Well, it took five outings, but I finally got a few decent shots of a Grasshopper Sparrow. I spent about an hour out to the Appalachian Trail near Route 94 in Vernon NJ after work this afternoon and finally got a little lucky.
Shawangunk Grasslands 6/16/13
This morning at the Shawangunk Grasslands, I saw one Grasshopper Sparrow, but had no luck with photos. I took a nice long walk, saw many birds, and took a lot of photos. The trails at the grasslands are really starting to take shape. They were, of course, a little muddy and wet with all the rain we have had lately, but they are MUCH improved from when they were first developed. The mud doesn’t stick in your boots and the walk is much more even and smooth. Thanks Ralph for all the work you do out there – it was nice to see you and catch up a little this morning.
The grasslands have grown in pretty well, so there are many kinds of vegetation and wild flowers which really create a nice backgrounds for taking photos. I did not have any out of the ordinary birds this morning; all birds you would expect for this time of the year. My highlight would have to be the large number of Bobolinks present, which allowed for many photo opportunities.
Saturday 6/15/13
After a long week of rainy weather and being sick, I woke up early this morning raring to go. My main objective was to get a good photo of a Grasshopper Sparrow.I did not achieve this objective because I never saw any! I went back to the Appalachian Trail near Route 94 in Vernon, NJ where we had a least four last weekend, but I had no luck. I heard one Grasshopper Sparrow, but I never did locate it. I had also tried yesterday evening – I heard and saw at least two Grasshopper Sparrows but the light was not very good with the rain coming in. This morning, the light was much better for photos, so I went to work on my second objective which was to bring home some decent photos. I feel like I haven’t done well lately with the camera, so I wanted to work on it. While I was at it, I ended up with 22 species of bird:
Mallard 2
Great Blue Heron 2
Mourning Dove 6
Northern Flicker 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
American Crow 4
Common Raven 2
Barn Swallow 6
American Robin 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 10
Cedar Waxwing 5
Yellow Warbler 1
Field Sparrow 4
Grasshopper Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Indigo Bunting 2
Red-winged Blackbird 8
Common Grackle 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
After about an hour, I headed over to Wallkill River NWR to walk the Liberty Loop. It was quite birdy as I walked the loop and I ended up with 36 species and I took a LOT of photos. The results were mixed, but here is my species list as well as some of my better shots.
Canada Goose 15
Mallard 14
Great Blue Heron 8
Turkey Vulture 4
Rock Pigeon 1
Chimney Swift 1
Willow Flycatcher 3
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Eastern Kingbird 4
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo 1
American Crow 4
Tree Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 1
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Eastern Bluebird 3
Wood Thrush 2
American Robin 12
Gray Catbird 6
Brown Thrasher 3
Cedar Waxwing 6
Common Yellowthroat 2
Yellow Warbler 6
Song Sparrow 16
Swamp Sparrow 10
Northern Cardinal 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 2
Bobolink 3
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle 8
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
Orchard Oriole 1
Baltimore Oriole 2
American Goldfinch 3
Tomorrow morning I will head out to the Shawangunk Grasslands. I am following a hot tip from Scotty Baldinger who reported to the Mearns Bird Club that he had FIVE Grasshopper Sparrows out there this morning…
Weekend Wrap Up – 6/9/13
I was out of town for work this week, so I did not have the opportunity to do much birding (actually the hotel we stayed at had a nice swampy area surrounding it and I walked the perimeter a number of times). I made up for it by doing quite a bit of birding this weekend, hittting five spots in two days.
Saturday Morning – Sterling Forest State Park, Sterling Lake Loop.
Highlights: Although I had 31 species for the walk, I did not see anything extraordinary. I was lucky enough to get a decent photo of my first of season Red-eyed Vireo:
Saturday Afternoon: Basha Kill WMA
Highlights: My latest favorite bird, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo made an appearance at the Nature Trail again. I also had a brief but good look at a male Scarlett Tanager there as well.
Sunday Early Morning: Appalachian Trail near Route 94 in Sussex County NJ
Highlights: I was fortunate enough to be invited to join Judy Cinquina, Tom Millard, B.A. McGrath and Gene for a day of birding. It was certainly good company and I felt like I learned quite a bit. My best bird for the morning (for the whole day really) was the GRASSHOPPER SPARROW! This was a life bird for me, and although we got several very good looks, I was not satisfied with any of my photos. The light was on the harsh side for some reason and most of my photos where overexposed. Here is my best effort:
Sunday Late Morning: Appalachian Trail Pochuck Creek Section
Highlights: Watching a Marsh Wren build its nest was amazing I was really happy to get the photo at the top of this post. I also really enjoyed the Swamp Sparrows perching on cattails and singing.
