This morning at Wisner Road in Warwick, I located a NORTHERN SHRIKE. I was freaking out because this bird is among my all time favorites. That was the good news. The bad news is that the bird was not very cooperative. Within five minutes of finding it, the bird took off from its distant perch and flew north. I tracked it in my scope as it disappeared behind trees in the distance.
~Northern Shrike at Wisner Road in Warwick, NY 11/17/19.~
Rob Stone joined me to help relocate, and then Bruce Nott after him. We checked the areas north as well as the area where I first saw the bird for a good long while (I tried for the next three hours), but unfortunately we were unable to relocate it. Hopefully that bird is still around; I was thrilled to get it, but for me a lot of the joy gets zapped if no one else gets the bird. Time will tell, I guess.
~Field Sparrow, Warwick NY 11/17/19.~ ~Bruce and I had 3 Bald Eagles while we were trying to relocate the shrike, 2 adults and one young bird. Wisner Road in Warwick 11/17/19.~
I got a nice early start this morning, meeting Linda Scrima at Wickham Lake just after sunrise. It was relatively uneventful, but we did have a single CACKLING GOOSE, which we first saw in my scope and then heard calling periodically while we were there. With the wind whipping pretty good, it was brutally cold on the lake, so after determining there were no other interesting waterfowl on the lake, we were happy to move on.
~These guys (gals?) were tough to photograph! They were moving around so quickly! One of three Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers at Lake Osiris, 11/16/19.~
After a quick and unproductive stop at Glenmere Lake, we decided to follow up on some of the great birds that were reported this week. We headed to Lake Osiris to try for the GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE that Bruce Nott found on Tuesday. There were many Canada Geese on the lake, but after scanning pretty thoroughly we were ready to leave without any luck. Just as we were getting ready to leave, several skeins of geese flew in and landed on the lake. We scanned again, and voilà, there it was! We did our best to get some decent shots of the bird. The light was nice, but, as it goes with these geese, the bird was quite distant. Interestingly, just like the Cackler earlier, the bird started calling from time to time. It was a first for both of us and it was really cool. The bonus for the stop was watching an interesting exchange between three young Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. They seemed to be playing, chasing each other through the trees right next to us, oblivious to our existence. It was awesome.
~Always a favorite of mine. When I was thinking about what birding I wanted to do over the weekend, this bird was tops on my list. GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE, Lake Osiris 11/16/19.~
From there, we headed to Orange Lake to chase yet another Bruce find – a WHITE-WINGED SCOTOER from earlier in the morning. It was a good stop; we located the bird, an adult male hanging out with 4 adult male LONG-TAILED DUCKS. Unfortunately the birds were just too distant for even documentary shots. The heat shimmer just rendered my images useless.
~Great Cormorant at Brown’s Pond, 11/16/19.~
Next stop was Brown’s Pond to try for the GREAT CORMORANT that Ken McDermott reported last Sunday. Fortunately, the bird was still present and after a little searching, Linda located the bird on the far side of the pond.
~American Pipit at Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge, 11/16/19. Apparently this bird had an injury on the right side of its face; I never actually photographed that side. It seemed to be getting around and feeding well, so I’m hoping for the best for this cutie.~
For our final stop, we met up with Maria Loukeris and walked the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge’s Liberty Loop trail. It was a nice, brisk walk which was mostly uneventful, but we did have two birds that I was pretty excited about: Fox Sparrow and American Pipit. Mostly, however it was nice to get out with friends for a walk and be outside for a while.
I had a great day at Mount Peter Hawkwatch today, with the highlight being not one, but TWO GOLDEN EAGLES! The first one was a subadult bird that I located over the valley to the west of the viewing platform in the morning. I watched this bird for the nearly 5 minutes it took for it to slowly rise up over the valley and eventually head southwest. The second was an adult bird, which I also located over the valley, in the afternoon.
~Cedar Waxwing at Mt. Peter Hawkwatch, 11/02/19.~
That was the exciting part. The less than exciting part is that both birds where quite distant, so I didn’t get any photos. And, what was really unfortunate is that fellow counters Judy Cinquina and Tom Millard (who both help me tremendously today) didn’t get to see either bird. When Judy arrived, she had missed the first bird by mere moments. The second bird was a heartbreaker; it was a distant bird and I had it in the scope. Judy and Tom tried to get on it with bins without luck. I had Tom try to see it through the scope; I think I may have bumped the scope because when he looked he didn’t see the bird. I tried to jump back on the scope but there were no landmarks in an all blue sky and I never got back on that bird.
