Day 337: December 3rd – Cranes on Missionland Road

Sunny, warm (high 50s) and breezy

       It used to be that to find Sandhill Cranes in southeastern New York was a huge deal.  When you look at the maps of the migratory paths that these cranes generally follow on their migration from their breeding grounds far to the west and north.

(map from www.aldoleopold.org)

      And yet, in the recent past, the cranes have shown up in small numbers but with some regularity here in New York.  Today, we found a group of four far out in the fields along Missionland Road in Pine Island.  The birds were a quite a distance, but with the spotting scopes, one of our observers pointed out that two of the four had rusty coloration along their sides while the other two did not.  Adults will daub their flanks with rust colored mud perhaps to make themselves more attractive to their mates or to blend in more with their habitat.  Their family groups show amazing fidelity to one another and very often, we find the parents and young (called colts) traveling together.  Was this a family?  No proof, but I surely think that is a good possibility.

     It was great to see the cranes back in New York for what will more than likely be a brief stop-over on their way south to Florida or New Mexico.  Many of the birds we observe throughout the year are “regulars” so when visitors like these cranes show up it is a real treat.

       One of our fellow birders who had shown up while we were observing the cranes mentioned that they had just come from a not-to-distant location where they had photographed a leucistic Red-tailed hawk.  (Leucitic birds lack much of the normal pigment found in their feathers and thus appear almost pure white). We could easily include this location on our route home, so we decided to give that a try as these plumage aberrations are as rare or more so than the cranes we had just been watching.  As we departed, we found an American kestrel perched on the wires above looking for insects, small mammals, or even a small bird to satisfy its apatite.

       Some American crows had found an easier way to sate their hunger.  They had all descended upon a patch of squash that had been left in the farm fields.  These fields certainly provide a bounty for so many of the birds during these colder months when food is often scarce.

       We finally made it down to the area in Warwick where the white hawk was supposed to be found.  We quickly found out why this is such good hawk territory as the wide open fields would supply plenty of mice and voles, but also a fine supply of squab should the hawks be so inclined. One of the trees appeared to have been decorated with the Mourning doves for the holidays. 

        We searched for quite some time and we did come across a good number of red-tails, but the white leucistic eluded us.  We now know that the bird is no stranger to this area, so we will revisit and attempt to capture an image of this bird in the future.