With all of the e-mails about the Hawthorn Orchard warbler sightings, it was not a surprise to see as many birders as we did birds. With the orchard being as thick as it is, you would see a flash of color or a movement only to find out, it was another birding group and not the Northern Parula you just heard. After a short while our strategy was to stay put and let the birds come to you.

We saw and/or heard the following at the orchard:

Mocking bird, Turkey Vulture, Starling, White-crowned Sparrow (H), Catbird, Meadow Lark, Grackle, Blue Heron, Northern Cardinal, Robin, Red-bellied Woodpecker (H), Mourning Dove, Barn Swallow, Common Yellow Throat (H), Northern Parula, Crow, Blue Jay, Canada Geese, Tit Mouse, Chickadee, Gold Finch, Black Throated Green Warbler (H), Ruby Crowned Kinglet, Nashville Warbler, White Throated Sparrow (H), Blue-winged Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Red Start (H), Black-throated Blue Warbler (H), Baltimore Oriole, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, House Sparrow, and a Kestrel hawking in the field.

After a quick lunch at Burger King and enjoying a few comical Mocking birds we headed over to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology:

Here we saw many of the same birds, even the ones we heard at the orchard, but included these additions:

Tree Swallow, Yellow Warbler, Downey Woodpecker, Least Fly Catcher, Red-tail Hawk, Flicker, Ovenbird, Magnolia Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Hairy Woodpecker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Phoebe, House Wren, and Mallards.

We made a brief stop at Shindagan Hollow State Forest on the way back to see the millions of trilliums in bloom. We saw a few of the same warblers and picked up a Yellow Throated Vireo.

Not a bad day of birding with many quality looks. The area we birded was only a small portion of the orchard and just the trail around the pond at the lab.

Dan Dunn
Broome County Naturalists’ Club Field Trip Chairperson.

To me, weather plays a big part in what we see on our field trips. Today was identical to our Dryden Lake trip a few weeks ago. Bright sunny skies, a sharp north wind that cut right through you, numbing the hands making a scribbled list of our sightings. Also, similar results….a lot of silence in the woods leaving us to wonder, “Where are the Warblers”.

I want to welcome two of our newer members, Christina and Al. The Savannah Sparrows we saw were a first for both of them. They both had a good time and are planning to attend future trips.

We did see the following:

Robins, Juncos, Pine Warblers, Chickadees, Mallards, Chipping Sparrows, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Ospreys, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Blue Jays, Red-winged Blackbirds, Yellow-bellied Sap Suckers, Broad-winged Hawk, Red-bellied Wood Peckers (H), Crows, Geese, Brown Creeper, Blue Heron, Tree Swallows, Flickers, Song Sparrows, Phoebe, Turkey Vultures, Cormorants, Pileated Wood Pecker, Field Sparrow (H), and a great spot by Christina….a few Savannah Sparrows.

We also had a mysterious, eerie call. We were deep in the woods on our way to the back swamp when we heard a sound similar to a hoot with an uprising whoop. We heard it five or six times. It was jokingly suggested to be “Bigfoot” but we could not confirm a sighting. Al, is trying to ID it through the McCaulay Library of sound on the Cornell website.

Our platter birds of the day were the Pine Warblers and Ospreys. The Pine Warblers were almost constant in their calls. We saw one Osprey at Greenwood Park and seven of them at Nanticoke Lake. Three of them were soaring and fishing and four of them on a migrating northerly glide.

Despite the cold and not that much bird activity, we had a good time being out with friends with similar interests.

Florence Shelly Preserve, April 14 2012.

I want to thank Debbie for volunteering to be trip leader to Florence Shelly Preserve, Thompson PA. This is a trip that was a result of a request I made to our members a couple of years ago, “Where would you like to go for a field trip”? I also want to thank Ruth for keeping track of our list. We had to “bird every bird”, as it was unusually quiet in the  woods. We hiked along a trail that went along a farm field, hardwood forest mixed with Red  Pine, Tamarack and Hemlock Grooves, then down to the wetlands. The woods were full of giant rock outcroppings typical of the Pennsylvania landscape. It was of interest to me, looking (carefully) around these outcroppings for rattlesnakes, but none were to be found. Our platter bird was the Ruby-crowned Kinglet giving us many close looks and it’s beautiful song.

