David Burg and I scoured the area around Blue Chip Farm & the Shawangunk Grasslands in Wallkill for the Gyrfalcon today from about 9-1. We did not locate the bird; however, we also noted a surprising absence of other birders, only encountering 2 or 3, so it's entirely possible the bird was hiding out somewhere undetected (there's a lot of meadows & woods to cover up there).
We went down Old Hoagerburgh Rd, Bates Ln/ Old Fort Rd, Burnt Meadows Rd, Red Mill Rd & Watchtower Farm, and Sax/Sac Rd, to no avail. However, we had a lovely morning and some other nice sightings: Numerous Red-tailed Hawk (at least 9) Rough-legged Hawk (2 dark morph & 2-3 light morph, mostly at the Grasslands) Turkey Vulture (2) Black Vulture (2) Merlin (1 female) American Kestrel (1 male) Wild Turkey (flock of 19) Pileated Woodpecker (a confiding pair at close range) Eastern Bluebird (flock of 5 at Grasslands parking lot) American Tree Sparrow Typical feeder birds (titmice, chickadees, juncos, song sparrow etc) I hope others locate the falcon! Good winter birding, Gabriel Willow Nyc Audubon -- 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --