{"id":3738,"date":"2015-01-02T20:07:33","date_gmt":"2015-01-03T01:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=3738"},"modified":"2015-01-02T20:07:33","modified_gmt":"2015-01-03T01:07:33","slug":"good-birding-in-orange-county-1215","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=3738","title":{"rendered":"Good Birding in Orange County, 1\/2\/15"},"content":{"rendered":"
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-It was a shame to have this Merlin on a wire as far as photographs go. I was hoping to get a shot of the bird as it flew, but I missed out when the bird was \u00a0flushed by a truck that drove by between myself and the bird. Merlin on Onion Ave in New Hampton, NY 1\/2\/15.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was lucky enough to have the day off today, and the weather was perfect, so it made for a great day of birding. I started the morning by taking a tour of the black dirt region, where I had 23 species. Highlights include a MERLIN<\/strong>\u00a0on a wire seen on Onion Avenue and a LAPLAND LONGSPUR<\/strong> in a large flock of Horned Larks on Mission Land Road in Pine Island.<\/p>\n

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-I saw these two first winter White-crowned Sparrow from the viewing platform at the Liberty Loop Trail, Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge, 1\/2\/15.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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-Gray Ghost in flight. A male Norther Harrier at Skinner Lane, 1\/2\/15.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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-One of several flocks of Horned Larks that I had in the black dirt region. It was disappointing that I had no Snow Buntings among them, but I did locate a single Lapland Longspur in a large flock on Mission Land Road. Horned Larks in flight on Mt. Eve Road, 1\/2\/15.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also made quick stops at Glenmere Lake and Warwick Lake – I added 5 species to my list,\u00a0and I had a pair of adult Bald Eagles at both locations. My final stop was the Newburgh Waterfront; I stopped first at the Newburgh-Beacon Ferry parking;\u00a0Fish Crows were calling from the trees as I sorted through the gulls there but found only Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls present. From there I went to the parking lot of the old Torches. Immediately, as I got out of the car, I saw a first winter ICELAND GULL<\/strong> on the edge of the parking lot among the other gulls and Rock Pigeons. I was able to get much better photos than I did earlier in the week, but I failed to get any flight photos. Once the gulls picked up, it was very chaotic and difficult to follow where the the Iceland Gull went. I eventually relocated the bird on a piling in the water, but just as I located it, all the gulls picked up again. Ken McDermott joined me shortly after that, but\u00a0when I decided to head home, we still had not relocated the bird. I added an additional 5 species to my list for the day, giving me a total of 33 species for the day.<\/p>\n

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-I love this bird, what a pretty gull. Iceland Gull at the Newburgh Waterfront, 1\/2\/15.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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–ICELAND GULL<\/strong> alongside a Ring-billed Gull, Newburgh Waterfront, 1\/2\/15.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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-One more shot of the Merlin on a wire in New Hampton, NY 1\/2\/15.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was lucky enough to have the day off today, and the weather was perfect, so it made for a great day of birding. I started the morning by taking a tour of the black dirt region, where I had 23 species. Highlights include a MERLIN\u00a0on a wire seen on Onion Avenue and a LAPLAND … Continue reading “Good Birding in Orange County, 1\/2\/15”<\/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":[23,6,19,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-black-dirt","category-orangecounty","category-photos","category-raptors"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-Yi","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738","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=3738"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3751,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions\/3751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}