Some FOYs
Grey Catbird
By: Pat Coate
We finally got some spring-like weather with the sun making an appearance (brief as it turns out) and temps reaching the 70s. Inspired by seeing my first of year (FOY) Common Yellowthroat Warbler in the back yard, I decided to take my FOY bike ride to enjoy the weather and see what birds might also be out and about. I got an hour+ ride in with about 20 species seen before getting stranded under a bridge waiting out a downpour. In my 20 species I did pick up a couple more FOYs: Chipping Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow and Grey Catbird.
The pictures were taken during the bike ride.
Fish Stocking at Allegany
Had a great turn out today in Allegany State Park (30ish people) for Stocking Brook and Brown Trout (about 3500 fish). Little Clair even reached into the bucket and pulled one out to be released in Science Lake!! Good times seeing all the kids there today!!
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Tree Swallows and Cold Weather
The Tree Swallows are doing what they can with these cold temperatures. As I see snow flurries in the air the Swallows are gathering around the generator looking for some escaping heat. I really need to clean out the bird boxes and I hope we don’t find dead ones in there. What happens is they pile up into a box and the ones on the bottom get squished from the ones on top. I have found up to 9 dead tree swallows in a box. Hard times for these blue and white friends . . . . lets hope for warmer temperatures for them! (If you look hard at this photo you can see N. Rough Winged Swallows and a Barn Swallow).
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Common Loons
I counted 27 Common Loons on Red House Lake this morning! One flock had 22 birds in it the other 5 were scattered birds around the lake (prob ones that have been here the past few days).
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Bird Bath?
Wash Cycle1
By: Pat Coate
Note: I started posting weekly to Tom’s blog about 1 year ago – this was my first. I decided to celebrate my ‘anniversary’ by taking the week off and re-publishing this first posting – still one of my favorites.
I recently got to spend some time in Allegany State Park and had the pleasure of watching some fun behavior within a flock of about 25 Canada geese. It was a Sunday and it appeared to be bathing day. First, the geese would flip themselves upside down.
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Canada Goose Nesting in an Osprey Platform
I was out earlier this week in Allegany State Park checking out the Osprey Platforms and happen to find this strange bird up in the nest. Could it seriously be a Canada Goose up there?? Next day returned and sure enough this Canada Goose is up in this Osprey Platform “NESTING”!! I am now starting to worry about these little guys jumping down . . . . ! Just never know what you might find in Allegany!!
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Bloodroot
Good day when you find wild bloodroot.
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Northern Saw-whet in Owl Woods
Northern Saw-Whet (adult)
By: Pat Coate
Due to an early morning flight for a business trip on Monday, I stayed in Rochester Sunday night. I decided to head up early and spend the day visiting some of the Rochester-area birding sites including Owl Woods and the Braddock Bay Hawk Watch. I am extremely thankful to Jim Adams (http://ayearinoatka.blogspot.com/) for meeting me, providing such a wonderful tour of the area and for sharing his experience and knowledge (and scope).
We found this Northern Saw-whet Owl, nestled in an evergreen tree, resting up to finish its northern migration. These owls are quite small – only about 7-8 inches tall and weigh less than ½ pound .
Please note that the pictures were taken with a telephoto lens and we kept our observation time brief.
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Action Last Night
Lots of action happening in the vernal pools last night!
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Bonapart’s Gull’s arrived
Had 15ish Bonapart’s Gulls over on Red House Lake this morning! Mid April is typically when they arrive! Also yesterday had some Tree Swallows flying out on the lake.
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Mourning Cloak
My first of the year! Whoot! Saw on Sunday near the house!
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Another Osprey Encounter
from Pat Coate –
My sister, Lynda, lives near the Rappahannock River in Virginia and emailed me this recent encounter she had with an osprey (and company). What an interesting encounter with nature to have witnessed!
“The other day the girls and I were walking back home from across the street and we hear a noise and looked up and swooping down over the roofs of the townhouses right next to us comes an osprey with a big fish in his talons, being chased by an eagle, being chased by a crow!! It was so incredible! They were maybe 25 feet over our heads right in front of us!
The osprey gave up just then and dropped the fish with a splat onto the parking lot. It slid under a car. The eagle and osprey both kind of looped up and looked for it but couldn’t see it and flew away. I ran and grabbed the fish out from under the car and put it in the park across the street but they didn’t come back. It would have been cool to just chuck it up there to the eagle! : ) He started to move like he was going to dive for it after the osprey dropped it but he was just too low already to make a dive for it. We were stunned! You probably would have gotten awesome pictures of it! I’ve got an incredible one in my head though!
So there’s lots of fun bird watching around here right now. April is always my favorite month for the eagles around here. They are always chasing each other around in the sky and right now the river literally looks like it’s boiling with the shad running!”
Osprey Back and Building
Osprey adding to nest
By: Pat Coate
I am so glad I decided to set aside weekend chores for a bit and squeeze in some birding because I had a wonderful encounter with this osprey. Though I am sure it was aware of my presence, it did not seem to mind me watching it. I spent about 30 minutes watching and got to see it repeatedly snap off branches and carry them to this nest. There was only one osprey present, so I presume this is the male prettying up the place for the female’s arrival.
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