We did see the following:
Red-tailed Hawk, American Crow, Red-winged Blackbird, Rock Pigeon, Goldfinch, Robin, Canada Goose, European Starling, Ring-necked Duck, Eastern Bluebird, Common Merganser, Song Sparrow, Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Eastern Meadowlark (h), Black Capped Chickadee, Ruffed Grouse, Warbling Vireo (h), Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Junco, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (h), Turkey Vulture, Northern Flicker, Winter Wren, White-breasted Nuthatch (h), Swamp Sparrow, Brown Creeper (h), Tree Swallow, and a Spring Azure butterfly.

Dryden Lake, April 6, 2012.

Not a cloud in the sky, but a north wind that would cut right through you! We were hoping for what is known as the “Dryden Lake Effect”, a fall out that occurs after the passing of a cold front in March or April. It was cold alright, but not a cold front passing. We walked along the “Jim Shug Trail”, an old railroad bed maintained for hiking and biking. It has several habitats along its route so we should see the resulting birds in their habitat.

We did see the following:
Canada Goose, Mallard, Ring-necked Duck, Long-tailed Duck, Bufflehead, Pied-billed Grebe, Horned Grebe, Great Blue Heron, Osprey, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, American Crow, Tree Swallow, Black-capped Chickadee, American Robin, European Starling, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, and Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Some of the notables, the Osprey flying with its fish lunch, three Red-tail hawks soaring over head at the same time, one with a rodent lunch, and the Long-tailed Duck was a life bird for me.

Dan Dunn
Broome County Naturalists’ Club Field Trip Coordinator.

Forcast: Sunny, mid 60’s. (Nice!)
Actual: FOG! Fog so thick you couldn’t see two hundred yards. (Not so nice).
Birding visibility…less than fifty yards. (Terrible!)

This changed my entire route hoping the fog would lift. We ended up going to Chenango Forks, over to Castle Creek, Whitney Point Reservoir, Lisle, Smith Road, Edwards Hill over to Arnold Road and ended up walking in, to Nanticoke Lake.

What did aid us, was the ability to drive slowly and listen intently for the sounds of spring. This was the trip to hear and see more Meadow Larks than I have ever seen in one day. We also lost count of how many Red-tailed Hawks we did see. We were informed by some fishermen, “Of a white kinda lookin duck”, as we presumed, a male Common Merganser.

I want to thank Ruth for keeping track of what we did see.
Common Mergansers, Red-winged blackbirds, American Crow, Rock Pigeon, Great Blue Heron, Black Duck, Mallards, Canada Geese, Am. Coot, Robin, Black Capped Chickadees, Bald Eagle–immature 4th year, Cardinals, European Starlings, Song Sparrow, Blue Jays, Common Grackle, Tree swallows, Juncos, Meadowlarks, Red-tailed Hawks, Turkeys, Mourning Doves, Kestrels, Goldfinch, Red-shouldered Hawk, Golden Eagle, Turkey Vulture, Downey Woodpeckers, and no Leprechauns. We also heard Blue Birds, Killdeer, and Red-bellied Wood Peckers,

The high light of the trip was at Nanticoke Lake. The fog had finally lifted and we heard the distinct call of a Red-shouldered Hawk but had a hard time pin pointing its location. It was loud and clear, then weak. Finally looking straight up we spotted the Red-shouldered Hawk dive bombing and harassing a Golden Eagle!

It always makes me feel good to take people out and have them get a life bird or two. Melissa was able to get three life birds!

Hope you can join us on one of our future trips and have the fun we had today!

March 24 – BU Nature Preserve

What was predicted to be a rainy day turned out pretty nice with nothing more than being cloudy. My record still stands as not having a trip turn out to be a rainy disaster.

