Today, I intensively birded the Black Dirt Area of southwestern Orange County, NY. Despite the relatively deep snow, there were plenty of good birds to be had. I birded "the circuit": County Routes 6, 12, 88, 26, Oil City Road, Missionland Rd, Skinner La, Maloney, McKenna, Indiana, Pumpkin Swamp Rds, and nearby and adjacent side roads. My results are as follows: 34 Rough-legged Hawk (9 dark morph) 15 Northern Harrier 19 Red-tailed Hawk (1 albieticola ssp) 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 Cooper's Hawk 1 Peregrine Falcon 1 American Kestrel 1 Bald Eagle 4 White-crowned Sparrow (Co. Rte 6 bird feeder) 10 Lapland Longspur (8 Co. Rte 88, 2 individuals elsewhere) 10-15 thousand Canada Geese (two albino type Canadas!) (All between Onion and Celery Aves in cornfield and adjacent Wallkill River)
There were many of Horned Lark, and lesser numbers of Snow buntings in mixed flocks containing the Longspurs, of course. Heavy numbers of mixed sparrow flocks in exposed dirt areas on roadsides. Even with the deep snow cover, there were lots of birds around. Regards, JPA John Askildsen Millbrook, New York -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
