{"id":10381,"date":"2020-10-03T15:37:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-03T19:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=10381"},"modified":"2020-10-03T15:37:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-03T19:37:53","slug":"highland-lakes-state-park-10-03-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=10381","title":{"rendered":"Highland Lakes State Park, 10\/03\/20"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning I birded Highland Lakes State Park for the first time in a long time. I was a cool and sunny morning, the kind of morning where it’s just refreshing to be out. I parked where I have in the past, at the entrance on Tamms Road. I don’t actually know the park very well, so I just wandered around the network of trails, trying to keep the sun at my back as much as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
~Pretty pic of a Lincoln’s Sparrow at Highland Lakes SP, 10\/03\/20.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was a pleasant morning, and the park was relatively birdy. It was mostly the usuals, but I did have some noteworthy birds. I had a couple of Lincoln’s Sparrows not too far from the parking lot. I also had a half a dozen Purple Finches in the same exact tree I had them in back in the fall of 2016, which I thought was really something. I found some trails I hadn’t hiked on before, one went right along Tamms Pond, and that’s where I found one of my nemesis birds: WINTER WREN! I was extremely excited; the bird was somewhat cooperative and I was able to follow it as it worked along the shore of the pond. Unfortunately it never really got out into the open, so I was happy to get a halfway decent shot of this bird that has been so elusive to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
~Ah ha! WINTER WREN at Highland Lakes State Park, 10\/03\/20.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the time I’d gotten back to my car, I had a total of 36 species on my list. Remarkably, three of them were Orange County year birds for me: WINTER WREN, Purple Finch, and I was surprised to see that I’d gotten my firs Golden-crowned Kinglet of the year. These birds put my OC year list up to 209, which lower than I have been at this time in the past 4 years, but still not too bad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
~Common Yellowthroat striking a pose. Highland Lakes SP, 10\/03\/20.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
~One of six Purple Finches at Highland Lakes SP, 10\/03\/20.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
~This shot is from Friday night; Red-tailed Hawk at Winding Waters Trail (Wallkill River NWR), 10\/02\/20.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning I birded Highland Lakes State Park for the first time in a long time. I was a cool and sunny morning, the kind of morning where it’s just refreshing to be out. I parked where I have in the past, at the entrance on Tamms Road. I don’t actually know the park very … Continue reading “Highland Lakes State Park, 10\/03\/20”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,19,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orangecounty","category-photos","category-songbirds"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-2Hr","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10395,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381\/revisions\/10395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}