With one of the earliest springs many of us have witnessed, twelve of us headed into the preserve with expectations of seeing some earlier than normal returning migrants. We did see some birds that were earlier than usual, but nothing totally surprising. We did see the following:

A Blue Jay calling imitating a Red-shouldered Hawk, Crows, Red-winged Blackbirds, Mourning Doves, Song Sparrows, Cardinals, Phoebes, Brown Headed Cow Birds with the male boldly displaying, Robins, Chickadees, many Turkey Vultures, Canada Geese, Mallards, Gold Finches, Flickers, Juncos, Downey Woodpeckers, Grackles, Catbird, White Breasted Nut Hatches, Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, Brown Creeper (heard), and Pileated Woodpeckers.

The Pileated Woodpeckers gave us exceptional views while we were checking out the vernal pools. With no melt off, or steady spring rains, the pools were rather small this year.

There were twenty to thirty Turkey Vultures rising on the thermals at the same time reminding me of the scene from the Wizard of OZ with all the flying monkeys.

Our next field trip is to Dryden Lake on April 07, 2012. Check out the Gnatcatcher or the web site for details. Hope you can join us!

Dan Dunn,
Broome County Naturalists’ Club Field Trip Chairperson.

Here are the birds from the trip per Fran’s list: On the way we saw Crows, Starlings, Canada Geese, Rock Doves.

STEWART PARK: Double-crested Cormorants, Mallards, Ring-billed Gulls, Great Black-backed Gull, Song Sparrows, Hooded Mergansers, Great Blue Heron, Horned Grebe, Mourning Dove.

MEYERS POINT STATE PARK: Turkey Vulture, Herring Gulls, and Harrier on the way to Long Point State Park which came up absolutely vacant of any birds.

POPLAR RIDGE ROAD: (We stopped in search of the Red-headed Wood Pecker but he was not home), Black-throated Green, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Red-tailed Hawk, IM. Eagle,

MONTEZUMA: Wood Duck, Black Duck, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeers, Blue-winged Teal, Male Harrier, Adult Eagle, Northern Shovelers, Wilson’s Phalarope, American Coots, Pied-billed Grebes, and a couple thousand Northern Pintails.

MAYS POINT: (By this time, we were facing gail force winds making it hard to even stand let alone look through binoculars without supporting them.) Gadwall, Blue Heron, Harrier, Great Egret.

KNOX MARSH: Snow Geese, Greater Black-backed Gull, Eagles 2 adults and one IM. feeding on what looked like a dead goose. Northern Pintail Ducks, Harrier, Canada Geese, Trumpeter Swan, Great Egret, Tree Swallow. It was comical to watch the eagles fly into the wind going no where fast like being on a treadmill.

DEANS COVE: 3 Common Loons, Raft of Cormorants, Chickadees, Cardinal and Blue Jay

Wish you could have been with us!

Dan Dunn
Broome County Naturalists’ Club Field Trip Chairperson

Sept 14—Aqua Terra With all the road closures we decided to stay close to home. As we drove into the Park we saw a Scarlet Tanager right next to the road. Getting out to get a better look we also got Nashville, Canada Warbler, Magnolia, Golden-crown Kinglet and Red-eye Vireo. Nice stop thanks to the Tanager. Other good birds Hairy, Red-tail and Cardinal.

Sept 21—On the road A pretty slow day. Things just were not cooperating with us today. Then we got 28 TVs at the Leekville marsh, which we quickly found out is on the back side of the landfill. As we passed the landfill, we heard the call of a Fish Crow and then we saw a lot of Fish Crows. As we left that area, a Raven sent us away with a nice loud CROAK. Scarlet Tanager and Brown Thrasher were added to our highlights.

Sept 28—Dorchester Park Dorchester was very quiet. The surrounding roads did, however, give us the best birding of the month. We got 40+ birds. A nice flock of 8 Meadowlarks, Cedar Waxwing to the tune of 200+, well over 3 dozen Kestrels, two male N. Harriers. Then we added some nice warblers, like Magnolia, Nashville, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Green and Palm.

Dan Watkins, Weed Walk Chairperson

Aug 10–Broome Roads
Starting at the Airport we got a Snow Goose, Least Sandpiper and Lesser Yellowlegs. Wood Duck, Kestrel, Sapsucker, Indigo, Bobolink and Kingbird rounded out the highlight birds.

