Sunday, 21 March 2010 Town of Saugerties
Highlights of today's Esopus Creek Conservancy "Signs of Spring" nature walk include 21 first-of-season TREE SWALLOWS observed flying over Esopus Creek from the Village of Saugerties Beach directly across from Esopus Bend Nature Preserve (EBNP), and a second flock of swallows roughly estimated at 50+ flying low over the marsh at The Great Vly WMA (Vly) on the Ulster/Greene County border. This second flock was too distant to identify to species with absolute certainty, but was most likely all Tree Swallows. Several very vocal Fish Crows greeted eleven participants at the village beach, providing nice close looks, followed by a simultaneous fly-over of five Great Blue Herons headed east towards the Hudson River. We later flushed another Great Blue from the wetlands cove of EBNP, and encountered two adult Cooper's Hawks in the woodlands along the East Trail. One Black Vulture and two Turkey Vultures were also observed overhead from the East Trail of EBNP. Peter Schoenberger heard a first-of-season Pied-billed Grebe vocalize from the Great Vly marsh, a single Great Cormorant flew past the viewing deck at the Saugerties Lighthouse (SLH), shortly followed by a single first-of-season Double-crested Cormorant. Two adult Bald Eagles in flight south of the lighthouse provided distant views until one perched in a snag for a decent scope view, and one Ruby-crowned Kinglet was heard very briefly along the lighthouse trail, probably the same individual previously reported from this location since February. Non-avian highlights include two species of early season butterflies, three species of amphibians, and two reptiles, all in EBNP. One Eastern Comma was observed along the East Trail and a second individual encountered along the Wetlands Trail, and a single Mourning Cloak in very fresh condition was observed a short distance in from the main Shady Lane entrance in the exact area adjacent to a fallen Beech tree where we have repeatedly observed a single Mourning Cloak over the past three years. Both the large and small vernal pools at EBNP were busy with amphibian activity. Wood Frogs and Spring Peepers could be heard vocalizing as we approached each pool and closer inspection revealed visuals of several Wood Frogs, a few Green Frogs, and large communal clumps of Wood Frog egg masses in both pools. Several pairs of Wood Frogs were observed in amplexus (mating), providing a nice comparison of the dramatic size difference between the smaller male and larger females. The highlight of the day for some of us was the sight of two Wood Frogs in amplexus just below the surface of the water, the female in the act of depositing her eggs as the male fertilized the protruding egg mass from above. A single Garter Snake and a few Painted Turtles basking on logs represented the reptiles. Copied below is the complete list of 50 bird species encountered on today's walk. Steve M. Chorvas Saugerties, NY Canada Goose Mute Swan Wood Duck - numerous (Vly, EBNP) American Black Duck - 2 (EBNP) Mallard Green-winged Teal - 2 (Vly) Ring-necked Duck - 15+ (Vly) Greater Scaup - 1 (Vly) Hooded Merganser - 6 (Vly) Common Merganser - 3 (SLH) Pied-billed Grebe - 1 vocalizing (Vly) Double-crested Cormorant - 1 (SLH) Great Cormorant - 1 (SLH) Great Blue Heron - 6 (EBNP) Black Vulture - 1 (EBNP) Turkey Vulture - 2 (EBNP) Bald Eagle - 2 adults (SLH) Cooper's Hawk - 2 adults (EBNP) Red-tailed Hawk Killdeer Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Mourning Dove Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Blue Jay American Crow Fish Crow - several (EBNP, SLH) Tree Swallow - 21 (EBNP), ~50+ (Vly) Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1 (SLH) Eastern Bluebird American Robin European Starling Song Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle House Finch American Goldfinch [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
