2011 Florida birding begins

Marbled godwits

     We're back in sunny warm Florida and have begun our southern birding adventures in earnest.  We could not have a better way to begin as we are joined by 6 superb birders from the Cape May Birding Observatory back in New Jersey.  They are here for the Space Coast Birding Festival, but came down a little early to get in some extra time in the field on their own.  I have the honor of showing them some of Sharon and my favorite haunts.
     Today, we spent most of the morning and afternoon birding Merritt Island.  The reserve is pretty dry in spots as we are experiencing a major drought in the south.  Still, we and the birds manage to find some of the wetter areas and wind up with almost 100 species for the day.  As we wind up today's trip, we throw in one more often productive locale as the daylight wanes.  Riverbreeze Park in Oak Hill, FL can be very interesting, especially if the tide is out.  An exposed sand bar close to the fishermen's pier generally yields a nice number of skimmers and today, well, the tide couldn't be better.  As if on cue, over 200 black skimmers have crowded onto the fairly small exposure of sand and are joined by a bird much harder to find on most occasions, the Marbled godwit.  Well, not only are they joined by this more elusive bird, but it turns out that by our count, there are 59 of them!  None of our birding team has ever seen anywhere near this number at one time.  What a wonderful way to wrap up a great day of Florida birding.

Black skimmers at Riverbreeze Park

More Winter Specialties

Horned lark

     Off to the black dirt farms again as we try for a few more winter birds before heading south. One of our most reliable spotters from the Mearns Birding Club has posted reports of Horned larks, Snow bubtings, aand other winter specialties on our Group Site. We are pretty sure that when Rob says you'll find the birds along Missionland Road in Pine Island, they'll be waiting for us when we arrive. Sure enough, the Horned larks are precisely where he said and we waste no time setting up the scope and getting out the camera.

      We also had nice sightings of a White-throated sparrow, a majestic "Grey ghost" male harrier, American pipits, and Lapland longspurs. As the time for our departure for the sunshine state draws near, it is certainly nice to get these northern birds on this year's list before we leave.

American pipit

First redpolls of the year

    Sharon and I are off and running once again as we start to compile the 2011 Year List.  We won't be here for much of the winter, so we figured we'd better get out and get some of our visitors from the north while they and we were still around.  A listing from the NY List-serve noted that there were several flocks of Common redpolls in the Sullivan County area, and so, we hopped into the RAV4 and set out sights on these handsome winter finches.  We've been very fortunate lately in scoring on the "chases" we've set out on.  And today was no different.  As if we had set up an appointment with the Redpolls, they were exactly as had been described in the posting.  It was another case of the GPS saying, "Arriving at your destination" and us looking up at the hoped for birds.  The flock we encountered numbered around 30 birds and they flew to the trees most closely situated along the roadside.  Without getting out of the car, we were able to get fine looks and nice photos.  I even had the chance to try out the new video recording feature on the Nikon D300s that Santa brought me on Christmas day!

                                  

  
        Having been so successful so soon on our trip out to Neversink, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather of the day and head south to Mongaup and the Rio Reservoir to see if we could add Bald eagles to the year list.  Again, without much effort we rang up 9 fine specimens in a short amount of time.  Indeed, we spent much more time riding out to the sites than we did actually birding today, but it was a great day and a perfect day to be out in the field.  We can only hope that the rest of this year will be so productive.

Bald eagle - Rio Reservoir

The First Day of 2011

Carolina wren

     We generally try to get out into the field on the first day of the year in an attempt to get a head-start on the new "Year-list".  Today, however, I'm trying to beat a cold (thank God a rare occurrence for me), and defer to watching some football on TV while keeping an attentive eye on our 11 feeders.   Our first bird of the New Year as it so happens was one that I was thrilled to have.....a fine Carolina wren.  This bird has been a regular at the feeding stations this year, and it seemed only right that he would be the one to usher in the new birding year.  The day's list was rounded out with a dozen more typical "yard birds" with our resident House sparrows making up the bulk of the numbers.

We also had good numbers of the handsome White-throated sparrows, Blue jays, Northern cardinals, many juncos and titmice,  an occasional Common grackle, and American crows flying high up in the surrounding trees.

      We can be sure that these feeder birds will be with us throughout most of the remainder of our time here in the northeast.  It is only a few weeks from our departure to Florida, and in the meantime, we'll make an effort to get as many of our northern winter finches, Bald eagles, and other visitors from the colder regions of New England and Canada.  But for now, we'll enjoy the view from our living room window and get the new year's list started.