~Red-tailed Hawk at Mt. Peter Hawkwatch, 11/02/19.~
All told, we had respectable 75 migrating raptors for the day. Other highlights included a nice showing by Red-shouldered Hawks with 9 migrants. And I always love to find unusual non-raptors in the sky; today we had 2 Common Loons. As always, I’ve included my HMANA report at the bottom of this post.
~I had my first Dark-eyed Juncos of the season. Mt. Pete Hawkwatch 11/02/19.~ ~American Crow at Mt. Peter Hawkwatch, 11/02/19.~ ~There were loads of American Robins around the watch today. This one is enjoying a snack. Mt. Peter Hawkwatch, 11/02/19.
It’s funny how things work out sometimes. I woke up with the startings of a sore throat, so on my way out for the morning I stopped at QuickChek to get some cough drops. This took my out of my usual way to Glenmere Lake, and past Goshen Reservoir. I’ve done this before; I should probably do it all the time but I never seem to remember. Anyways, when I got to the corner of Reservoir Road and Conklingtown Road I could see there was a number of Canada Geese present. I pulled over and quickly scanned with my binoculars. I quickly got on a goose that I thought was a good candidate for a CACKLING GOOSE, so I ran for my scope to get a better look.
~CACKLING GOOSE with three Canada Geese, Goshen Reservoir 10/27/19.~
I liked it for a Cackler, significantly smaller that the surrounding Canadas, with a short stubby bill. I ran for my camera (all this in the steady rain!), and documented. It was a dark and rainy morning, so much so that the above shot was taken at 10,000 ISO! So, I’ve applied a fair amount of noise reduction to the photo and the result looks more like a painting than a photograph.
I spent the rest of the morning birding in the rain, an endeavor which has proven extremely fruitful in the past, but unfortunately that wasn’t entirely the case today. I kayaked Glenmere Lake hoping for shorebirds – I found none. I went to Wickham Lake to follow up on a report of an American Coot there earlier, but the bird was either gone or hidden from sight while I was there.
~Dowitcher Sp. with what I think are two Green-winged Teals in the background. Wallkill River NWR, 10/27/19.~
My best stop also had the worst weather. I visited the south end of the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge’s Liberty Loop. Karen Miller and the Mearns Bird Club had a couple of dowitchers there yesterday, as well as some other shorebirds. Well, it poured down buckets almost the entire time I was there – making for some very difficult birding. Just keeping my gear usable with all the water was a task. BUT, I got some good shorebirds: Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, at least a dozen Pectoral Sandpipers, and the pair of Dowitcher Species. Timing and my overall impression have me leaning towards Long-billed, but I just don’t know. I birded my way home through the black dirt, mostly sorting through sparrows (so many!). The rain lessened and then stopped as I pulled up to the house.
~On Saturday I had a golf game with some coworkers, so my birding window was limited. American Goldfinch at Wickham Lake, 10/26/19. Oh, and by the way, it was an amazing golf match which came down to the final putt on the 18th green.~ ~Young Cedar Waxwing at Wickham Lake, 10/26/19.~
I had an excellent weekend of birding, which frankly is not something I’ve been able to say too much recently. I’ll start with today, Sunday, because it was most exciting. While I was at Citgo Pond searching for shorebirds first thing this morning, Kathy Ashman put out an alert on the Mearns Bird Club app – she was at 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary and had located a LARK SPARROW! I did my best to make sure I wasn’t missing anything good at Citgo and headed directly over to 6 1/2, where the bird was not only still present, it was also very accommodating, allowing for some decent photos in spite of the low light conditions.
~Wow! LARK SPARROW at 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary, 09/29/19.~
The LARK SPARROW was a life bird for me – #420. It was, of course also a county (#258) and state (#305) bird for me. Huge thanks and congratulations to Kathy on an awesome find.
~I loved this bird! What a fabulous looking sparrow. It spent most of the time I was there down in the grasses but would intermittently return to the tree line. LARK SPARROW, 6 1/2 Station Road Sanctuary, 09/29/19.~
From there, I finally did some kayaking at Glenmere lake. I’m shorebird obsessed as most of you know, and I’ve had some shorebirds there recently, but it’s so tough to see from the shore with all the foliage in the way, so I wanted to get out on the water and see what I could find. While I didn’t come up with any new birds, I did have a good collection of shorebirds (Killedeer, Least Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Wilson’s Snipe). I got a much better look at the habitat at the south end of the lake – it’s good for shorebirds and it’s also vast! And then there is the magic of being in a kayak with shorebirds. If you move slowly and smoothly, they just don’t seem to know you exist and pay absolutely zero attention to you (except for the Killdeer!). It’s really amazing and allows for some incredible looks excellent photo ops. I was particularly happy to get the snipe up so close – I don’t think I’ve ever had them like that before.
