{"id":2299,"date":"2014-02-01T19:17:10","date_gmt":"2014-02-02T00:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=2299"},"modified":"2014-02-01T19:17:10","modified_gmt":"2014-02-02T00:17:10","slug":"orange-county-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=2299","title":{"rendered":"Orange County Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Song<\/a>
Song Sparrow on the Liberty Loop at Wallkill River NWR, 2\/1\/14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I woke up before sunrise this morning and headed out; I was going to spend the morning birding in southern Orange County. My first stop was at Wallkill River NWR<\/a>, where I walked the Liberty Loop for the first time in a while. The weather had finally warmed up a bit after the extended cold spell, so it felt really good to be outside and walking the trail. During my walk I had many of the expected birds for this time of year, but the highlight of my hike was seeing a Coyote crossing the marsh.<\/p>\n

\"It's<\/a>
It’s amazing to me how easily this Coyote disappeared from view in the marsh. Still it was a thrill to see, Coyote out at Wallkill River NWR just after sunrise, 2\/1\/14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After walking the loop, I did a car tour of Pines Island and the Black Dirt Region. I hit many of my usual stops as well as some of new ones, such as Cedar Swamp Road, where I saw a couple of falconers flying their birds way off in the distance, and not surprisingly, I did not have any luck with the pair of Snowy Owls that were reported there. I ended up with 26 species for the day which I don’t think is too bad for not being anywhere near open water all day. Species highlights for the morning included seeing the same Snowy Owl that I’ve been seeing all week and a pair of LAPLAND LONGSPURS in a flock of approximately 45 Horned Larks. The real highlight for me, however was running into several birders I know while viewing the Snowy Owl. It was good to spend time and shoot the breeze with fellow Mearns Bird Club <\/a>members Gerhard and Tracey, as well as Jack Austin and Linda – they are all such nice folks.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A Rough-legged Hawk flies over, Black Dirt Region 2\/1\/14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"American<\/a>
American Kestrel in flight, Black Dirt, 2\/1\/14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I<\/a>
I will keep posting Snowy Owl shots whenever I get them, not matter how distant. I can’t get enough of this bird! Black Dirt Region, 2\/1\/14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here’s my list for the morning, the numbers are a bit rough since I totaled everything I saw while I was out, but I definitely was very conservative with my counts.<\/p>\n

\"It's<\/a>
It’s not very often an American Kestrel flies towards me. This one was flushed by another vehicle, Black Dirt, 2\/1\/14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Canada Goose \u00a01000
\nTurkey Vulture \u00a01
\nNorthern Harrier \u00a03
\nRed-tailed Hawk \u00a08
\nRough-legged Hawk \u00a05
\nRock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) \u00a014
\nMourning Dove \u00a02
\nRed-bellied Woodpecker \u00a02
\nDowny Woodpecker \u00a02
\nNorthern Flicker \u00a03
\nAmerican Kestrel \u00a02
\nBlue Jay \u00a02
\nAmerican Crow \u00a0500
\nHorned Lark \u00a060
\nBlack-capped Chickadee \u00a02
\nTufted Titmouse \u00a02
\nWhite-breasted Nuthatch \u00a03
\nAmerican Robin \u00a018
\nNorthern Mockingbird \u00a01
\nEuropean Starling \u00a080
\nLapland Longspur \u00a02
\nAmerican Tree Sparrow \u00a010
\nSong Sparrow \u00a020
\nDark-eyed Junco \u00a055
\nNorthern Cardinal \u00a02
\nHouse Sparrow \u00a012<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a>
American Kestrel perched on some farm equipment. Black Dirt, 2\/1\/14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Red-tailed<\/a>
Red-tailed Hawk shot through the grasses at Round Hill Road, Florida NY, 2\/1\/14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

I woke up before sunrise this morning and headed out; I was going to spend the morning birding in southern Orange County. My first stop was at Wallkill River NWR, where I walked the Liberty Loop for the first time in a while. The weather had finally warmed up a bit after the extended cold … Continue reading “Orange County Saturday”<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,19,12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orangecounty","category-photos","category-raptors","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-B5","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299","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=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2317,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions\/2317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}