Santee NWR

On the way down to the Sunshine state, we’ve stopped along the way to bird one of the best reserves in South Carolina…..Santee National Wildlife Refuge. We’re greeted by a half dozen of the state bird of New York, the Eastern bluebird. In various molts, they range from washed out blue over a barely buffy chest to deep azure over a rich rusty mantle. Pine warblers flit in and out of the trees grazing on the ground for grubs and whatever insects happen to be available. Inside the VC, we talk to two of the staff members who advise us that the best birding recently has been the Wright’s Bluff Nature Trail and then over to the Cuddo unit several miles away.


Along the 1 mile loop of the nature trail, there is a lot of avian activity with the highlights being the calling of the Red-shouldered hawk which flies overhead and the three hen wood ducks which I inadvertently flush from the swampy cypress woodlands I am crossing over by boardwalk. Later, we drive around the 7 mile loop at Cuddo. It’s eerily quiet as we begin the circuit, but eventually we come upon an overlook where we have our first American coot and American widgeons of the year. A handsome male cardinal follows the path of our vehicle while a number of yellow-rumps escort us down the dirt thoroughfare. We decide to pull off at a canoe put-in site for lunch and immediately find a Brown-headed nuthatch nearby tapping resonantly on a dead cedar. Yellow-rumps are fly-catching over the shallow inlet and are soon chased off by a fine Belted kingfisher. Beyond these birds is a lone pied-billed grebe cruising back and forth on the shallow waters puntucated by stumps which look as if they were randomly scattered over the surface of the inlet.

It’s time for us to continue south, but not before a magnificient mature Bald eagle passes overhead as if to bid us a fond farewell. Next stop, Harris Neck NWR in Georgia.

Day 2 in New Jersey

The back side of our 2 day trip to NJ is spent at Brigantine NWR just below Smithville, NJ.  The water is higher than any of us have ever seen it in the reserve, but that's OK.  At this time of year,  we don't expect to find a great number of waders and shore birds.  We're looking for wintering waterfowl.  Hence, the more water, the happier they are and the more contented we become.  Adding to our year list of ducks, we find Pin-tails, Hooded mergs and Buffleheads among the target birds...the beautiful and bountiful Snow geese.  Literally thousands of these spectacular birds dot the marshlands.  Among the white, we spot an occasional "blue morph".  Try as we might, no Ross's could be find, however.  The real find of the day was towards the end of the loop where we came upon a group of 9 Trumpeter swans.  We really worked hard at identifying these and making sure we didn't have something more common like an immature mute or a tundra.  But these birds had deep black bills and out of the entire group, we could find NO yellow on any of the lores.  The black of the bill blended right into the eye and the heads seemed to be more angular than those of the tundra.  And so, we made the commitment to Trumpeter.  Later, we stopped by the Manahawkin Wildlife Management Area and in spite of being skunked as far as our target Short-eared owls were concerned, had a fine time observing a group of two female and one male harrier work the late day waning sun. We have to head back to NY tomorrow and will begin our annual Waterfowl count along the Hudson for DEC.  The weather is promising to make it a pleasant excursion once again. 

Winter assemblage - Long Beach Island

We arrived in Long Beach Island yesterday afternoon to a driving rain and windy conditions. That weather persisted through much of the night, but today has begun on a much "brighter" note.....skies are clear and the sun has warmed the air to a balmy 50 degrees. Add to that the fact that the winds are basically non-existant, and you have the prefect prescription for a promising day of birding. We've travelled here in search of winter specialties which are known to frequent the area around the Barnegat Lighthouse. We're hoping for the brilliantly colored Harlequin and the usually ellusive Purple sandpiper. We decided to walk the beach down to the jetty where we expect to find most of our targets and so drive down to the end of 9th Street in Harvey Cedars. We were greeted by a pounding surf and rafts of Long-tailed ducks, all three scoters, and Buffleheads all swimming just beyond the breakers. Moving along to the jetty, we quickly find the Harlequins swimming within the relative calm waters behind the rocks. They are joined by a compliment of Long-tails, Common loons in winter plumage, several Surf scoters in close, and a lone Red-breasted mergansers. The combination of yesterday's rains, the new moon, and high tide have segregated us from the jetty, and so we hike along the beach in close and parallel to the parappet. Still, we can see well enough over the jetty to get good looks and nice photos of the birds. As we approach the lighthouse, we finally can cross over onto the rocks and walk back out towards the sea. The new vantage point allows us to get closer for better photo-ops and we are quick to join other birders and photographers who are already out on the jetty. Eventually, we head back towards the mainland and find a nice pair of Brant feeding in a shallow tidal pool. The final sighting of the morning is a fine in-close view of a pair of Long-tailed ducks in their winter coats swimming by the docks. We've been blessed with a wonderful day of great weather and exceptional views of birds not all that common. This is truly one of the meccas on the east coast for viewing winter specialties!

