Sunny, low 80s and
calm
It’s a beautiful day to return
to the Hudson Valley. En route
from Long Beach Island, we took a detour and headed down to Piermont Pier. The pier juts out into the Hudson from
Piermont Marsh, a site used by the Hudson River National Estuarine Research
Reserve to study the brackish tidal marsh, shallows and intertidal flats found
in this 1,017 acres site.
In the past, some New York
rarities such as a Snowy owl, Iceland and Ivory gulls have shown up at the
reserve, and it is always worth the effort to scour the flats at low tide and
see if any migrants have made it into the area.
As we drove out on the
causeway this afternoon, our first sighting was of a Great egret standing on a
log which extended out into the shallow shoreline of the river. While not exactly rare in these parts,
it is always a pleasure to see one of these alabaster beauties gracing our
shorelines.
The next birds to appear were
the multitudes of Ring-billed gulls and Double-crested cormorants. As the seasons wear on, the DC’s will
eventually head south and be replaced by mostly Great cormorants. That will not happen for some time yet,
however, and for now, if you see a cormorant, you can be pretty sure it’s a DC.
Next up, a not so common
shorebird, the Semi-palmated plover.
The bird closely resembles the more common Killdeer, but is adorned by only
one thick black necklace rather then the double rings of the Killdeer.
Finally, the most common of
all our waterfowl found on the Hudson at this time of year, the Canada geese
and the Mallards. Very few male
mallards were on the water at Piermont today for whatever reason. But the numbers of females made for a
relatively high count. These will
also play second-fiddle later on in the year when the more scarcely seen
northern species will appear and take center stage. For now, however, it’s still the mallards that will be the
stars of the waterfowl show.
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