Day 255: September 11th- Minnewaska State Park

A sunny, cool, breezy day

          It was a cool, brisk morning as we met at Minnewaske State Park outside Gardiner, NY for a day of searching for fall migrants.  The weather for the day was picture perfect, reminding us of this day 11 years ago when the unthinkable happened in New York City.  While we had a fine day of hiking and birding, our thoughts often returned to that awful day..

Flycatcher

       We found 12 species of warblers, many in their “confusing fall plumage” and it was a challenge which required the input of many of the 16 folks attending today to finalize an identification on many of the birds.  The birds remained aloof, hiding deep in the shadows of the foliage and uttering barely a chip-note.  Granted the Black-throated blues, the Common yellowthroats, and the Hooded warblers gave us a better clue by occasionally singing a short refrain, but for the most part, it was pretty silent.  We relied on watching for their movement to give us a hint as to where the birds were.

       As I mentioned yesterday, the hawks are beginning to move south and it was a pleasure to see the Broad-wings heading south.  We often see large kettles of more than a hundred birds at this time of year, but today, the largest kettle of the hawks was three birds.  Most of the other sightings involved solitary raptors.  A sharp-shinned hawk and a Red-tail were the only other species to show up, but watching the hawks soar on high was as “uplifting” for us as it was for them.

Broad-winged hawk

       The other main bird of the day were the ravens.  Ravens love high altitude habitats and the more than 21.000 acres of Minnewaska rise to more than 2000 feet above sea level.  At one point, several ravens and a Northern harrier were flying in close proximity to one another and it was interesting to note the drastic difference in size between the two birds with the harrier being almost a half a foot smaller.

       After four miles of hiking over a period of almost 6 hours, we had tallied 41 species.  Unfortunately, few photo-ops arose as the birds remained in subdued light.  Nonetheless, it was a wonderful day to be out, and yet a somber day to reflect on the past.