Overcast, mid 30s,
windy with periods of snow squalls
Well, winter really is back
and today, the first full day of the season, was a typical New York
pre-Christmas day. We were out all
day working on the Audubon Christmas Count for southern Orange County. Our results were not stellar to say the
least with the snow and wind keeping the birds hunkered down.
Still, it was a wonderful day
to be out and about. We covered
areas around Chester, Goshen and Florida, NY. We don’t have a great deal of ponds and lakes to check out,
but those that we did gave us mixed results. Glenmere Lake between Florida and Goshen gave us beautiful
flight views of the Bald eagle.
Another reservoir in the town of Goshen produced yet another eagle and
good numbers of Common mergansers….a welcome sight that portends the beginning
of the season.
A view of a group of 8 turkeys
grazing along a snow covered farm field in Florida seemed a fitting photograph
which typifies a southeastern New York winter’s day.
Another small farm pond gave us
looks at quite a few mallards as well as barnyard ducks. As might be expected, the two had
obviously comingled once too often and the result was a rather striking pair of
hybrids.
We did well with the raptors
with both Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks observed. The Red-tails were spotted once again and a nice fly-in by
this Kestrel made this photo possible.
Plenty of juncos and
white-throated sparrows helped confirm the beginning of winter as we rarely see
these birds at other times of the year.
The juncos preferred the heavy cover of the thicker forested road edges
and having seen the sharpies and coops, it wasn’t hard to question such wisdom
on their part.
No comments:
Post a Comment