Common grackle

Last day of 2010

       It's been a cold December, and it is rare to see so much ice on the Hudson this early in the year.  With the ice come the eagles, and we have begun to see the national symbol here in the valley several weeks earlier than usual.  Sharon and I had several errands to run, but we managed to work it out so that we passed a number of our favorite and most reliable eagle sites along the way.  The sites produced nicely, and although we couldn't spend an inordinate amount of time at each location, we did manage to rack up 9 sightings.  At our first spot along the Hudson, the RTE 6 pull-off looking down on Iona Island, we found a lone mature eagle riding the ice heading south.  As we got the scope on the bird, we were joined by a couple from Europe....he from England and she from France.  It was her first Bald eagle in the wild and she was thrilled.  Soon, more cars began to roll in, taking advantage of the first sunny and warm day in quite a while.  Before it was all over, we had shared our sighting and some of our knowledge of the birds with almost 20 passers-by.  It always augments the experience of seeing these majestic birds when you can share it with folks who have never seen an eagle other than on the TV or caged in a zoo.  We had our next eagles at the Annsville Circle kayak launch and I managed to get a nice shot of a mature bird perched back in the woods.  As I photographed this bird, an immature flew overhead at close range.  And so the day went.  We always look forward to "eagle season" here on the Hudson and we can be sure that the numbers will be high once again as we enter 2011.  For the final day of 2010, it was a great way to "ring out the old" and get ready to start our new "year-list".

The Black Dirt Farms in Winter

  
     Orange County in New York is known for its "Black Dirt Farms".  Rich soils deposited during the last ice age have resulted in some of the finest fields for onion and sod farms in the country.  These broad expanses are a birder's paradise in the cold months of winter.  Visiting migrants such as Lapland longspurs, Snow buntings, Pipits and Horned larks are common, but you have to scan the fields carefully to see them.  They prefer to forage in the deep furrows which have been plowed by the farmers.  Easier to see and so enjoyable to watch are the larger players on these fields.  With the cold temperatures come Northern harriers, Short-earred owls and Rough-legged hawks.  Today, we only had Snow buntings in the smaller bird viewing.
     But the harriers were out in large numbers.  We sat in the warmth of our vehicle and watched as the harriers hunted the fields at some distance. Occasionally, one would pay no heed to our RAV4 and would hunt within a decent photographic range.  The agility of these wonderful hawks is incredible and the photo at the bottom of the page shows how one harrier stooped down, hit the brakes, twisted in mid-air and pounced upon its unsuspecting prey.  Incredible shows for these incredible aerialists.

A long way from home

     Our friend Joe T, Sharon and I braved the wind and the cold today to travel down to Sunken Meadow State Park on Long Island in search of a reported Hermit warbler. This bird is supposed to be out on the west coast anywhere from northern California up to Washington state. This distance travelled makes the distance we talked about in my last post seem paltry.  Well, not only did we brave the elements, but this little guy did likewise. After a ride of just under 2 hours, we arrived at the site and found the bird within the first 15 minutes. Once we found him, it was non-stop observing and photographing the bird. We stayed for about 45 minutes and finally gave into the elements. The bird and about a half dozen birders were still on site when we departed. Great look at a great bird.  

     We first found the bird on the first base line of the softball field! (Maybe he's finally trying to get ""Home"!) He then moved over to a field where there are signs saying no pets allowed ( guess he can read as well as fly!) .  He's seemed to be feeding on insects as warblers do, but we have to be concerned as the weather has been getting colder and colder.  We can only hope that he moves to warmer climes before the snows begin to fall.

A Rare Visitor from the South

     

      Following up on a lead posted by one of our birding club members, I, along with three other Mearns members, took the relatively short drive to Cove Island Park in Stamford, CT to find the very rare Fork-tailed flycatcher. This bird breeds and usually lives in South America, but will on rare occasions find its way up along the east coast of North America.  When we arrived, a departing birder said, "Still here! Just follow the trail down to where all the cameras and scopes are." Sure enough. It just doesn't get much easier than this. 

     This handsome bird was perched right out in the open, and although he took to the air

on numerous occasions, he always returned to the treetop where he was easily
visible for over an hour. When we departed, the flycatcher had moved to a new
perch, but was still easily seen by all. He certainly seemed quite content
where he was and chances are pretty good that he will still be on site for some time to come.  We consider ourselves fortunate to have been able to see this lost traveller.

Golden eagles over Bear Mountain

     While manning our post up on the Bear Mountain Hawkwatch today, we were thrilled to have a banner day with 4 Golden eagles making an appearance. The first was spotted by one of our number and then followed and positively identified as a Golden. By the time I got my camera on the bird, it was low and behind the trees making a decent shot impossible. I was "bummed" as you can imagine, but within 30 seconds a second Golden made its appearance flying in from the direction of "Anthony's Nose" (that's a mountain across the river from Bear Mt......not one of our spotters!) 

