January 1 - The New Year

Shawangunk Ridge as seen from the Shawangunk Grasslands NWR

       It's the first day of 2019 and in an effort to get some northeastern birds on the new year's list, I spent much of the day traveling through Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties.  I was concentrating on birds that are not easily found in the south as we will be heading down to Florida in the near future.  My goals were the Golden eagle on Storm King Mountain, Canvasback ducks on the Hudson, Redpolls and Evening Grosbeaks in Parkville in Sullivan County and finally Short-eared owls at the Grasslands in Ulster county.  The skies were clear, but the winds were quite blustery with gusts approaching 40 MPH.  My first stop on Storm King Mountain proved what the meteorologists had forecast....I felt like I was going to be blown off the mountain.  I had to hang on to my spotting scope for dear life and the view through the finder was like looking into a blender.  I did scan the mountainside for quite a long time before I conceded that the winds were even too strong for the Golden eagle.  The bird was nowhere in sight.  That made me 0 for 1 so far.

       Next stop, Hudson River at Newburgh.  The site was alive with avian life....Ring-billed gulls, Feral pigeons, a few House sparrows, and in the middle of the masses on the river was a lone Canvasback.  The duck floated in close proximity to the shore and gave me nice shooting opportunities.   The lighting was not the best, but with some changing of position on both my and the duck's parts, he was finally in splendid illumination.  I'm always looking to get a gleam from the birds's eyes to confirm perfect lighting conditions, so when I saw the sparkle in his eye, I quickly shot.  I was not disappointed in the result. Nice bird for the first day of the new list!

     From here, it was a long drive out to Sullivan County and the hamlet of Parksville.  There is a homeowner in that town who has regularly lured such great birds as Redpolls and Evening grosbeaks in with her feeders.  The site is well known by birders from all over the state and she has always been so gracious as to welcome us onto her property to enjoy the sights.  So after an hour and 15 minute drive through the foothills of the Catskills, I approached the home with great anticipation.  There's an old saying about birds having wings and tending to use them.  Apparently, the winy conditions were not favorable for either of my target species, and after an hour and a half of waiting and watching, I ended up with two new species for the Year-list...Tufted titmouse and Black-capped chickadee (2 birds I regularly find at my backyard feeders at home).

     Time to head over to the Shawangunk Grasslands NWR where Sharon and I had wonderful looks at Short-eared owls and Northern harriers just several days ago.  I was pretty confident I could find these birds today as the wind does not really phase them.  In fact, I believe that the harriers actually "enjoy" flying in stiff winds.  It took a little while for the show to begin, but after 20 minutes or so, the harriers began to show up in nice numbers.  Once again, they flew in close enough to allow me to capture their images in nice light.  The owls were once again distant and I had no luck photographing them.  Nonetheless, the harrier images made the trip worth while.

       While enjoying the show at the Grasslands, a good friend Ralph who serves as the steward of the property, came over to tell me of a sighting of a Northern shrike, aka "Butcher-bird" for it's unconventional method of storing its prey, at the other end of the preserve.  He led me over and despite his best efforts and intentions, the bird failed to appear.  So for the day, I averaged around .500 in hits and misses.  Nonetheless it's never is really a "bad" day when you're out in the field pursuing your favorite passion.  And that was certainly the case for today, the first day of 2019.