Eastern Long Island MLK Jr Birding Weekend 2017

JAN 14, 2017

We had to visit 1625 North Sea Drive in Southold first thing this morning. You may be wondering what's at this seemingly ordinary residential address in North Folk. Well, there was a report by the New York Rare Bird Alert of a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE. Townsend's Solitaire is the only solitaire native to America north of Mexico and its range is usually limited to the western/central part of the country so how this bird ended up in easternmost part of the U.S. is anyone's guess but the fact is that it was going to be our 451st North American life bird if seen. Despite today being the first day of the long weekend, the drive there from Brooklyn was rather smooth and we got to the location in about an hour and a half. As usual, it was not hard for us to find the spot: For a rare sighting like this one, we just look for a crowd rather than the bird itself. There already were two birders with enormous camera equipment lurking in the area. They told us that the bird had been seen on and off since early morning. After waiting for about 20 minutes, the bird suddenly flew in and perched on top of a cedar tree, quite a charming one with a bold white eye-ring. We hang around at the spot for about an hour enjoying the sight of this rare visitor from the West. While we were there, there was a steady flow of birders coming to see the bird.

After saying good-bye to the solitaire, we made a quick stop at nearby Arshamomaque Preserve in Southold to check out the Virginia Rail sighting but no luck this time.

We then drove to the Southold town center to grab a sandwich at the Grateful Deli then headed to catch another rare sighting. We were quite excited to hear a report of a lone juvenile SANDHILL CRANE at Wainscott Pond. After-all, last time we saw Sandhill Cranes was over 10 years ago at  the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado in 2005. Though good-distance away, it was not hard to spot the crane hanging out with a deer (really) at all. While chatting with a local birder, the bird suddenly took off , flew towards us and away. Soon we realized that a duck hunter spooked the bird away by entering the area by the crane to get to the hunting blind located by the pond. Unfortunately, our rendezvous with the crane was cut short by an unexpected disruption but on the bright side, we got to see the majestic young crane flying right above us. Hopefully, it won't be another 10 years till our next encounter.

Our last stop of the day was Dune Road in Quogue. It was already pretty late in the afternoon so for the little time we had, we were going to look for Snowy Owls and an American Bittern. Unfortunately for us, a little after getting there, it started to snow pretty hard and also got dark fairy quickly so we had to call it a day. It was a fantastic day to see two very special birds.

JAN 15, 2017

We had to start at where we left off so we decided to spend a day exploring one of our favorite birding spots in Long Island. Yes, we were back at Dune Road in Quogue with vengeance. We started our day at the Cupsogue Beach County Park known more for seal watch than bird but is a good spot for shore birds. We did see quite a few seals in the bay...

While other visitors were busy watching seals, we saw some interesting shore birds resting at the beach. We saw RUDDY TURNSTONEs, BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERs, AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERs, plus usual DUNLINs, SANDERLINGs and GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLs.

After leaving the Cupsogue Park, we drove by many million-dollar mansions on Dune Road. Western half of Dune Road is fully developed with outrageously luxurious homes for the riches and the rest is left for wildlife where we would be looking for American Bittern and Snowy Owl. On the dune, we saw many NORTHERN HARRIERs flying low to the ground in search of pray.

At the spot where an American Bittern had been reported numerous times, we saw a car stopped on the road side and inside the car, a man was looking at something through his binoculars. The man came out of the car as we approached the area and a large bird flew into thick tall reeds. We were pretty certain it was an AMERICAN BITTERN but they do resemble juvenile herons so we could not be certain. Bitterns are extremely secretive birds so the chance of it coming out of the reeds was nearly nil so this sighting must remain a mystery. To make up for the missed opportunity, we saw a nice COMMON LOON swimming in a small paddle adjacent to the road. At the end of Dune Road, there were several HARLEQUIN DUCKs hanging out by the jetty. Those birds generally do not come too close to the shore so it was nice to see them up close.

As planned, we spent a day birding Dune Road. Though we did not see our target birds (well, did see the bittern, sort of...) but we had a blast.

JAN 16, 2017

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! We decided to celebrate this very special day by visiting our ever so reliable go-to spot in Long Island, Jones Beach State Park. As soon as we drove into the park, we noticed that the place was filled with birders/photographers and we instinctively knew that there was an owl sighting. A month or so ago, we saw a beautiful Long Eared Owl in this very park. Snowy Owl is a regular winter resident (this year being no exception). I guessed/hoped the reported sighting was for the Saw-whet Owl and I sure was right. It was seen three days ago and everyone was there to find it again. Saw-whet Owl is a very small owl, about 7.5 inches tall, consequently is very hard to find. We saw it in Central Park years ago by accident and would love to see it again. While others looked for the owl, we kept ourselves busy with more common birds around the park. There were many RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHes, NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDs, NORTHERN CARDINALs, YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERs, AMERICAN GOLD FINCHes and NORTHERN FLICKERs.

One of the birders told us that there are a group of RED-BREASTED MERGANSERs displaying by the coast guard station so we decided to check that out. Oh quite performers they were.

At the end of the day, no one saw the Saw-whet Owl today. The little guy probably had flown away or may have been watching birders frantically looking for him/her all along. Well, only the bird would know.

