{"id":12116,"date":"2022-12-04T17:41:58","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T22:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=12116"},"modified":"2022-12-04T17:41:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-04T22:41:58","slug":"good-birding-in-sullivan-county-12-04-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=12116","title":{"rendered":"Good Birding in Sullivan County, 12\/04\/22"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My original plan this morning was foiled. I was going to hike at Black Rock Forest <\/a>with winter finches on my mind, but when I arrived, the forest was closed due to hunting season. It’s closed until 12\/11\/22, so maybe I’ll try again in a couple of weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I eventually decided to head up to Sullivan County. I wanted to add Snow Goose to my Sullivan County list; one had been reported at Phillipsport Marsh. Unfortunately, the bird was not present when I arrived. So I continued to Rondout Reservoir to try for the sea ducks John Haas wrote about on his blog <\/a>yesterday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Bald Eagle in flight over Rondout Reservoir, 12\/04\/22.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I arrived, it was unclear to me where these birds might be – Rondout Reservoir is huge! I went to the Sullivan County portion of the reservoir (at the northernmost area). As I walked up, it was a Bald Eagle bonanza. There were two adults sitting on the shore with a fish between them, as well as two young birds flying in the vicinity. It made for some good photo ops – I haven’t had a good opportunity with any eagles in a while, so I enjoyed it as well as the results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Coming in hot! Bald Eagle at Rondout Reservoir, 12\/04\/22.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just as the eagles settled down, Renee Davis pulled up and gave me the lowdown on the sea ducks. Not only that, she drove back to the spot and got me on the birds immediately: (1) SURF SCOTER and (2) LONG-TAILED DUCKS. Huge thanks to Renee for all the help. The birds were distant, but the light was perfect so I had excellent looks in my scope. Photos were a different story, as you can see below. The Surf Scoter was my 206th bird in Sullivan County. Hopefully the Snow Goose will stick around and I’ll get another shot at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Long-tailed Ducks and a Surf Scoter at Rondout Reservoir, 12\/04\/22. There are three Common Goldeye in the background. ~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~A young Bald Eagle flies overhead at Rondout Reservoir, 12\/04\/22.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~Bald Eagle at Rondout Reservoir, 12\/04\/22.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~And finally finding a nice perch. Bald Eagle at Rondout Reservoir, 12\/04\/22.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My original plan this morning was foiled. I was going to hike at Black Rock Forest with winter finches on my mind, but when I arrived, the forest was closed due to hunting season. It’s closed until 12\/11\/22, so maybe I’ll try again in a couple of weeks. I eventually decided to head up to … Continue reading “Good Birding in Sullivan County, 12\/04\/22”<\/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":[19,12,9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos","category-raptors","category-sullivancounty","category-swimmingwaterbirds"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-39q","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12116","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=12116"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12125,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12116\/revisions\/12125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}