Aug 17–Vestal Parks
Mittendorf Park gave us a small group of birds like House Wrens and Nashville Warbler. Old Man softball game was going on at Moore Park, but we watched the Great Egret and Snow Goose. Least Sandpiper, Waxwing, Flicker and Cardinal were some of the highlights.

Aug 24–Sky Lake
Always a nice walk around the lake. While hiking we got Wood Thrush. Kingbird and several Warbler. The best look was a Black-throated Blue. We hit our resident P. Falcon for the 160th bird of the year. The day ended with a nice Bald Eagle over NYSEG.

Aug.–31–Dorchester
We hit Dorchester, but alas, it was very quiet. Kale St. gave us Scarlet Tanager and a bright B. Oriole. Counted two dozen Kestrels. A hummer and Kingbird helped make the day.

Dan Watkins

For our last field trip of the spring season we went to Oakley Corners State Land. As usual for June, the leaves were out in full and made visual identification very difficult. So we turned to Avian Auditory Identification and did quite well.

Here is what we found:

Cardinals, Chipping Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Robins, Yellow Rumped Warblers, Baltimore Orioles, Red Eyed Verios, Chickadees, Brown Creeper, Oven Birds, Red Winged Black Birds, Spotted Sandpiper, Grackles, Mallards, Belted Kingfisher, Red Breasted Nuthatch, Great Blue Herons, Blue Jays, Crows, House Wren, Purple Finch, Catbirds, Juncos, Pine Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Chestnut Sided Warbler, Indigo Bunting, Hermit Thrush, Veery and a Piliated Wood Pecker.

BUT, the bird of the day was the pesky mosquito! Up around the ponds they were not othersome. Then we went down the trail on the north side of the state land and were swarmed by them. You would bring up your binoculars and see four or five on your hands at once!

Join us in September when we make our annual trip to Franklin Mountain and Montezuma Wild Life Refuge.

Dan Dunn
Naturalists’ Club of Broome County, Field Trip Chairperson

Today we learned the meaning of “MUD”.

The Webster Dictionary should explain the word “MUD” as:
1: A slimy sticky mixture of solid material with water; esp: soft wet earth: Please see “Hawthorne Orchard”.
2: To make muddy or turbid. This means… by many birders seeking the fallout of Wood Warblers in Hawthorne Orchard coinciding with a very rainy, wet time of the year.

My e-mail warning people to expect muddy conditions was a gross mis understatement. It was more like mud up to your fanny!

We did have the good fortune to run into Chris Tessaglia-Hymes. Chris works on the Bioaccoustics Research Program as the Field Applications Specialist at Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. He was coming out of the Orchard as we were going in. Chris and his father went back in with us and gave us a personal tour of the Orchard. It was very quiet and we would not have gotten the following without their help.

Red-wing Blackbirds, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellow Throat, Robins, Baltimore Orioles, Song Sparrow, Crow, Catbird, Tennessee Warblers, Wood Thrush, Red-eyed Vireo, King Fisher, Great Crested Flycatchers, Blue Jays, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blackpolls, House Wren, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Barn Swallows and a King Bird.

Thank you Chris so much for the guided tour and the wealth of information you passed on to us! Also, thank you for putting a stop to the Cornell land developers from turning the orchard into more sports fields thus saving the land as part of the Cornell Plantations.

Off to Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

It was quiet here also but what birds we did see gave us some good long looks. We observed the following: Canada Geese with young, Red-winged Blackbirds, Tree Swallows, Great Blue Herons on nest with young, Mourning Doves, White-breasted Nuthatch, Robins, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Warbling Vireos, Red Start, Yellow Warblers, Cat Birds, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, King Fisher, Red Eyed Vireo, Wood Thrush, Veery, Downey Woodpeckers, Pee-Wee, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Great Crested Fly Catcher, and crows.

We left Sapsucker Woods just as the rain began to fall ending one of our most memorable field trips this spring.

