[nysbirds-l] NYSOA St. Lawrence Valley Field Trip
1/13/13 St. Lawrence County locations (7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.) On Sunday, eighteen people attended the NYS Ornithological Association's field trip held in the St. Lawrence Valley to view winter bird visitors. St. Lawrence County had record-breaking warm temperatures on Saturday and came close to breaking records on Sunday. The Sunday temperatures, both low and high for the day, were over 30 degrees higher than average! It was in the high 50s. We had some rain in the morning and then thick fog over the snow and open water around the county. The St. Lawrence River is mostly open water. Normally, at this time of year, waterfowl and gulls can be found congregated at the open water near Moses-Saunders Dam (Massena), viewed from Hawkins Point, but with the river mostly open, waterfowl and gulls are scattered. The field trip was a car-birding excursion across the northern section of St. Lawrence County. We formed a train of 5 cars and drove a circuit from Canton to Rensselaer Falls to Ogdensburg to Lisbon to Madrid to Waddington to Massena to Winthrop to Potsdam and back to Canton! The birding itinerary took us through villages, shrubby habitat, open farm country (which ended up being "fog" country on Sunday!), river edge, swamps, and deciduous forest. We had 4 walkie-talkies (thanks to Ann Spencer and Mary Normandia) which helped communication between cars. Car-birding has its comical challenges - when someone sees a bird and asks you to stop the car (suddenly) and you hope the car behind doesn't ram into you! And then, because the stop can't be instantaneous, you get asked to back-up, but there is a train of 4 cars behind you by this point! At a couple of our stops, in front of someone's house, the homeowners came out to see what was going on, and we think we may have started a couple people on the road to becoming birders as a result! One young man was excited that there were 40 Pine Grosbeaks perched in his backyard and declared that he was going to go inside and google "Pine Grosbeak" right away! (He also kindly offered that we could go in his backyard to see the birds even closer if we wanted.) Another woman viewed the 18 Bohemian Waxwings across from her driveway through one of the participant's binoculars! Regardless of the morning rain and fog, we still managed to find quite a few winter visitors among other birds on Sunday. Here are some of the species found: Trumpeter Swan - 3 at the outlet of Lower Lake on Route 15 in Canton (2 adults and a juvenile) (This area had been frozen last Thursday.) Waterfowl - Amer. Black Duck, Mallard, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser Wild Turkey Red-tailed Hawk - 10 Amer. Kestrel Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Belted Kingfisher - 1 at the outlet of Lower Lake on Route 15 in Canton (given climate change, Belted Kingfisher is becoming a year-round bird up north) Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker - Hawkins Point Northern Shrike - 4 (3 adults and 1 juvenile), 2 different locations on Irish Settlement Rd. in Canton, 1 in Madrid, and 1 in Massena on Robinson Bay Rd. Common Raven American Robin Bohemian Waxwing - 24 (6 in Massena on Horton Rd. and 18 on Route 11 northeast of Potsdam) American Tree Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Snow Bunting - 9 in Madrid (Route 30) Northern Cardinal -many Pine Grosbeak - 63 (15 in Canton along Route 11, ~40 in Ogdensburg, and 8 in Massena on Horton Rd.) Common Redpoll - hundreds! (We found a probable Hoary Redpoll in a large flock in Canton, but it was at a distance high in a tree.) One of the Pine Grosbeaks in Ogdensburg was an adult male. This was the first adult male that I've seen this winter! This is certainly the most unusual irruption I've ever observed for this species. I assume the adult males stayed north since I hear it is the same case in VT, NH, and ME - birders only viewing females and young birds. There is a lot of fruit left on the trees in Ogdensburg, so Pine Grosbeaks will probably be there all winter. The birds are located by the St. Lawrence River ranging from Caroline St. to Riverside Dr. to State St. to Washington St. (immediately drive behind the buildings to the left) to Crescent St. to Greene St. In Canton, I've been viewing Pine Grosbeaks in the same fruit tree for 2 months now! The large flocks of Bohemian Waxwings can polish off the fruit in a tree with remarkable speed compared to Pine Grosbeaks! It was great to meet birders from around New York State over the weekend! Thank you to Kathy Schneider for organizing NYSOA's quarterly presentations/field trips around the state. Joan Collins Long Lake, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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)