Hudson Valley Winters

Each year as the seasons progress and winter gains a firm hold on the Hudson Valley, a new cast of characters appears on and along the Hudson River. With the onset of the cold nights and chilly days, ice begins to appear and depending upon the year may come close to choking the rivers pathways for commercial vessels. This year has seen an early appearance of masses of ice and with it the coincidental influx of Bald eagles. Sharon and I led our annual EagleWatch for our community group VISION this past Saturday and the conditions could not have been better. Not only was the river full of nice ice flows for the eagles to raft upon, but the weather was unseasonably warm and the skies absolutely free of clouds. The day totalled an impressive 56 eagles between Bear Mountain and Croton Reservoir. The day's viewing was augmented by a nice variety of winter ducks (over 300 Canvasbacks at Georges Island) and an extended session of posing by a local Red-tail at Croton Point Park. We'll head down to New Jersey tomorrow for a shot at Harlequin ducks along the jetty at Long Beach Island's Barnegat Lighthouse. We'll eventually head for Florida in the next couple of weeks, but this is exactly why we spend the first part of winter here in the northeast.....beautiful avian visitors from the north.

The first day of winter 2009

Today, at 12:47 Eastern Standard Time, the sun reached its lowest point on the southern horizon marking the Winter Solstice….the first day of winter. Sharon and I had reports of a Barnacle goose being sighted during the Rockland County Christmas Count at Piermont, NY and headed south in search of this NY rarity. The first day of winter was well represented by near freezing temps and cold winds out of the north. This is of course augmented when you are standing out on a pier well into the Hudson River with little or no cover from the icy blast. The goose failed to appear, perhaps due to the weather which even a goose found unwelcoming. The only geese we did find were in a protected area further inland, and the Barnacle was not among them.
The river was dotted with small rafts of ducks, however….. Buffleheads, Canvasbacks, the omnipresent Mallards, and a nice collection of Ruddy ducks. Ruddies are noted for “laying back and chillin’ out” with their heads tucked down into the mantle of down. Our representatives of the Ruddy world were perfect examples of this behavior as seen in today’s chosen photograph. It seemed on the last day of Autumn and the first day of Winter that these birds said it all….get ready for a cold few months.

Another rarity

This is out of order chronologically, but I'll get back to Ireland reports as time allows. My birding friend Joe and I headed south to New York City and Queens to check out reports of a NY rarity, the Ash-throated flycatcher. The field guides show these birds to be found only in the south western US during the summer and only in the deep south along the coast in winter. Well, here he is....lost or otherwise hanging out in a not-so-luxurious vacant corner lot in Queens. After a two hour battle with traffic, we finally arrived on site and soon afterwards had our first distant but clear look at the bird. We waited for another hour or so, trying to get decent photos. We were joined by another local birder who had seen the bird previously, but likewise wanted to capture a better image than he had earlier. Two more birders joined us and showed us a second nearby site where they had spotted the flycatcher. We waited patiently for another half hour or so before the first birder came to us to say he had spotted the target back in the lot where we had started our quest. We quickly returned to that location and again waited patiently while nothing appeared . Finally, I suggested we call it a day and head back to the car. As we departed, there, on the fence line where the later two birders had suggest we look, was the bird....right out in the open in perfect light. The bird posed for us for an extended period of time as we shot numerous frames. The results are posted above....another life-bird sighted and photographed!

Ireland - Day 3

We leave our hotel for the day to travel to Carlingford Lough en route to the ruins of Newgrange. Carlingford lies between Slieve Foy Mountain, Carlingford Lough and the Mourne mountains. Carlingford is a medieval city with much of the buildings dating back to that time. We spent some time wandering through the small city. Being a Sunday morning, all was very quiet with little but a pair of European greenfinches to notice our presence. The shoreline of Carlingford Lough was equally placid with little in the way of avian life to draw our attention.

