It was not a very exciting weekend of birding, but it was still quite enjoyable. The warm temperatures we’ve been experiencing melted nearly all the snow, which allowed me to walk some trails. On Saturday I went to Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge’s Winding Waters Trail. I failed to find my target bird of the day – Northern Shrike – which has been reported there in recent days. But it was a nice, birdy walk and I added (3) species to my 2026 Orange County list: Northern Flicker, Swamp Sparrow, and Pine Siskin.
On Sunday, I hit the trails again, this time at Kenridge Farm in Cornwall (apparently now known as Outdoor Discovery Center. Again, it wasn’t exciting as much as it was pleasant and birdy enough to keep me interested. I added just a single new species to my OC year list – Purple Finch. Afterwards, I went to the Newburgh Waterfront; it was a little too early in the day for any good gull action, but I did find one Red-breasted Merganser among the many Common Mergansers currently on the river.
I look forward to your photos every Monday morning! Just wanted to let you know that we will be publishing our calendar again this fall for 2027 and are running a contest for photos. I would love to have one of your bird photos in the calendar- if the shot was taken at Black Rock Forest. Here is a link to the submission info. Let me know if you have any questions. https://www.blackrockforest.org/blog/calling-all-nature-photographers
Thanks so much for checking in Susanne. I will definitely be heading out to BRF often this year; hopefully I’ll get lucky and get a good shot. Matt