Day 276: October 2nd – Autumn in New York

Rainy, cool but calm

    

       A touch of autumn is definitely in the air as we head out this chilly and rainy morning to bird Goosepond Mountain State Park in Chester, NY.  Truly, today’s blog may better be titled “Singing in the Rain”, and if it were May and the birds were in full voice, I would have chosen that over the song for which today’s entry is named.  Anyway, the day started out with threatening skies and horrible lighting for photographing or even just observing birds for that matter.  When the skies are gray, there is a certain glare and most of the birds always seem to be backlit, showing little definition in the coloration of their plumage.  Without song to guide us at this time of year, a day like today is a birder’s nightmare.  But as they say, a bad day of birding is better than a good day at work.

       While not great for seeing the birds, these days of dark misty weather offer us something a little different from the warm bright days, and the change of pace is somehow refreshing.  With all my complaining, we still managed to find just under 40 species with some fairly good looks at some warblers, towhees and sparrows.  None were out in light decent enough to be captured on my instrument of choice today, the little SONY Point and Shoot.  Too dark and too long a hike to carry the really big guns and my other camera is still in the shop.  So, you take what you've got and go with it.

      I tried to capture the feeling of the day with several shots of the beautiful rustic landscape preserved in the 1500+ acres here at Goosepond.  With a variety of habitat including woodlands, marsh, riparian, and meadows, there is always something to see if you wait for the movement of the birds and train your binoculars on those spots.  A rustle high in the cedars may well produce waxwings.  The movement in the cattails turns out to be a swamp sparrow while a Common yellowthroat is seen scurrying from shrub to shrub along the trailside.

       Even in this subdued light, the colors of autumn are beginning to emerge as the days grow shorter and the hours of darkness are greater each day.  The brilliant red leaves of the Virginia creeper (above) on this tree bear testimony to the changing of the seasons as do the blooming New York Asters along the trail.

       And so, while not ideal conditions for capturing images of birds, such a day still has much to offer and its beats the daylights out of sitting in front of the flat screen watching “Days of our Lives”.  Autumn in New York….what a great time to get out and into the woods, regardless of the weather.