[nysbirds-l] NYSOA St. Lawrence Valley Field Trip
1/13/13 St. Lawrence County locations (7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.) On Sunday, eighteen people attended the NYS Ornithological Association's field trip held in the St. Lawrence Valley to view winter bird visitors. St. Lawrence County had record-breaking warm temperatures on Saturday and came close to breaking records on Sunday. The Sunday temperatures, both low and high for the day, were over 30 degrees higher than average! It was in the high 50s. We had some rain in the morning and then thick fog over the snow and open water around the county. The St. Lawrence River is mostly open water. Normally, at this time of year, waterfowl and gulls can be found congregated at the open water near Moses-Saunders Dam (Massena), viewed from Hawkins Point, but with the river mostly open, waterfowl and gulls are scattered. The field trip was a car-birding excursion across the northern section of St. Lawrence County. We formed a train of 5 cars and drove a circuit from Canton to Rensselaer Falls to Ogdensburg to Lisbon to Madrid to Waddington to Massena to Winthrop to Potsdam and back to Canton! The birding itinerary took us through villages, shrubby habitat, open farm country (which ended up being fog country on Sunday!), river edge, swamps, and deciduous forest. We had 4 walkie-talkies (thanks to Ann Spencer and Mary Normandia) which helped communication between cars. Car-birding has its comical challenges - when someone sees a bird and asks you to stop the car (suddenly) and you hope the car behind doesn't ram into you! And then, because the stop can't be instantaneous, you get asked to back-up, but there is a train of 4 cars behind you by this point! At a couple of our stops, in front of someone's house, the homeowners came out to see what was going on, and we think we may have started a couple people on the road to becoming birders as a result! One young man was excited that there were 40 Pine Grosbeaks perched in his backyard and declared that he was going to go inside and google Pine Grosbeak right away! (He also kindly offered that we could go in his backyard to see the birds even closer if we wanted.) Another woman viewed the 18 Bohemian Waxwings across from her driveway through one of the participant's binoculars! Regardless of the morning rain and fog, we still managed to find quite a few winter visitors among other birds on Sunday. Here are some of the species found: Trumpeter Swan - 3 at the outlet of Lower Lake on Route 15 in Canton (2 adults and a juvenile) (This area had been frozen last Thursday.) Waterfowl - Amer. Black Duck, Mallard, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser Wild Turkey Red-tailed Hawk - 10 Amer. Kestrel Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Belted Kingfisher - 1 at the outlet of Lower Lake on Route 15 in Canton (given climate change, Belted Kingfisher is becoming a year-round bird up north) Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker - Hawkins Point Northern Shrike - 4 (3 adults and 1 juvenile), 2 different locations on Irish Settlement Rd. in Canton, 1 in Madrid, and 1 in Massena on Robinson Bay Rd. Common Raven American Robin Bohemian Waxwing - 24 (6 in Massena on Horton Rd. and 18 on Route 11 northeast of Potsdam) American Tree Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Snow Bunting - 9 in Madrid (Route 30) Northern Cardinal -many Pine Grosbeak - 63 (15 in Canton along Route 11, ~40 in Ogdensburg, and 8 in Massena on Horton Rd.) Common Redpoll - hundreds! (We found a probable Hoary Redpoll in a large flock in Canton, but it was at a distance high in a tree.) One of the Pine Grosbeaks in Ogdensburg was an adult male. This was the first adult male that I've seen this winter! This is certainly the most unusual irruption I've ever observed for this species. I assume the adult males stayed north since I hear it is the same case in VT, NH, and ME - birders only viewing females and young birds. There is a lot of fruit left on the trees in Ogdensburg, so Pine Grosbeaks will probably be there all winter. The birds are located by the St. Lawrence River ranging from Caroline St. to Riverside Dr. to State St. to Washington St. (immediately drive behind the buildings to the left) to Crescent St. to Greene St. In Canton, I've been viewing Pine Grosbeaks in the same fruit tree for 2 months now! The large flocks of Bohemian Waxwings can polish off the fruit in a tree with remarkable speed compared to Pine Grosbeaks! It was great to meet birders from around New York State over the weekend! Thank you to Kathy Schneider for organizing NYSOA's quarterly presentations/field trips around the state. Joan Collins Long Lake, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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)
