Beach Buntings

During a sharp and short warm break that took temps to the high 40s amidst teens and 20s of late, a stroll on the beach last Friday brought good sightings. First was a group of 30-plus snow buntings on the roadside. A Northern Harrier working its way along the north channel shore at the west end of Jones Beach Island flew almost at eye-level just a few yards from the car for over a quarter mile.

Topping the list however, was my first ID of Lapland Longspurs. I came across a small flock in among the sand dunes. Bird books say they are regulars in NY state, but this is the first time I had encountered them as a birder. Another first was an encounter on my way out of the park with two snow geese which were feeding at the roadside. I was able to get within 40 feet and watch them from the car through the binos for about 10 minutes. I have heard and seen them overhead during migration, but this was my first close up look on the ground.

Off the rock jetty at the end of the island, there were a dozen or so brant working their way along the surf line. The trip to the shore was prompted in hopes of spotting a Snowy Owl. There were three people at the parking area at the West End when I arrived, all searching the dunes for the same thing. Snowies are regular visitors to this spot in winter; I saw one three years ago. None appeared during this visit.

At home, the suet cage attracts plenty of woodpecker attention. A red-bellied was there yesterday and three downies were on hand the day before. Regular interlopers are the starlings, but they soon tire and move on, allowing the woodpeckers back at it. Yesterday also brought a fleeting glimpse of a hairy woodpecker on a nearby telephone pole.

Another unexpected visitor was a really fat robin which landed on the deck railing three days ago, eyeballing the seed feeding area below. Re-stocking of the niger feeder is at its highest tempo as the goldfinches and even the occasional junco or sparrow attack it with vigor in these chilly days.

This morning about 20-minutes before sunrise the cold still morning erupted with the sound of a song sparrow, which loudly proclaimed the day for a good five minutes. We don't hear many bird songs this time of year and its trumpet brought thoughts of spring, which seems a long, cold trudge away right now.

Snow and Saw Grass

The bright red of a male cardinal against new snow is one of January’s delights in the northeast. Along with a mixed group of regulars at the feeding station today, a male cardinal showed his colors. Others included a dozen mourning doves, several white-throated sparrows, a few juncos, two house sparrows and a song sparrow.

Back from three weeks in Florida, it was only a couple of hours before a female downy woodpecker and several starlings found out about my replenishment of suet in the cage.

Always fun to watch, the northern visitors are a far cry from large summer crews. But during our Florida visit from Dec 27 – Jan 17 we managed to make up for the lower numbers up north by tallying a huge assortment of wildlife in the binoculars, if not close at hand.

Wood storks have returned to the Audubon Corkscrew wildlife preserve east of Fort Myers after two winters of not nesting – a disturbing absence for birdwatchers, but not unnatural as the birds require very precise feeding conditions before they will choose a nesting site. This year’s rain schedule did the trick, providing the right water levels that will sustain enough food for the adults and chicks over several critical weeks. Local reports said they need up to 400 pounds of fish to nurture a single youngster through its first few months. We saw a dozen nests when we visited just before New Year’s Day and the number was up to 60 two weeks later.

In several venues we managed to spot Bald Eagles, Osprey, red-shouldered hawks and lots of ugly turkey and black vultures; dozens of egrets – downy, reddish, great white and cattle – and the largest numbers ever of white ibises along with a few glossies. Others making the list: northern shrikes, blue jays, blue gnat-catchers, a variety of warblers, anhingas, cormorants, mergansers, blue-winged teal, muscovey ducks, pied bill grebes, moorhens, coots, little blue herons, great blue herons, brown pelicans, royal terns, various gulls and red-bellied woodpeckers. Among the mammals, raccoon, manatees and dolphins showed themselves during an Everglades trip and a river otters plied the lake by our condo.

Christmas 08

The staccato bawp, bawp, bawp of duck hunter guns punctuates the early morning. We sit just a mile or so from the Great South Bay and with low clouds overhead and snow covering the ground, sounds carry well. Yesterday was the first real winter storm for the NYC area. We got perhaps four inches locally of pretty wet snow which melted down a bit before evening freeze-up. This morning dawns with a fine snow falling, already having deposited close to half an inch on the frozen stuff below.

At the feeding area, a dozen or so white-throats are poking the snow-ice along with a pair of cardinals and three or four mourning doves.