Well, it was certainly a snowy weekend, and I birded as the snow fell on both mornings. First thing Saturday morning I took a walk at Black Rock Forest. There is a feeder station there that was pretty active, particularly with modest sized flock of Purple Finches. Afterwards, I went to the Newburgh waterfront – visibility was terrible with the heavy snowfall, but it was still nice to be out and at the river – I was enjoying the different aesthetic of the day, where everything is just in shades of gray and white. I had only the three expected species of gulls in Newburgh, so I went over to Beacon, where I didn’t do any better, in fact I only had Ring-billed and American Herring Gulls.
On Sunday morning I ventured out into the snow again. My initial target was the Ross’s Goose that had been reported this week at two locations in Warwick. I dipped on that bird, so I headed over to Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge’s Winding Waters Trail to try for the Northern Shrike again. That bird has been very unreliable, and I had no luck again. Same as Saturday though, it was just nice to just be out in the weather and I enjoyed the few birds that I did find along the trail. Afterwards I car-birded in the black dirt for a while as I made my way home. It was nice to be out, but I didn’t have any birds of note.
Matt, I’m guessing that’s the same Great Blue Heron I photographed at Memorial Park a couple days ago.