     This was a young bird with a lot of white showing beneath the wings. This bird was in good light and close enough to afford good photos. While we were all excited about two Golden eagles on the same day, a third and then a fourth appeared within the next 5 minutes. These eagles came from the same general area and were making a strong flight south. It was only a matter of minutes before one would disappear far to the south when the next appeared at some distance to the north. Four separate Golden eagles....no doubt about it! I've posted several shots of many that I was able to get....the first photos I've ever been able to shoot of this magnificent bird. In the Peterson Field Guide, it uses the term "majestic" to describe the bird and there is no better way to describe it!

Autumn in New York

                                                        Red-tailed hawk

      We are are back in the Empire State and are enjoying the sights, the aromas, and the sounds of our prettiest season.  Fall has arrived in full force and the mountains are ablaze with the oranges, yellows and reds of Autumn.  Along with the changing colors comes a changing cast of characters in the avian play as warblers and other migrants depart and move through the Hudson Highlands.  We spent yesterday at Croton Point Park along the banks of the Hudson.  Birders around these parts seem to agree that the migration is a little later this year and indeed we had a good number of warblers passing through yesterday.  (See Yellow-rumped warbler image below)  Of course, along with the song birds, we get a decent passage of raptors.  We had Red-tails, Harriers, Kestrels, and Cooper's hawks in the area looking for a quick meal.

                                             Yellow-rumped warbler

                                             Cooper's hawk

     The days continue to grow shorter and the nights longer and cooler as we work our way deeper into fall and closer to winter.  In the meantime, we will enjoy the splendors of Autumn in New York and witness the evolution of summer into winter.

                                                    Brown creeper

Another Day in South Carolina

  

     Well, we are winding up our trip to SC and spent Tuesday of this week at two of our favorite birding havens.....Huntington Beach State Park in Murrell's Inlet and Myrtle Beach State Park.  Huntington Beach is great at this time of year for finding birds which are getting ready to make the trip south to Florida.  The most prominent "specialties" in October are the Wood storks, Roseate spoonbills,  and Avocets.  We arrived at the Park early this morning and were blessed with a dead low tide.  The flats were abuzz with activity as shore birds, herons, egrets, and the storks took advantage of the bounty offered by the mud flats. Wood storks were all around us....on the flats, in the trees, and lined up along the impoundments as if taking part in a morning "coffee clutch".  We could have spent the entire morning just observing the feeding frenzy taking place, but we wanted to get over to Myrtle Beach SP while it was still early.

     AT Myrtle Beach SP, we found our favorite song bird site....a grove of trees adjacent to the Ranger Station.....to be as productive as normal.  Black-throated blue, Common yellowthroat, Magnolia, and Nashville warblers were all busily feeding in the tall live oaks as a Brown thrasher and a Catbird flitted in and out of a thicket of Pokeberry bushes.  Further along the entrance road, we ran into a number of Northern mockingbirds which were interacting noisily as they chased one another around the thick overgrowth.  Why there was so much ado among these mockers kept us guessing, but for whatever reason, the show was most entertaining.  We'll be heading back to NY the day after tomorrow, so we'll try to squeeze in one more afternoon of birding at the vast marshlands around Shallotte, NC where we have heard both Virginia and King rails.  Wish us luck!!!

After the deluge - South Carolina

       We enjoyed a great weekend with trip leader Warren C and fellow members of the Mearns Bird Clb from NY at Cape May and have now continued south to the Carolinas. We didn't get much birding in the past several days as we were flooded in our friends' home in New Bern, NC.

       Over a period of three days, we had 27" of rain! We finally did get a break in the weather, however, and today we visited Huntington Beach State Park below Myrtle Beach, SC. Had a number of nice birds in spite of excessively high water. Sightings included Wood storks, Avocets (image below), several different sandpipers (see Spotted sandpiper below), Clapper rails, many Great and Snowy egrets, Kingfishers, Great blue and Tricolor herons, and White ibises. Looking forward to getting more species as the flood waters abate and the temperatures moderate.   

Fall hawk migration

The summer doldrums are over and the crisp fall air has returned......OK, so it was in the high 80's on the summit of Bear Mountain today, but you can tell that fall is in the air.  Our intrepid group has begun its yearly monitoring project under the watchful eye of Joe S.  Sharon and I are part-time at best, but we always enjoy getting up to the hawkwatch and joining the rest of the crew.  Mid-September is the peak for Broadwing hawks and they have not let us down.  Last Thursday (when the Bakers were off to a wedding at Montauk Point) the crew had 675 Broadwings for the day.  While today was no match for last week, we were at least present to view and photograph the 50+ hawks that flew along the ridgeline.

While most were the broadwings we expected including a couple of small kettles (see photos above), we also had some nice Sharp-shinned hawks (below, a number of ospreys, several bald eagles, and a couple of Red-tails joining in.  As time goes on, the cast of characters will change, but each day brings new and interesting sightings.  The Bear Mountain Hawkwatch will continue until Thanksgiving, so if you are in SE New York, look us up!  Extra eyes are always appreciated.