Day 240: August 27th – Oil City Road

Overcast with periods of rain, high 85

       On our way out to Oil City Road and the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge, we passed by another sod farm area along Turtle Bay Road in New Hampton, NY.  This area will be pretty productive later on during the fall migration, and we just wanted to check it out at this early date.  The timothy hay makes a nice foreground in the landscape shot of the fields in this area, but as for the shorebirds that will be here, it is still too early.

       From here, we traveled on to Johnson Road and the animal farm where a wild variety of camels, donkeys, domestic waterfowl, peacocks, and others can be found.  We also find more interesting shore birds here in the shallow ponds and puddles on the grounds of the farm in the fall.  Today, plenty of Canada geese and hundreds of European starlings.  Most of the starlings are in their fall colors now having recently molted into their white tipped finery.  During the winter, the tips will weather away and the birds will become mostly black.  Notice on this photo that the bill is black.  This is another feature of the starling that is a seasonal change since during the summer months, the bill is yellow.

       In amongst the starlings was an American kestrel perched in a bare tree.  The warm brown back of this bird indicated to us that this was a female.  The male would have had a slate-blue back.  We ended up seeing three more of these birds, our littlest falcon…..small in size but big on attitude and fierceness. 

       When we finely arrived at the observation deck on Oil City Road in Pine Island, we scanned the water for early arriving shorebirds.  The water is really low right now because of the dry and hot summer we have experienced.  These conditions are actually quite good for the waders as the bait fish upon which they feed are corralled into small shallow pools.  We found a Great blue heron and a Solitary sandpiper working the flats.

       I then walked down the north trail in search of sparrows.  What I found were quite a few bobolinks in fall plumage.  These birds look quite a bit different now than they did a few months ago.  To see why these birds are here, check out the migration patterns as seen at the following web site

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/occurrence-maps/bobolink

       Further along, I found another heron, or I should say another group of herons.  Three green herons were all perched along one of the canals that helps to bring water to the local farms.  Last year, these fields were severely flooded as Hurrican Irene rolled through.  This year, not enough water!  Mother Nature can be fickle.

       And so, although not abundant, it does appear that the migrants are beginning to trickle in and the long hot summer doldrums may be fading away at last.