~Wilson’s Snipe up close and personal. Glenmere Lake, 09/29/19.~ ~It’s interesting to me, as I looked through my photos (I took a lot!), the quality of the light changed with the passing of the clouds. I love the overall color palette of this shot and, although the bird is pretty sharp, there is an soft almost pretty quality to the photo that I enjoy. Lesser Yellowlegs at Glenmere Lake, 09/29/19.~ ~Lesser Yellowlegs at Glenmere Lake, 09/29/19.~ ~Wilson’s Snipe at Glenmere Lake, 09/19/19. Another thing about getting so close to these shorebirds is that they are all very small. In Orange County we are nearly always looking at shorebirds in a spotting scope, but when you have one right next to you, they are tiny.~~Lesser Yellowlegs at Glenmere Lake, 09/29/19.~
SATURDAY 09/28/19 – HAWKWATCH AT MOUNT PETER
~A low flying Broad-winged Hawk flies over the platform at Mount Peter Hawkwatch, 09/28/19.~
I had low expectations for hawkwatch on Saturday. The winds were not good (SE and SW), and plenty of birds had moved through during the week. I didn’t imagine there would be all that many moving for me on Saturday. But, I ended up having a pretty darn good day. With the help of fellow counters Ken Witkowski and Jeanne Cimorelli, I tallied 139 birds for the day. Highlights included 12 Ospreys, a massive and gorgeous Peregrine Falcon, and 3 Bald Eagles. My HMANA report is included below.
~Common Yellowthroat from last weekend at Glenmere Lake, 09/22/19.~
Wow, September already. The only real birding excitement today was a revisit to the STILT SANDPIPER from yesterday. Bruce Nott relocated the bird first thing this morning and reported it on the Mearns app. He was still there when I arrived; we were joined shortly by Linda Scrima and then John Haas. The bird cooperated and came in pretty close, but unfortunately I didn’t really improve on my photos from yesterday because the bird was backlit. Anyways, not too much else going today, so here’s some shots from the past few days.
~I always enjoy seeing this bird. Horned Lark in the black dirt, 09/01/19.~ ~Least Sandpipers in flight at Wallkill River NWR, 08/29/19.~ ~Great Egret at Glenmere (Beaver) Pond on Pine Hill Road, Chester 08/30/19.~ ~Red-tailed Hawk overhead at Glenmere Pond, 08/31/19.~ ~This bird did not seem to be all that far out, but this shot is taken with my 1.4x extender and then cropped pretty heavily. STILT SANDPIPER at Glenmere Pond, 09/01/19.~
I’d just gotten home after birding this afternoon when I saw that I missed a call from Karen Miller. I called her back and she told me that the Mearns Bird Club outing had a bird this morning that was later identified (through photos) as a STILT SANDPIPER. The location was at what I refer to as the Glenmere Pond (because it’s just right up the road from Glenmere Lake), but I think most birders call it Beaver Pond. It’s on Pine Hill Road in Chester just south of Glenmere Road. Anyways, I ran for the bird and joined Kathy Ashman, who had seen the bird but it was currently not visible. We shifted position and relocated the bird quickly – it was feeding in its sewing machine style, next to a Lesser Yellowlegs.
Tom Burke and Gail Benson joined us shortly after, as did Karen Miller and Diane Bliss. We mostly enjoyed scope-distance views of the bird, but then all the shorebirds picked up and the Stilt relocated in a much closer position; allowing for much better looks and some halfway decent documentary photos. I was thrilled to finally get a good shorebird in our area – it was the bird that saved August 2019.
~STILT SANDPIPER in the foreground, Lesser Yellowlegs behind. Glenmere Pond, 08/31/19.~
This morning, eight days after the bird was initially located, I finally ran for the WESTERN KINGBIRD at Croton Point Park. I was joined by birding buds Linda Scrima and Maria Loukeris, and I can tell you this is the way to run for a bird. We showed up, parked, and immediately found two birders that were on the bird. It was perched high in a distant tree line, we viewed it through one of the birder’s scope and took some documentary photographs. Twenty minutes later the bird flew in close and perched relatively nearby in several different spots, in very nice light. The bird was my 304th species in New York State; it was a life bird for both Linda and Maria.
