Sunny, light breeze,
and 42 degrees
The Black Dirt region of
Orange County in New York State is one of the finer areas to bird during the
winter months. The rich soil is
farmed pretty much throughout the year, and when the land has recently been
turned over to prepare for new plantings, the fresh furrows provide many birds
with a feast of grubs, worms, and insects.
The areas are a magnet for
Northern harriers, Red-tailed hawks, Rough-legged hawks, and Short-eared owls
as well as many smaller birds like Snow buntings, Horned larks, and Northern
pipits. When melting snow or
rainfall creates pooling on the fields, we can expect to find migrating shore
birds and waders as well.
Our prime reason for visiting
the Black Dirt area of Florida, NY today was the report from one of our members
of a Northern shrike being seen on the site yesterday. These birds are rare visitors to the
southeastern part of New York and anytime you can find one and hopefully
photograph it, it is well worth the effort to get out try.
Well, regarding the shrike, we
struck out today. We carefully
explored the very locations where the bird was seen yesterday, but he may have
moved to a different part of the fields or may have simply moved out of the
area intirely. Then again, he may
have been right under our noses without showing himself. Whatever……
What we did find was a large flock
of Horned larks. While not being a
rare bird, they are quite localized and unless you are in the right place at
the right time may not ever see one.
Today, the fields were active with the feeding birds. Sharon and I first watched the birds
from a distance through the scope and then returned to watch them from the
warmth of our parked RAV. The
birds began to move across the road to another field and in doing so, passed
right over us. In fact, several
landed in the gravel pull off where we were sitting and gave us good looks and
good shots.
No shrike, but opportunities
to get nice close-ups of Horned larks don’t come along every day, so once again….we’re
happy to take what we get.
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