I spent the day today at Wallkill River NWR and started early at the Liberty Loop Trail. I hadn't been there at this time of year in a long time, probably not since I was doing inventories there in the early 2000's. I was pleased to see how many cool birds were now breeding there that I didn't find in the early 2000's. I had several Least Bitterns, at least 3 families of Pied-billed Grebes, several American Coots including one family, and at least three pairs of Common Gallinules including one family with 7 or 8 chicks. Also some regular breeders with families: two or three Wood Duck females with their many ducklings and a Mute Swan pair with five cygnets. There were also several Green Herons in the area which I assume were nesting too. Very cool to see these rare and not so rare breeders with families at the refuge. They really have done a wonderful job there. I just hope the grassland birds that were nesting at LLT moved to other grasslands in the refuge since it's mostly wetland now. Andrew Andrew v. F. Block Consulting Naturalist 20 Hancock Avenue, Apt. 3 Yonkers, Westchester Co., New York 10705-4629 www.flickr.com/photos/conuropsis/albums --
NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