~Good looking bird – WESTERN KINGBIRD at Croton Point Park, 08/24/19. I’m not sure why, but heat shimmer was a real problem while shooting this bird; sadly nearly every one of my shots had evidence of it. ~ ~WESTERN KINGBIRD at Croton Point State Park, 08/24/19.~ ~Osprey at Croton Point Park, 08/24/19. We had a fabulous morning with raptors, with 7 species seen: Black Vulture (2) , Turkey Vulture (many), Bald Eagle (3), Red-tailed Hawk (3), Oprey (3 at least), Cooper’s Hawk (1), and Peregrine Falon (1). ~One final shot of the WESTERN KINGBIRD, Croton Point Park, 08/24/19.~
Finally! An exciting bird in Orange County! It feels like it’s been ages since we’ve had a good bird. Huge thanks to Bruce Nott, who found this beautiful LITTLE BLUE HERON on the Wallkill River just off of Route 208. I ran for the bird and met up with Bruce and John Haas; the bird was moving slowly south along the river and we caught up with it where the river runs along Bradley Park. John left to kayak at Morningside Park and then Karen Miller joined Bruce and I; we enjoyed excellent scope views of the bird and were able to get some halfway decent shots of the bird.
~Little Blue Heron in the Wallkill River at Bradley Park in Walden NY, 08/17/19.~
I spent the early morning at Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge – I did not have anything too exciting, but I was able to get a decent photo op with a Green Heron just after sunrise. Again, huge thanks to Bruce for making my birding day.
~ Green Heron at Wallkill River NWR, 08/17/19.~~One more shot of the Little Blue Heron on the Wallkill River in Walden, NY 08/17/19.~ ~Great Egrets have been plentiful at the Wallkill River NWR this summer, but I haven’t posted many pics. Here’s one with prey, 08/15/19. I also had my first Peregrine Falcon of the year at the refuge on the same evening.~
Today was the best day of birding I’ve had in a while. We all know that BAD WEATHER = GOOD BIRDS, so with that in mind I headed out into the rain today. My first stop was at Glenmere Lake, and thankfully it was not an indication of how the day would turn out as it was quiet on the lake. My second stop was at Wickham Lake – from the parking area I immediately saw a Common Loon on the lake. I went to the shore to scan for more waterfowl and I was pleasantly surprised to find 2 Bonaparte’s Gulls perched on the boat dock. I took some photos and moved on to my next stop – Greenwood Lake, where I had 6 very distant Common Loons.
~Wow! One of 4 COMMON TERNS at Long Dock Park, Beacon NY 05/05/19.~
I wasn’t sure what my next move would be, part of me wanted to look for more songbirds at Sterling Forest SP, but a bigger part of me said to check the Hudson River. I, of course, decided to head to the river. My route took me past a couple more lakes – I came up empty at Round Lake, but got lucky at Walton Lake with a raft of 11 LONG-TAILED DUCKS! It was hard to pull myself away because those ducks are so cute and watching them in the scope was super entertaining. As I continued towards the Newburgh area, I spoke with birding bud Bruce Nott on the phone – he’d had 33 Bonaparte’s at Cornwall Bay and I wanted to find out where he was viewing them from – it was Kowawese Unique Area at Plum Point.
~Bonaparte’s Gull in flight over the Hudson River, 05/05/19.~
When I arrived at Kowawese, I could only locate 7 Bonaparte’s Gulls. They were heading north towards the Newburgh Waterfront, so I relocated and was eventually able to find all 33 of his gulls! They were on the water, just drifting northward until they started picking up and headed south back towards Kowawese. THEN, just when I was making one last pass with my scope, I saw a tern flying and actively fishing on the far side of the river! I was trying to ID the bird, but between the rain and the distance, it was just too far. My best guess was either Common or Forster’s Tern. Then I saw a second and a third bird. Bruce joined me and after viewing for a little while, we decided to take the drive over to Beacon’s Long Dock Park to try and identify the birds. I figured they would be long gone by the time we arrived, but Bruce was way more optimistic. And, sure enough, he was right and the birds stuck around for us – including Carena Pooth who had met us over there. Between the three of us and sending pics to Rob Stone and Linda Scrima, we determined that the birds were COMMON TERNS (it’s tough – we don’t get enough practice identifying terns in our area!). Not only that, we also found a fourth bird while we were there as well. This is my favorite kind of birding – it was so exciting and the terns was just beautiful to watch as they fished. The icing on the cake came when we were just about ready to leave – the terns crossed over the river and into the Orange County side! They headed south along the west bank; I was thinking they may end up at Kowawese/Cornwall Bay.*Bruce followed up on this but did not find the terns. BUT, he did find 7 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS. What a day!
~COTE in the rain, Long Dock Park 05/05/19.~ ~Common Terns fishing in the Hudson River, 05/05/19.~~In the beginning of the day, I would have been happy with just getting such good looks at these two Bonaparte’s Gulls, in spite of their crappy plastic choice of perch. Wickham Lake, 05/05/19.~ ~I really enjoyed seeing these dudes – 11 LONG-TAILED DUCKS at Walton Lake, 05/05/19.~ ~One more shot – 1 of the 4 Common Terns at Long Dock Park, 05/05/19.~
