{"id":12367,"date":"2023-03-19T19:42:38","date_gmt":"2023-03-19T23:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=12367"},"modified":"2023-03-19T19:42:38","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T23:42:38","slug":"sunday-shots-03-19-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=12367","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Shots, 03\/19\/23"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was 25 degrees out when I woke up this morning. When I ventured out, I found it was accompanied by a wicked, cold, strong, wind. It’s past mid-March, and winter is still hanging in there, that much is clear. Likewise, most of my birding this weekend focused on winter birds. On Wednesday evening I got nice scope views of a gorgeous Lapland Longspur; its breeding plumage was coming in nicely. I tried to relocate that bird (or any Lapland Longspurs) both days this weekend with no luck. I was, however, able to get some nice photos of a sharp looking, cooperative Horned Lark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
~A sharp looking Horned Lark shows off its namesake. Black Dirt Region, 03\/19\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
~American Kestrel in the black dirt, 03\/19\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In my travels through the black dirt, I came across loads of raptors this week. I got my first decent looks at Rough-legged Hawks of the year (better late than never). I had a light and a dark morph on Wednesday evening, and another dark morph today. Northern Harriers and Red-tailed Hawks were numerous; American Kestrels were also, but to a lesser extent. Other raptors included Sharp-shinned Hawk, both vulture species, and Bald Eagle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
~Light morph Rough-legged Hawk flying over the black dirt, 03\/15\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
~Terrible pic, but this was a handsome bird. Dark morph Rough-legged Hawk in the black dirt, 03\/19\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I also tried for gulls on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a heartbreaker, Bruce Nott had located an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, I ran for it but missed the bird by 10 minutes or so. Gulls were plentiful on both days, but for me, I had only the 3 expected species. On Sunday I was pleasantly surprised to have a Common Goldeneye fly in. I have to say, even when it’s not necessarily productive, I love birding the Hudson River – sorting through gulls and having that hope that something awesome might just show up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
~Herring Gull taking a dive. Newburgh Waterfront, 03\/19\/23.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
~I had a good number of Killdeer in the black dirt this weekend. This one was at the Hudson River, at the Newburgh Waterfront, 03\/19\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
~Common Goldeneye at the Newburgh Waterfront, 03\/19\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was 25 degrees out when I woke up this morning. When I ventured out, I found it was accompanied by a wicked, cold, strong, wind. It’s past mid-March, and winter is still hanging in there, that much is clear. Likewise, most of my birding this weekend focused on winter birds. On Wednesday evening I … Continue reading “Sunday Shots, 03\/19\/23”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23,6,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-black-dirt","category-orangecounty","category-photos"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-3dt","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12367","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=12367"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12377,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12367\/revisions\/12377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}