So, I’ve been at my new job for just over two months and up until today, I hadn’t done any birding in the area, choosing to hustle home and bird in Orange County instead. Well, the days have finally gotten short enough that it’s really tough for me to do any birding in OC, so today, for the first time, I decided to bird near my work in Garnerville, NY.
My original plan was to go to Stony Point Park, which is only 10 minutes from my work and, on the map, it looked perfect to bird the Hudson River since the park is located on a peninsula that juts out into the river. My plan was foiled when I arrived at the park to find out that it closes daily at 5:00 pm! I was ripping mad about it, but I took a look at the map on my phone and picked a second nearby location, dropping a pin on a spot that looked like I might get a look at the river. When I arrived at the location, to my surprise, it was a park! It was the Town of Stony Point’s River Front Park to be more precise, and what a find! It’s actually closer to my work and the location is just super. I’ve included a map below, you can see Stony Point Park just to the north, and that River Front Park actually sticks out further into the river than Stony Point SP.
It was a perfect night for birding on the Hudson, and just how I would want it to be: cold and windy, with super dark clouds and patches of beautiful bright gold sunlight peeking through periodically. It was a simultaneously creepy and beautiful night. I set up and began to scope the river; I was happy to see many gulls. I had Ring-billed (many), Herring (3), and Great Black-backed (2) gulls tonight and I’m hoping that I have more gulls to look forward to this winter. Waterfowl were less accommodating tonight; I had only Double-crested Cormorants (12). As I left the park, I could see that there is plenty of other good birding possibilities in this little area, so that was exciting to me; I have something to look forward to.