Around the ruins of the 5000 year old tomb at Newgrange were numerous Pied wagtails. These wagtails are simply a British/Irish race of the White wagtail which is found in the rest of Europe. The Pied wagtails are darker above (almost black in summer) and a sooty gray below.As we headed down the road from Newgrange bound for the little town of Keady, we were treated to a spectacular rainbow through the coach window. We could only imagine the leprechaun guarding the pot-o-gold at the rainbow’s end.
We reached our day’s end destination at Tossie’s Cottage for a traditional Irish “session ”. Musicians from the countryside gather together at this farmhouse to mix, mingle and most of all play and sing. The farmhouse is on the property of the Makem family, perhaps the most famous musical family in all of Ireland. We were hosted by Tommy Makem’s brother John. We were treated to some of the most wonderful Irish folk music you could ever hope for as well as plenty of Guinness and Jamesons. We were all sorry to leave this magical place and the magical gathering that took place. Truly a piece of Ireland we will never forget.

Ireland - Days 1 & 2

After our first day of travel and sight-seeing, we now head north to Lough Neagh and Belfast. The weather is somewhat gloomy and chilly, but our enthusiasm has not waned and we are after new birds. The wait is not long as we soon come upon wintering birds foraging through the berry-laden bushes and trees. Lough Neagh is the largest lake in the British Isles, and its waters and surrounding woodlands are a haven for wildlife. The European robin is one of the most evident birds as we enter the woodlands, especially around the edges. He looks little like our robin, but is most attractive in his own right. Great looks at a number of birds which were lifers for Sharon and me were to be found at the Lough. The Pied wagtail is a variant of the White wagtail which we have seen in Germany and in the US on one occasion. The Great tit won the prize for most colorful bird and was more than willing to come in close when a local bird photographer had sprinkled bird seed on a platform and invited me in close to take a few shots. That may be cheating a little, but hey, when in Rome……(or Ireland)….

After partaking of lunch at the Oxford Island preserve cafeteria (where by the way, we had Winter wrens perched right outside our window), we boarded the coach with Peter at the helm and headed north for Belfast. Belfast has had a turbulent past, and the last time we visited the Emerald Isle, we were not permitted to venture into the northern part of Ireland in fear of the violence that was commonplace at that time. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 brought about an uneasy peace which has been more and more the way of life for the people of Northern Ireland. Even so, there is a steel gate to this day which separates the northern and southern parts of Belfast and is locked shut each night to prevent violence between the people of the two communities. After a visit to the city, we head over to Belfast Harbor near the airport.

The site is yet another haven for wintering and migrating birds as we soon found out. The Harbor area itself and more specifically the “Nature Conservation Area” located between the airport and Belfast Lough are literally teeming with avian life on the mudflats at low tide. A large glass-fronted blind (here they are called “Hides”) allows visitors to get close up views of Black- and Bar-tailed godwits, Redshanks, Eurasian Oystercatchers, Snipe, Reed buntings, Lapwings, Curlews and on and on. Finally, it’s back to Newry and the Canal Court Hotel. It has been another long day, and we are only two days into the trip. We head back to our rooms around 10:30 and get ready to hit the sack knowing there is a 6:15 wake-up call coming our way tomorrow morning.

Ireland - Preface

Day 0 – Dublin
We arrived in Dublin about 9:30 this morning after an overnight flight. We’ll be joining 22 other birders on a tour run by Field Guides called “The Birds, the Music and the Pubs of Ireland.” All went smoothly as we were pushed along by the jet-stream giving us a flight time of around 5 ½ hours. The trip does not officially begin until tomorrow morning, but we wanted to get in ahead of schedule and get ourselves acclimated to the change in time. After getting our shuttle over to our hotel for the evening (Holiday Inn Express – doesn’t sound too Irish, eh?), we decided upon a short nap before heading out to get some fresh air. When we left the Inn, we were thrilled to see that immediately across the access road into the hotel grounds, there was a beautiful city park complete with a large pond, stream, wooded areas and a large field area. The place was downright birdy and we took advantage of the opportunity to bag our first three life-birds of the trip…all before the tour had actually begun! Eurasian coot, Little grebe, and the Tufted duck were our lifers which we spotted among some more familiar European birds including the Common magpie, Hooded crow, Black-headed gulls and Gray heron. If the rest of the trip proves to be as productive as this, we’ll be a couple of happy American birders!

