Dear Steve/ NYSBIRDS,
Re: Canadian (or Northern) RTHA seen in the Black Dirt Region- there have been a few sightings reported. I recently been reporting a Northern RTHA (Abietcola) at the Wallkill River NWR (Sussex County portion of the Refuge) over the last few weeks. I have seen this Northern RTHA cross over into the NY border on 1/19/18 (I have poor documentary photos of this hawk on this date in NY), but have attached a photo to this listserv email of this same hawk seen in the NJ portion of the Liberty Loop for the prior day. If you cannot view the photo, you can find it attached to my ebird report- Wallkill NWR Liberty Loop (Sussex) on 1/18/18. This Abietcola prefers to the southern portion of the Liberty Loop in Sussex, but can be seen occasionally crossing the border into Orange County, NY. Very few Abietcolas have been seen and reported in the Black Dirt this season. The winter passerines have been seen and reported, but with the snow melt, the mixed flocks have been moving around, and are harder to locate. Linda Scrima Original Message----- From: Steve Walter <swalte...@verizon.net> To: NYSBIRDS-L <nysbird...@list.cornell.edu> Sent: Sun, Jan 28, 2018 10:53 am Subject: [nysbirds-l] Black Dirt - Wallkill I did my now annual raptor photography trip yesterday to Orange County’s Black Dirt region and to the Wallkill Refuge straddling New York and New Jersey. The effort now includes a count, which I enter into HMANA’s (Hawk Migration Association of North America) winter raptor survey database. Yesterday’s tally included 9 Rough-legged Hawks, all along Pumpkin Swamp Road and the fields straddling Route 6 south to Sidoti Lane (so none in the Wallkill (I don’t cover Shawangunk)). Of the 25 Red-tailed Hawks tallied, all those seen well enough were typical Eastern birds. It’s a small sample size, but does it suggest that few or no dark Canadian birds came down this year? I’ve not seen the one that wintered around Flushing Meadows in Queens the last two winters, either. We know Rough-legs are irruptive and variable in numbers. I’m not sure if anyone’s thought about that in regard to Red-tails, but it might be something to think about. The rest of the count: Black Vulture 3, Turkey Vulture 12, Northern Harrier 11, American Kestrel 2. I did see two Bald Eagles for the day – these seen on my way home. They were flying over Route 9 , in the vicinity of Croton Point. There didn’t seem to be much ice in that area anymore, but a lot still just south of the Bear Mountain Bridge. It remains to be seen how that bodes for the upcoming Eaglefest. I did my eagle trip on January 20. Just at two stops – Verplanck and Charles Point – I counted around 75. Hopefully, a bunch will still be around. For those that are interested, I saw little in the way of grassland passerines in the black dirt area. Flocks of 3 and 4 Horned Larks were it. Perhaps the current lack of snow cover allowed them to spread out. Steve Walter Bayside, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics Rules and Information Subscribe, Configuration and Leave Archives: The Mail Archive Surfbirds ABA Please submit your observations to eBird! -- -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --