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Behind the Bins
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Join me behind the bins to watch birds around the country and sometimes in other places around the globe.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'ny'
Blue Skies, Nuthin’ but Blue Skies
We all stared at the flat blue expanse of the firmament. Not a cloud, not a wisp, heck, very few contrails even. We battled eye floaties, crinks in our necks, and sunburn hoping today was the big one; when the flow of thousands of Broad-winged Ha...
Clean-up day at Mt. Peter Hawk Watch
Mt. Peter Hawk Watch is volunteer run. And am I honored to be among those who will stand on the platform with bins trained to the skies in eager anticipation of the river of raptor that will soon flow south to Mexico and beyond. Every year at the...
Wading with Shorebirds at Jamaica Bay
C’mon, let’s take a walk. Wait, did you go get your permit? Yes? Ok then. In a few weeks, there will be a bloggy meet-up at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, NY. You are coming, aren’t you? It is one of the most amazing...
Birding Doodletown
Seriously. There is actually a place called Doodletown. It is one of the local hotspots and the one place were many of the hard-to-see warblers nest; think Cerulean. Doodletown always pops up on the local ListServ and in conversation when the...
Chasing a Ruff
Hark back with me to May 1995. I was in Cape May for the Spring Weekend racking up lifebirds when a Ruff was reported. The discovery was met with lots of excitement. My friend and I jumped in our car like everyone else eager to see the bird b...
Skywatch-Crows
“Huh-uh!” I looked around. I had heard that before. When I spied five Crows fussing with each other in a tree by the river; I hustled over to watch them, hoping they would call again. “Huh-uh!” I smiled, yep, they were d...
Awash in Rough-legged Hawks
I was surprised to see 4 different Rough-legged Hawks at the Great Swamp (in the measly 1/2 hour I had to spend there) on Saturday. Curious to see if there were any at the Wallkill; I decided to take a run through the farm country in lower Orange c...
King Eider in Piermont
All Hail the King! Well, I guess it’s more of a Prince at this point. Once in a while the birding gods smile on me. Late last night I saw that a juvenile King Eider had been spotted Sunday afternoon at the pier in Piermont, NY. It was not...
One of Those Days
I pulled into the parking lot at Liberty Loop and there in front of me was a Red-tailed Hawk trying desperately to balance in the crazy wind. But no sooner had I got out with my camera when a little something caught his eye. Rats! Or rather, Vo...
Mount Peter Hawk Watch
The morning started slowly as it usually does at the Mount Peter Hawk Watch. The temps were in the low 20s. (This time, I had bundled up in 4 layers of clothing-unlike last time I was leader and I nearly froze my butt off.) I paced the 8 steps ...
Hawks are on the move at Mt. Peter
I snapped the packet of pepper with my fingers before ripping it open to pour the tiny black specks onto my pea soup. In the process some pepper spilled onto the cafeteria table. Stirring the soup, waiting for it to cool, I brushed the pepper in...
Eagle day at Mt. Peter Hawk Watch
Ya shodda been there. Tropical Storm Hannah passed in the night leaving a chilly day with scuttling clouds against a bright blue sky. Thinking it might be too windy for migrating hawks, I nearly didn’t go to Mt. Peter today. But, boy, am I glad...
Common Ringlet
While I was in the Catskills last weekend, I spied a small new-to-me butterfly fluttering weakly close to the grass. According to Brock & Kaufman’s Butterflies of North America it is a Common Ringlet and has expanded it range southward he...
Mount Peter Hawk Watch Labor Day
While I was hanging out in the Catskills yesterday, I met up with some women from NJ. One of whom runs the hawk watch at Mount Peter. As the 3rd oldest hawk watch (after Hawk Mountain and Montclair) it is run entirely by volunteers. She asked ...
White-winged Crossbills in the Catskills
A small flock of singing White-winged Crossbills was reported from Sullivan County, New York in the middle of August, in the same locale as the Pine Grosbeak last winter. They are one of the life birds that I have been trying to get for years. Wi...
Birding Jamaica Bay
Having heard stories of how wonderful birding was and then reading about the recent rarities being reported on the ListServ; when I saw the notice about the Jamaica Bay Shorebird Festival, I decided to go. I even convinced a few friends to go too....
Birding the Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian Trail (AT) is about ¼ mile from my house as the crow flies. I have walked various parts of it, often birding along the way. The interesting thing about birding the AT is that the habitat varies from woodland, to marsh, to wide open...
Birding at lunch
I work in a windowless office in the center of the building in Westchester county NY. There could be a blizzard outside and I would not know. I try to get out to breathe the air and see the sunlight if at all possible. Four laps around the park...
Birding the Shawangunk Grasslands
Coming from the flatland, I have a longing for wide open spaces, vista, amber waves of grain, bobolink, meadowlark and all the open grassland sparrows. Sometimes I just need to be alone in the vastness of a big sky. So when I got an email about...
Wordless Wednesday