South Carolina 09

This is our second year of traveling down the coast to bird South Carolina in the Myrtle Beach area. We have found two spots which are productive and are purported to be the top birding spots in the state. Murrell's Inlet serves as our home base for the first several days as it is located very close to our favorite locale...Huntington Beach State Park. The causeway by which you enter the park is most productive at low tide, but you can never tell what the area might hold regardless of the water level. This year, the Wood storks adorned the trees along the causeway entrance much the same as they had last year. This season, however, the storks were joined by a compliment of Roseate spoonbills. The spoonbills were still in their deep pink plumage and stood out from the storks without the need of the bins. The causeway naturally still produced Great blue and Tri-color herons, Great and Snowy egrets, and Dunlin and Least sandpipers as well as Willets. The other two areas of the park we concentrate on are the boardwalk adjacent to the Nature Center and the Observation tower on Sandpiper Pond. The Center has several feeders, and we managed to catch several of the last Painted buntings of the year. On the boardwalk, we found "Old reliable", the Clapper rail. Every time we have visited the site, we've found the rails calling loudly and usually poking out into the open to pose for the camera. Today was no different as the above photo shows. At the tower, we found the usual assemblage of Moorhens and Pied-billed grebes joined today by a fine Sharp-shinned hawk. Other sites to explore should you ever be in this area include Myrtle Beach State Park where this Green heron was photographed and Cherry Grove Beach's Heritage Shores Refuge which is locate just north of North Myrtle Beach. Both provide great habitat for rails, sparrows, towhees, and the usual waders and should not be passed by.

A visitor from the west

Based on the reports from Rich Guthrie via the NY list-serve, Sharon and I drove north to Thruway Exit 21B (NOT Exit 21 as we quickly found out) yesterday morning in search of a new life-bird for both of us, the Swainson's hawk. Forecasts were for high winds and those forecasts were right on the money. After a 1 3/4 hour drive north, we arrived at our destination. Rich was present at the site and put us on the hawk within the first five minutes of our visit. The hawk gave little heed to the blustery conditions and gave us fine looks for well over an hour. The young bird spent most of his(her?) time flying around the trees directly opposite our vantage point and was often perched on the road signs directly across from the exit ramp. What a cooperative subject! The Swainson's hawk is common in the prairies and intermontane plains of western US. Almost all of these birds head south to Argentina in the fall, and for whatever reason, this young bird decided to go via New York. Although it is not unheard of the get these birds passing through, it is indeed a rare treat. It was indeed a great opportunity to see a great bird thanks to Mr. Guthrie!

Early fall birding

Sorry for the long delay in posting, but we've been constantly on the road this summer and early fall and time just seems to slip away. We've had nice moderately successful trips to Monhegan Island in Maine and a more successful trip to the Jersey Shore over the past several weeks. Jersey was by far the "birdier" of the two locations as the wind patterns over Monhegan were not conducive to the migrants which so often do show up there. Using some recommendations from birder friends Della and Alan Wells regarding Scarborough Marsh (also in Maine), we did spend two days there on our way to Monhegan with much better results. Many shore birds were using the marsh as well as the elusive Saltmarsh and Nelson's sparrows. Re Jersey, we spent several days working our way down the coast with stops at Barnegut Light, Brigantine, the SeaWatch at Avalon, and eventually Cape May. Our leader for the Cape May portion of the trip was Warren Cairo, and he did a great job in putting us on many of the migrants found in the area at this time of year. Images above include Monhegan Island, and a Forster's tern and Clapper rail from Brigantine. All-in-all, the month of September was busy and productive....what a great time of year to be out in the field!

Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Sharon and I travel down to Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge with our birding friend Joe in search of migrating shore birds. Generally a slow day, but there is always something to offer. We watched as a herring gull methodically worked at gaining a meal from within the hard shell of a clam. Repeatedly dropping the clam onto a hard rock slab which from the signs of the detritus had been used for this purpose before, the gull finally managed to get a small crack in the shell. From that point on, it was only a matter of time and the bird had won a fine lunch at the clam's expense. Earlier during the day, Joe and I found a nicely plumaged Green heron at "Big John's Pond". From behind a blind, we were able to get some nice shots of this bird as well as an immature Black-crowned night heron. Nice shots of both Yellowlegs and Semi-palmated sandpipers we found at the south end of East Pond rounded out the day. The surprise bird of the day, however, was a "Black swan" we spotted on the far side of the pond. We were to read later that the one spot we neglected to bird this day, the north end of the pond, had proved to be much more productive. Well, we'll start at that point on our next visit to the refuge.