Saturday, May 15, 2010 - Ulster County Deb Ferguson and I scoured the back roads of Ulster County for the big day and observed 116 species, mas o menas a couple. Our route bascially covered Saugerties - Kingston - Sleightsburg - Black Creek - New Paltz - Galeville - Ellenville - Rondout Reservoir - Ulster Heights - Bennet Rd - Dowe Rd - Sholam Rd - Mill Rd - Peekamoose - Ashokan Reservoir - Sawkill - Saugerties. Overall the weather was very pleasant, except for the occasional wind bursts, with temperatures in the low 60s.
Highlights included many nice close looks at singing warblers including Wilson's, Mourning, Tennessee, Canada, Blackburnian, and Chestnut-sided; great looks at a Broad-winged Hawk perched above us and not liking our presence; and the extensive beautiful wild forest surrounding the Rondout Reservoir up to Peekamoose that was just full of birds. Lowlights included missing Downy and Hairy (the Downy miss being extra pathetic); no Acadian Flycatcher despite a good half-mile walk in search of one; my favorite place, the Ashokan Reservoir, was a total disappointment, though getting there in mid-afternoon with hefty winds didn't help; and missing a meadowlark at Galeville where there were perhaps hundreds of bobolinks; (numbers above 3 are very rough estimates) Canada Goose 100 Mutant Swan 1 Wood Duck 5 Mallard 3 Hooded Merganser 1 female at Black Creek Common Merganser 4 Wild Turkey 1 Double-crested Cormorant 13 Great Blue Heron 3 Turkey Vulture 5 Osprey 1 Black Creek Bald Eagle 1 Saugerties Lighthouse Northern Harrier 2 Galeville Accipiter - possibly a Goshawk near nest but this is still being researched - 1 Semipalmated Plover 1 Checked to make sure it wasn't a young Killdeer Killdeer 5 Spotted Sandpiper 20 Solitary Sandpiper 10 Lesser Yellowlegs 6 Least Sandpiper 12 Ring-billed Gull 50 Great Black-backed Gull 1 Kingston Point Rock Pigeon 20 Mourning Dove 10 Eastern Screech-Owl 1 Ulster Landing Barred Owl 2 Chimney Swift 5 Belted Kingfisher 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker 6 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 4 Northern Flicker 2 Pileated Woodpecker 3 Eastern Wood-Pewee 2 Willow Flycatcher 1 Galeville Least Flycatcher 5 Eastern Phoebe 5 Great Crested Flycatcher 20 Eastern Kingbird 10 Yellow-throated Vireo 2 Blue-headed Vireo 5 Warbling Vireo 30 Red-eyed Vireo 5 Blue Jay 20 American Crow 5 Fish Crow 10 Common Raven 1 Kingston Point Purple Martin 25 New Paltz Tree Swallow 50 Northern Rough-winged Swallow 10 Bank Swallow 20 Ellenville Cliff Swallow 25 Barn Swallow 10 Black-capped Chickadee 10 Tufted Titmouse 20 White-breasted Nuthatch 2 Brown Creeper 2 Carolina Wren 10 House Wren 10 Winter Wren 1 Peekamoose Marsh Wren 2 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 5 Eastern Bluebird 10 Veery 5 Hermit Thrush 1 Black Creek Wood Thrush 20 American Robin 50 Gray Catbird 40 Northern Mockingbird 5 Brown Thrasher 1 Ulster Landing European Starling 10 Blue-winged Warbler 3 Tennessee Warbler 2 Plutarch Northern Parula 1 BVD Yellow Warbler 20 Chestnut-sided Warbler 5 Magnolia Warbler 5 Black-throated Blue Warbler 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler 3 Black-throated Green Warbler 4 Blackburnian Warbler 5 Blackpoll Warbler 3 Black-and-white Warbler 5 American Redstart 10 Worm-eating Warbler 3 Ovenbird 10 Louisiana Waterthrush 4 Mourning Warbler 1 Black Creek Common Yellowthroat 10 Wilson's Warbler 1 Sleightsburg Canada Warbler 4 Scarlet Tanager 20 Eastern Towhee 5 Chipping Sparrow 20 Field Sparrow 1 Savannah Sparrow 1 Song Sparrow 25 Swamp Sparrow 1 White-throated Sparrow 4 Dark-eyed Junco 2 Cardinal 10 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 5 Indigo Bunting 4 Bobolink 40 Red-winged Blackbird 40 Common Grackle 10 Brown-headed Cowbird 15 Orchard Oriole 2 Baltimore Oriole 10 Purple Finch 3 House Finch 1 Goldfinch 6 House Sparrow 20 Frank Murphy Saugerties, NY Ulster County [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