Sunday Afternoon: Wallkill River NWR
Highlights: For the heat of the day, we saw many birds while we walked the east side of the Liberty Loop. I really enjoyed the distant but good looks at four male Bobolinks, and I managed to get a photo of a male Orchard Oriole that I like:
Early Saturday Morning Birding
I got up early to try to beat the heat this morning and headed out to Denning’s Point State Park. I had not been out there since last year, so I was hoping to have some luck with Green Herons and Black-crowned Night Herons. As it turned out, the park was not extremely birdy on this day and I did not see any herons at all. All told I had 22 species, many of which were only heard. On my way back to the car I enjoyed the highlight of the visit, an amazing Red-tail Hawk with beautiful markings.
I left Denning’s Point and then headed to Kenridge Farm. I walked the extensive trails there for close to two hours and although I did not see or hear anything our of the ordinary, I did pretty well, identifying 28 species of birds. My “best birds” where: Brown Thrasher, four Killdeer (two of which I believe were immatures), a female Mallard with ducklings, and a pair of Green Herons.
The heat was getting pretty unbearable and the harsh sun was making for difficult photography when I wrapped it up at 11:30 am. It was a morning of enjoyable, but not amazing, birding.
Basha Kill WMA 5/26/13
Karen Miller and I went out to the Basha Kill WMA this morning and spent five and a half hours enjoying some fabulous birding. We started at Haven Road where we heard but did not see the American Bittern. We could hear a lot of bird activity at the Stop Sign Trail, so we headed there next. Right off the bat we got a good look at a Great Crested Flycatcher, which we had been hearing from the bridge on Haven Road. After that we got a good look at a Yellow-throated Vireo, a bird that I hear all the time but almost never get a look at. Moments later we had a Chestnut-sided Warbler, a beautiful little bird and a life bird for Karen. We walked all the way out to Moosehead Cove where we saw an Osprey cruising for prey. We heard and saw many birds along the way, with the highlight being this cooperative Veery:
Our next stop was the Main Boat Launch to see how the Nature Watch folks were doing. It was really windy there, but we enjoyed some good conversation with Maura and Bob Muller who were volunteering for the morning shift and saw one adult Bald Eagle and we watched the young Bald Eagles on the nest jumping and flapping their wings like mad, getting in as much practice as possible for that first flight that should happen in about a month or so.
Our final destination of the day was the Nature Trail, where we saw plenty of Warbling Vireos, Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, American Redstarts, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Baltimore Orioles.
We also got very good looks at a Cerulean Warbler and a mediocre photo too:
The highlight of the day for me, though, was certainly the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. This was the bird I went out looking for today, and to actually see it AND be able to get a photo was amazing.
At the end of the day we had identified 40 species. What an awesome day of birding, honestly, it brings me great joy!
Shorebirds at Wallkill River NWR – 5/22/13
Thanks to John Haas informing me earlier this week and also an alert from Rob Stone today, I was able to see a really nice collection of shorebirds at Wallkill River NWR after work this evening. I particularly wanted to see the Stilt Sandpiper, a bird that I have seen before but it has been a couple of years and I feel like I saw the bird today with different eyes. I also want to thank Tom Burke (I hope I spelled that correctly) who I met for the first time today. He gave me a crash course in shorebird identification and help me compile a really nice list today:
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Dunlin
Stilt Sandpiper
Karen Miller met me out there a little later and we walked the Liberty Loop on our way to seeing 41 species. The highlight for me was my first of season Indigo Buntings. Here’s a Downy we had on the east side of the loop:
Basha Kill 5/18/13
In a brave move, I went out to the Basha Kill solo this morning. As you probably know, I do plenty of birding alone, but in this case I say it is brave because it is warbler season, and this being only my second year of looking for warblers, it still does not come very easily to me. I find both aspects of looking for warblers a challenge: 1. birding by ear, and 2. finding these littlest of birds in the vastness of the rapidly growing foliage. I felt pretty good about it when I was out, I was really enjoying myself. But by the end of the morning, I had only totaled 6 species of warblers, which is not exactly spectacular. Even though I did not get many warblers, I was seeing, hearing and identifying many birds. I ended the morning with 41 species, which a very nice total for me. Here’s my list for the day:
Canada Goose X
Wood Duck 4
Mallard 5
American Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 10
Green Heron 1
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 2
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 7
Black-billed Cuckoo 1
Chimney Swift 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Eastern Phoebe 3
Eastern Kingbird 4
Yellow-throated Vireo 2
Warbling Vireo X
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 1
Barn Swallow 8
Veery 1
Wood Thrush 4
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
Brown Thrasher 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat X
American Redstart 6
Magnolia Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler X
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow X
Swamp Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
Baltimore Oriole X
American Goldfinch 6
Colorado Trip Part II
Here are ten more photos from our Colorado trip. Some are life birds, some birds we see at home all the time, all are photos that felt were worth sharing.
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Bobolink
I went to Wallkill River NWR and walked the Liberty Loop this morning. I went out primarily looking for warblers, but I only managed to find several Yellow Warblers and Common Yellowthroats. I was pleasantly surprised to find my first Bobolinks of the season, and to make it even better they were within decent photo distance. These photos are a bit noisy; I had the ISO very high because the morning was very gray.
