{"id":4167,"date":"2015-03-22T07:29:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-22T11:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=4167"},"modified":"2015-03-22T07:29:23","modified_gmt":"2015-03-22T11:29:23","slug":"a-good-long-day-of-birding-in-orange-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=4167","title":{"rendered":"A Good, Long Day of Birding in Orange County"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Click on photos to enlarge.*<\/p>\n

\"~\"<\/a>
~A Male Northern Harrier, the Gray Ghost, in flight at Missionland Road, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I spent a long day on Saturday birding in the Black Dirt Region. I started the day by getting my\u00a0first Killdeer photo of the year when I came upon\u00a05 Killdeer on the side of the road on Onion Avenue…<\/p>\n

\"~One<\/a>
~One of five Killdeer in the freshly fallen snow on the side of Onion Avenue in New Hampton, NY 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

…And the day ended with nearly 1500 Snow Geese at Skinner Lane.<\/p>\n

\"~\"<\/a>
~I can’t get enough of these birds. Snow Geese in flight over Skinner Lane, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~\"<\/a>
~More SNGOs at Skinner Lane, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But I did a lot of birding in between, hitting most of the regular spots and some of them twice. Missionland Road was a good stop; I\u00a0ran into Kyle Dudgeon and another birder named Jason that I had met once before. \u00a0We had good photo opportunities with a pair of Gray Ghosts, and I found what I believe was Cackling Goose<\/strong> in a flock of maybe 2,000 Canada Geese. The bird was distant and\u00a0never seemed to have its head up, making it tough for photos. Here is my best effort:<\/p>\n

\"~\"<\/a>
~A likely Cackling Goose (at center with head pointed down and to the left) among many Canada Geese at Missionland Road, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I'm<\/a>
~I’m not sure what’s going on here with the grasses in this bird’s grasp. Prey within? Male Northern Harrier in flight at Missionland Road, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~Not<\/a>
~Not a great photo, but I included it because the bird not only has prey but is tagged. Northern Harrier on Missionland Road, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I made a stop at Scenic Farms Golf Course, sifted through a couple thousand Canada Geese (and came up empty-handed), and then saw a distant Coyote hunting in the field across the street from the golf course.<\/p>\n

\"~Coyote<\/a>
~Coyote across the street from Scenic Farm Golf Course in Pine Island, NY 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another productive stop was the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge<\/strong>, where I walked the Liberty Loop Trail with Kyle. It took us ages to make our way around the loop, mostly because the birding was so good. Waterfowl is what I was hoping for, and we did well. Most of these birds were seen in the Sussex County portion of the loop:<\/p>\n

Snow Goose
\nCanada Goose
\nMute Swan
\nTundra Swan (2)<\/strong>
\nWood Duck
\nAmerican Wigeon
\nAmerican Black Duck
\nMallard
\nNorthern Pintail
\nGreen-winged Teal
\nRing-necked Duck
\nAmerican Coot<\/p>\n

\"~I<\/a>
~I was pretty psyched to see a pair of Tundra Swans fly in and land in the refuge. Walkill River NWR, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We also did well with raptors, with the highlight (for me) being a very active Peregrine Falcon<\/strong> that spent the entire time we were there terrorizing the waterfowl. I’m not sure, but I think the highlight for Kyle was the three (possibly 4) Bald Eagles that we had. In all, we had seven species of raptors: Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Red Tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, and Peregrine Falcon.<\/p>\n

\"~An<\/a>
~An adult Bald Eagle flies over the eastern leg of the Liberty Loop, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~I<\/a>
~I wish I had gotten a better shot of this bird,\u00a0what\u00a0a gorgeous creature. Northern Harrier at Wallkill River NWR, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~An<\/a>
~An explosion of ducks – Green-winged Teals and Ring-necked ducks mostly, with a few American Wigeon thrown in for good measure. Wallkill River NWR, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~Bald<\/a>
~Bald Eagle at Wallkill River NWR, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~There<\/a>
~There were plenty of Northern Pintails at the refuge, Liberty Loop 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~It's<\/a>
~It’s a lousy photo, but I had to include it because I was so excited to see this Peregrine Falcon doing its thing at the Wallkill River NWR, 3\/21\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wow, what a day, filled with exciting birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Click on photos to enlarge.* I spent a long day on Saturday birding in the Black Dirt Region. I started the day by getting my\u00a0first Killdeer photo of the year when I came upon\u00a05 Killdeer on the side of the road on Onion Avenue… …And the day ended with nearly 1500 Snow Geese at Skinner … Continue reading “A Good, Long Day of Birding in Orange County”<\/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":[23,6,19,12,3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-black-dirt","category-orangecounty","category-photos","category-raptors","category-swimmingwaterbirds","category-wallkillwildlife"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-15d","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4167","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=4167"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4192,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4167\/revisions\/4192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}