Delaware Christmas Birding Trip 2016

DEC 24, 2016 

Winter birding in North East America is not exactly like birding in South America. Most of the pretty songbirds have already gone south (I don't blame them, it gets pretty cold up here) so woods are mostly quiet by now. Luckily for us, many water birds come down to spend the winter in the region. So we usually stick to coastal areas to bird during the colder times.

On Christmas Eve, we left Brooklyn around 9am to head to the Delaware seaside. After the 3.5-hour uneventful drive through dreadfully unscenic NJ Turnpike, we arrived at our destination, Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, one of our favorite wildlife refuges in Delaware. 

Despite the unseasonably warm weather, the refuge was rather quiet but we saw some nice water birds there: NORTHERN PINTAILs, BUFFLEHEADs, RUDDY DUCKs, NORTHERN SHOVELERs, AMERICAN BLACKDUCKs, MALLARDs, SNOW GEESE and TUNDRA SWANs.

Well, the birds may have been scarce but we were lucky to catch a sight of this beautiful red fox.

On our way out, we checked out a group of CANADIAN GEESE on the field. You may be wondering why we were looking at geese as they are one of the most common bird species anywhere in the country. Well, there is a type of goose called Cackling Goose. It is basically a smaller yet identical version of Canadian Goose and we have been on a quest to see this mini Canadian Goose for a while. Sadly, our quest continues.

We had our early dinner at an Italian restaurant by the Dover Air Force Base. A true story. There were five or so uniformed air force officers eating at a table next to us. When they asked for their bill, we overheard the waiter tell them that the lady sitting across from us paid for their meal. The waiter said that the lady also has a daughter in the army and wanted to thank them for their service to the country.

DEC 25, 2016

Merry Christmas! After our delicious waffle breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to the Cape Henlopen State Park. This was our first time visit to the Park so we were not sure what to expect. Three minutes into the park, we heard a flock of BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEEs and immediately knew that our target bird of the trip, BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH, was nearby. Delaware is the northern most range for this wonderful species and we were delighted to see them. We also saw TUFTED TITMICE, NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERs, SONG SPARROWs,, WHITE-THROATED SPARROWs, FOX SPARROWs, BUFFLEHEADs and, quite surprisingly, a PINE WARBLER.

We then visited a small bird refuge, Silver Lake State Bird Refuge, to see Canvasbacks as reported in the Delaware Rare Bird Alert. There were 20 or so gorgeous CANVASBACKs taking afternoon nap on the lake along with some DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTs, HOODED MERGANSERs, MALLARDs and CANADIAN GEESE.

We decided to drive further south to visit the Delaware Seashore State Park. This is the southern most region we had visited in Delaware. We saw an ever-so-pretty FIELD SPARROW, HOUSE FINCHes, and many YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERs in the park.

Now we were headed to much anticipated Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. In the past, we have caught a sight of some good rarities there including American Avocets. I think what makes this refuge so special is that visitors are able to drive through narrow channels of roads built on top of the vast wetland. When we got to the wetland part, we immediately noticed that it was much drier than past years. Less water meant less bird and, despite our high expectations, we really did not see any notable species there except for the lone BALD EAGLE seen in the distance.

The road from the refuge leads to the Slaughter Beach, renowned for being one of the best beaches to see spectacular Red Knot migration in the spring. We did come here in May and it truly was an amazing sight, seeing hundreds of Snowshoe Crabs and Red Knots among other shorebirds. However, it is indeed winter now so we really weren't expecting to see much at all at the beach. As we were getting off the car, we heard loud squawking noises coming from the beach. We grab our gears, ran off to the beach and were completely awe-struck by what we saw. The beach was covered with tens and thousands of snow geese as far as we could see. There must have been over 100,000 of them. There were times in our lives that nature just overwhelms us with its scale and greatness and this certainly was one of those moments. We just stood there watching them in utter silence for a long period of time. It had to be the most number of birds we saw standing in one spot. At one point, a few got spooked by something and everyone took off. Imagine the magnitude of 100,000+ birds taking off at the same time in one small area?

We figured that nothing could top the magical encounter with the snow geese and it was getting late in the day anyways, we swapped binoculars with rackets and hit the local high school tennis court.

I don't know if you ever tried to eat out on Christmas Day but basically everything is closed except for Chinese restaurants. So we had our customary Chinese food on Christmas and celebrated our exciting birding day in Delaware.

DEC 26, 2016

I knew I was coming down with a flu as I was feeling some pain/soreness yesterday but the flu finally hit me with the full force today. I had chills, joint pains, fever, bad headache, seriously painful sore throat, basically all the terrible things a flu can bring to our bodies. However, nothing gets in birders' way so we went on birding as usual. We drove to the Cape Henlopen State Park to have a final look at BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH, then to the Slaughter Beach. Though somewhat expected, there was not a single soul on the beach where we had a magical encounter with snow geese yesterday. The phrase, 'right place at the right time' weighs in heavily in birding. We moved on to look for a sedge wren on Big Stone Beach Road as per the Delaware Rare Bird Alert but no luck this time. We made a last stop at Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge and saw some familiar faces.

Traffic back to New York was pretty bad but luckily for me, I slept most of the way. While in my delirious feverish state, I was replaying the scenes from the Slaughter Beach with the snow geese over and over.

Happy Holiday Birding!