Fellow Birders,
Last night Mearns Club President, Jeff Goulding, informed me that a fellow professional photographer friend of his had photographed a huge flock of assorted blackbirds outside Middletown and in the midst was a YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. That interested me greatly as I had never seen one in the North East let alone Orange County.
This afternoon Mearns member Lisa O'Gorman-Hofsommer and I went out in separate cars to search for that bird. The reported location was on Airport Road, across the road from the Randall Airport (which I did not know even existed!) and the birds were along a large corn field. I asked what part of the day was the bird seen yesterday and after checking with his friend Jeff said about 3:00pm. We arrived just about 2:00pm and went up and down the road without seeing a single blackbird. At the end of the road we headed back to look more carefully. Shortly we saw flocks of blackbirds joining others in the tops of trees across the corn field. We scanned and scanned and changed locations several times. The flock continued to grow but we did not see the bird.
At 2:45pm Lisa left to get home in time for an appointment. I scanned from in front of the airport for some time without luck. Wanting another angle I went to a small gravel road a short distance away, parked and started scanning again with my binocs when a yellow "leaf" stood out. Scanning closer with my scope the 'leaf' turned into THE bird - - - an adult male YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD was looking straight at me and the brilliance of his color was a great reward. The time was 3:01pm!!!!
I had seen the species before in places like Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming & Arizona but here was my New York State and Orange County bird! The call went out to Curt, John Haas, Rob Stone and Jeff. John showed up about 3:45pm but the birds had gone silent and not a single one could be found in the trees where there had been thousands. Both John and Rob say they will be there in the morning hoping that the bird can be refound. Best wishes to all who go. It's well worth the effort.
Good Birding,
Ken McDermott
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