Dan Dunn
Naturalists’ Club of Broome County, Field Trip Chairperson

May 11th – Dr. and Mrs Reitz place.
First of all, a big thank you to the owner’s of this property and the fact they allow us on the grounds. We picked up 50 birds on the grounds. A Scarlet Tanager flew beside us as we walked the back of the land. Unusual at this spot was the dam was broke so we got a number of Shorebirds that we do not normally get. Least, Killdeer, Yellowlegs and Spotted Sandpipers.

May 19th – Road Trip
Started out today looking for that Cattle Egret, didn’t happen. Murphy’s gave us Semipalmated Plovers and a Bonaparte’s Gull. Boland gave us the Sora and Va. Rail, but not much else. A potty stop gave us a Red-tail, two Red-shouldered and two Bald Eagles. Gave us new meaning to B IRD EVERY BIRD.

May 25th – king St.
Made King St, the focal point today and that was a good decision. Scarlet Tanagers, Blackburnian, Black-throated Blue. On Parry Road picked up Blackpolls and a Hooded warbler not seen by everybody. Chased a Bluewing that gave us a poor look, but we got him.

The weather reports were wrong this time. Predictions earlier in the week of up to eight inches of snow for Friday and rain/
snow showers for Saturday morning turned out to be clear and sunny. But, a brisk northwest wind made it feel colder than it was.
As winter continues to hold its death grip on an early spring, we had no sightings of any early migrants working their way through the
area. We did hear and see the following:
Heard – Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, Gold Finch, Blue Bird, and White Breasted Nuthatches.
Seen – Crows, Chickadees, Canada Geese, Robins, Red Wing Black Birds, Blue Jays, Song Sparrows, Mallard, Tree Sparrow, and a
Red-Tailed Hawk. Fifteen species total.

April 9, 2001
Jones Park

Today we met at Jones Park in the town of Vestal. For once it was not freezing, just a little chilly with gray skies and some sun peaking through at times. It was a typical early spring trip with not a lot of birds yet.
Our bird of the day was the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. We heard and saw many of them.

This is what we observed and noted:
Heard: Mourning Dove, Cowbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Carolina Wren, Winter Wren, Chickadees, and a Ruffed Grouse.
Seen: Northern Cardinal, Junco, Crows, two Ravens, many Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Blue Jays, White Breasted Nut Hatch and Robins. Only fifteen species.

One unknown bird was making a Bzzzz-Trill similar to the Bee-Bzzzz of a Blue-winged Warbler but we could not ID it for sure. Melissa sent the Bird jam file to me of a Blue-wing and it was very close in comparison…even the trill at the end of some of the recordings. A bit early for them, but you never know.

What we did not hear were any Peepers or Wood Frogs. Even up at the two small ponds there was nothing.
Maybe because of the elevation, they are not quite ready.

April 30, 2011
Roy Hyde Park Preserve

What started out as a cooler day than predicted (what’s new, right?) turned out to be a productive day
for an area of only 137 acres. With partly cloudy then clearing skies we were able to find the following birds:

Towhees, Song Sparrows, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Red-winged Black Birds, Field Sparrows, Ruby Crowned Kinglets, Crows, Gold Finches, Northern Cardinals, Chickadees, Coopers Hawk, Juncos, Flickers, Blue Jays, Common Yellowthroats, a pair of Broad-winged Hawks, Ovenbirds, Hermit Thrush, Robins, Black-throated Green Warblers, Veerys, Canada Geese, Purple Finches and the surprise of the day was a King Fisher in the head waters of Six Mile Creek. Our hopes of hearing any Waterthrushes were drowned out by the roar of the water falls at the end of one trail. Another surprise was the crowing of a Peacock!

A quick side trip to the south end of Dryden Lake in hopes of seeing Ospreys was well worth it with the following:

Kestrel, Robins, Tree Swallows, Song Sparrows, Gold Fiches, Starlings, Phoebe, Catbirds, Swamp Sparrow, Yellow Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Downey Wood Pecker, Spotted Sand Pipers, Red-tailed Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk and a Female Cowbird.

Not a bad day with 36 species.