At least 6 Short-eared owls were present at the Shawangunk Grasslands NWR on Saturday and many N Harriers as well. I haven't seen any Rough- legged Hawks since January 9th. There were at least 20 birders, all of whom should have gotten nice looks at the Owls.
I also wondered about the photographer (see Peter Relson's post below) driving all over the refuge in his blue Dodge Ram 1500 truck with a utility cap. The gate was locked and I don't know how he got in, unless he somehow was there with permission of the refuge managers. He was not driving on the runways and I saw his wheels spinning in the soft ground on a number of occasions. He drove very close to a group of 3 Short-ears sitting on the same branch of a deciduous tree. We'll see how long the Owls hang around after this evening's weather and the recent photographic encroachment. Christine Guarino New Paltz, NY On Jan 16, 2010, at 7:44 PM, Peter Relson wrote: > It was an almost balmy 40 degrees this afternoon at the > ex-"Galeville airport". > > We arrived about 4:15, to find a group of folks observing 3 short- > eared owls in a fairly distant tree. And one photographer in a > vehicle driving within the refuge (not sure how he got in, or out > for that matter). > > Overall, we saw 4-5 owls, about a dozen harriers, and one dark-morph > rough-legged hawk. > > The owls were hunting by 4:45. > > Peter Relson & Carol Anderson > Ulster Park > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > __._,_.___ > Reply to sender | Reply to group > Messages in this topic (13) > RECENT ACTIVITY: New Members 1 > Visit Your Group Start a New Topic > To visit the Mid-Hudson Birds web site go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MidHudsonBirds > Post message: midhudsonbi...@yahoogroups.com > Subscribe: midhudsonbirds-subscr...@yahoogroups.com > Unsubscribe: midhudsonbirds-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com > List owner: midhudsonbirds-ow...@yahoogroups.com > > MARKETPLACE > Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living > > Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use > . > > __,_._,___ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
