first stop this morning – Reservoir 3 in Port Jervis. My target bird was RED CROSSBILLS, and, although I didn’t get good looks or photos, I did have Red Crossbills fly over on three occasions. I need to figure out where those birds hang out in the Res 3 area – that’s still the big mystery. While I was there, I had a nice encounter with an adult Bald Eagle, so that was a little bit of a consolation prize for no crossbill pics.

Afterwards, I spent a little bit of time in the black dirt region. There were plenty of Horned Larks around – in loose, jumpy flocks. Amongst them, I had one Lapland Longspur and several Snow Buntings. I would later come across a small flock of approximately 25 Snow Buntings and after that, a single American Pipit hanging in there. I didn’t get any pics of the passerines, but I did have an opportunity with a male Peregrine Falcon and a little later with a female Northern Harrier.