{"id":12902,"date":"2023-11-26T15:51:17","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T20:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=12902"},"modified":"2023-11-26T15:51:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T20:51:17","slug":"the-grasslands-deliver-11-26-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=12902","title":{"rendered":"The Grasslands Deliver, 11\/26\/23"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This morning I had a fabulous outing at Shawngunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>. I had a couple of reasons I wanted to get up there – the first was my target bird, the LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE which has been seen up there this fall. I caught up with (presumably) the same bird<\/a> about a year ago, and I was hoping to get lucky again. The second was that I was due. It’s that time of year when raptors are flying over the refuges, so I was definitely feeling a visit to the Grasslands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I arrived just after sunrise; it was a beautifully cold morning, just over 20 degrees Fahrenheit, with barely a whisper of a breeze. As the sun started to get a little higher, I paused to check my camera settings. Looking around for something to shoot, I was surprised to find a young Northern Harrier, just off the trail, peering out of the vegetation at me – I was floored that it hadn’t flushed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~A frosty perch for this bird. I would have another encounter later in the morning with this immature Northern Harrier. SGNWR, 11\/26\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I walked the trails for a while, just enjoying being out. There was a good number of songbirds present, at least for out in the middle of the refuge: Savannah Sparrows, Song Sparrows, American Goldfinches, House Finches, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, and absolutely loads of Eastern Bluebirds. At one point, I was pretty sure I heard an Eastern Meadowlark, however I wasn’t able to confirm it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~An Eastern Bluebird takes flight, SGNWR 11\/26\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then, in my binoculars, I saw a white dot in a distant tree. I knew it had to be the shrike, and sure enough it was. I was lucky enough to watch the bird for a good while – it was still perched in some small brush south of the trail when I finally tore myself away. What an excellent bird! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Loggerhead Shrike at the Grasslands, 11\/26\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~Loggerhead Shrike on the tiniest of perches. When I saw this, I started to wonder if the Loggerhead was smaller than the Northern Shrike. I checked my Crossley Guide when I got home, and sure enough, LOSH is listed as 9″, versus the NSHR at 10″.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On my way back, I was hearing a Northern Harrier calling repeatedly. I eventually found, what I presume is the same young Northern Harrier, harassing a perched Red-tailed Hawk in the distance, on the tree line. As I worked my way along the trail, the harrier, maybe distracted by the presence of the Red-tail, flew directly at me, allowing for an excellent photo op. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~This young NOHA flew directly towards me, only veering off at the last second. SGNWR, 11\/26\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~NOHA in flight at the Grasslands, 11\/26\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Loggerhead Shrike at SGNWR, 11\/26\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Near the parking area, there was a very sharp-looking adult female Northern Harrier perched on a post, that was a nice way to end an excellent and exciting morning of birding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Adult female Northern Harrier perched not too far from the parking area, SGNWR 11\/26\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~One more of the young NOHA. Shawangunk Grasslands NWR, 11\/26\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning I had a fabulous outing at Shawngunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge. I had a couple of reasons I wanted to get up there – the first was my target bird, the LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE which has been seen up there this fall. I caught up with (presumably) the same bird about a year ago, … Continue reading “The Grasslands Deliver, 11\/26\/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_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":[19,12,15,21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos","category-raptors","category-rarities","category-shawangunk-grasslands-nwr","category-ulster-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-3m6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12902","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=12902"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12914,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12902\/revisions\/12914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}