{"id":14047,"date":"2025-02-23T15:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T20:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=14047"},"modified":"2025-02-23T15:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T20:51:09","slug":"sunday-shots-02-23-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=14047","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Shots, 02\/23\/25"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There is finally enough light in the evening  to do a little bit of birding after work again, which contributed to my having a heck of a week with local raptors. I added three species to my 2025 Orange County list (Sharp-shinned Hawk, Short-eared Owl, and Merlin).  On Saturday morning I birded the black dirt and the raptor numbers were impressive, with 9 species and over 40 individuals. My highlight was seeing 3 Rough-legged Hawks; far and away my high count for this winter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Black Vulture (2)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Turkey Vulture (4)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sharp-shinned Hawk (1)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Northern Harrier (8)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bald Eagle (3)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Red-shouldered Hawk (2)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Red-tailed Hawk (18)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rough-legged Hawk (3)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>American Kestrel (2) <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022225-AMKE.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022225-AMKE-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14051\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022225-AMKE-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022225-AMKE-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022225-AMKE-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022225-AMKE-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022225-AMKE-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022225-AMKE-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022225-AMKE-1200x1200.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">~American Kestrel on Missionland Road, 02\/22\/25.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-NOHA-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-NOHA-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14050\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-NOHA-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-NOHA-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-NOHA-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-NOHA-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-NOHA-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-NOHA-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">~Low light conditions here; Northern Harrier hunting just before sunset on 02\/21\/25.~ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On Sunday I had some things to do around the house, so I didn&#8217;t get out until the afternoon, when I spend a couple of hours at the Hudson River. All the gulls were on the Beacon side, so I birded from there. It was a beautiful afternoon, but unfortunately I was only able to come up with the 3 expected species of gull (Ring-billed, Am. Herring, and Great Black-backed). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-AHGU-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-AHGU-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14052\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-AHGU-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-AHGU-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-AHGU-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-AHGU-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-AHGU-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-AHGU-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">~A good looking American Herring Gull makes a pass at the Beacon Waterfront, 02\/23\/24.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-RBGU-2-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-RBGU-2-1-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14054\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-RBGU-2-1-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-RBGU-2-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-RBGU-2-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-RBGU-2-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-RBGU-2-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-RBGU-2-1-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022325-RBGU-2-1-1200x1200.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">~Ring-billed Gulls scrambling for some bread scraps that someone was throwing to them. Beacon Waterfront, 02\/23\/24.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-CANG-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-CANG-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14048\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-CANG-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-CANG-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-CANG-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-CANG-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-CANG-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/022125-CANG-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">~Canada Geese in the black dirt just after sunset, 02\/21\/25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is finally enough light in the evening to do a little bit of birding after work again, which contributed to my having a heck of a week with local raptors. I added three species to my 2025 Orange County list (Sharp-shinned Hawk, Short-eared Owl, and Merlin). On Saturday morning I birded the black dirt &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=14047\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Sunday Shots, 02\/23\/25&#8221;<\/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":[36,6,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gulls","category-orangecounty","category-raptors"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-3Ez","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14047","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=14047"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14056,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14047\/revisions\/14056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}