The Black Dirt Farms

Golden plovers

     The onion fields and sod farms of the Pine Island area of Orange County are always an interesting and productive area to bird, regardless of season.  But this past month was a real bonanza for birders and a real bust for the farmers.  Hurricane Irene delivered a knockout punch to the owners of the Black-dirt farms as the waters of the Wallkill rose and spilled over its banks, flooding some of the fields with up to 12 feet of water.  The waters of the Wallkill are the lifeline for the farmers, but the river gives and the river takes away.  In the midst of all the heartbreak for the area, we were blessed with an incredible influx of shorebirds which came in to feast on the worms which were forced to the top of the soil by the saturating rains and floodwaters.  Baird's sandpipers,
      White-rumped sandpipers, Sanderlings, Buff-breasted sandpipers, Golden plovers, Semi-palmated plovers and Killdeer by the hundreds made an appearance.  The show lasted for about a week and then as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone.  The waters of the Wallkill finally receded and the devastation of the crops was made evident.  Onions were strewn across the roads, pumpkins lay rotting on the soggy soil, and what were green fields of gorgeous sod were brown with the silt deposited by the flooding river.  No water, no worms, no birds.

White-rumped sandpiper

Lesser yellowlegs

      In a matter of a day or so, the show for us birders came to a close.  We reveled in the incredible display of migrating shorebirds, but for sure, we would give it all up in a heartbeat to have saved the farms.  Nature can be kind, but she can be a tyrant.

Pumpkins lost to the flood