Saturday, July 10, 2010

Northeast Kingdom-Vermont

Sorry for the lack of posts. Here is a trip I took back on Memorial day Weekend.

I went into this spring migration with the confidence I would be able to identify tons of warblers and migratory birds. I listened to calls nearly every day, and believed I knew everything. I had a humbling experience when My uncle brought me birding in Vermont. He is amazing with his calls and knowledge. He knew almost every call of every bird wether it be thrush, flycatcher,vireo,or warbler. Together with my knowledge and his, we ended the weekend with 98 species! It was awesome as I picked up 2 lifers. We started at a cabin in southern vermont where I had my post from last year. We had most of the same species as last year, except we picked up Olive sided flycatcher which has the infamous, quick three beers call. The road with the cabin has enough birds alone, to keep me busy for a weekend. There were black throated green,black throated blue,blackburnian, and chesnut sided warblers all over the place. Here are some of my shots!!






























After a day of birding around the cabin we made a 4 hour drive up to the Northeast kingdom. The Northeast kingdom is a part of the boreal forest which jets down into vermont. Because of this, it gives a unique chance of seeing rare birds, not normally seen breeding in the U.S. Our target spot was Moose Bog. It is well known for boreal species including spruce grouse,boreal chicadee,black backed woodpecker, and other warblers,magnolia,nashville, canada. We got magnolia, nashville, black backed woodpecker(lifer). It was awesome. the habitat is completely different than that of westchester NY. There were all sorts of cool mosses and plants.The next stop was silvio O conte NWR. It was a huge reservation with tons of birds. We ate lunch listening to a mourning warbler. We walked down dirt roads, with fir and spruce trees on both sides. There had to be thousands of nashville and magnolia warblers. Along one of the roads,we had boreal chicadee which is another lifer bird. We also got good looks at a canada warbler. One of my favorite birds, but always elusive. It was one of the best birding weekends I've had, and looking forward to next memorial day to do it again. Still need that Cape May for life list!!!!!!Hopefully my Uncle will read this and decide to bring me to Arizona my senior year!!!




This is a picture I took at Moose Bog. This was where the Black Backed Woodpecker was hanging out.

























This blue headed vireo was in the heart of the bog. You can see lichens growing on the trees.
On the last day of the trip we headed up to Okemo Mountain. Commonly known as a skiing destination in the wintertime, Okemo becomes a wonderful place to bird in the spring. All birds are habitat specific making them unique to different areas. For example worm eating warblers like wooded slopes. Hooded warblers like thick understory, and there are birds that call mountains their home. For example the Bicknells thrush. That was our target bird for the Okemo expedition. Unfortunatelly for me, but fortunally for my uncle, he would have to wake me up at 5 to get their early to possibly hear the bird. Uncle Michael likes to make waking up an eventful and fun process. Anyways we got to the mountain early and started walking to the top. You can drive up making it a lot easier than hiking the whole way. As we started walking we heard many birds, including magnolia warbler,winter wren, purple finch,sapsuckers,but no thrushes. Another cool addition to the list of the weekend was a Blackpoll warbler which is another bird of high altitude. Its always nice to see birds in their habitat. My uncle also taught me how to tell the purple finch apart from a house finch call. It was alot of fun :)

Monday, May 10, 2010

More central park

Went to central park last friday again!! Another great day with some awesome species. had wilson warbler and Bay breasted warbler!!! Also had my favorite magnolia warbler. I got some nice shots. I am ordering a flash that I hope will make warbler shots even easier. Here are some pictures i got















Sunday, May 2, 2010

may 2nd Central park

Today I went down to Central Park for some may warbler birding. Following reports from the past two days I had high expectations. They came through with 18 species of warbler. The highlights were lifer blackpoll and cerulean warbler. We also had 2 blackburnian and 10+ nashville warblers. Got some ok pictures, more document shots of cerulean blackpoll and nashville. I am hoping to go again soon and will be sure to post what I see

Heres list
Blackburnian
cerulean
y rumped
Black throated blue
" " green
parula
prarie
blue winged
worm eating
nashville
yellow
ovenbird
northern waterthrush
blackpoll
palm
common yellowthroat
redstart
b+white




















Sunday, April 25, 2010

Long Island Birds

Went down to Long island yesterday. First stop was Heampstead Lake state park. We went for migrants but found nothing. I did find a blue gray knatccatcher nest which is pretty fun to watch. We were there on the 25th last year and had around 5 warblers. Aftere striking out at Hempstead we traveled to Oceanside marine study area. There are always birds there. We had yellow crowned night herons, tree swallows, osprey, yellowlegs,pectoral sandpiper. I got some pretty decent pictures. I hate this time of year where the sun gets so high in the sky.














Friday, April 16, 2010

Early warbler

Palm warblers are always one of the first warblers to reach Ny state. I also have had pine warblers singing in my backyard lately. These shots are of a Palm warbler that is almost in fully breeding plumage. Soon the warblers will arrive in numbers and BirdBoy will be doing work. Expect a lot of pictures this may.
My schedule
early may-central park a few times
mid may-capemay weekend
end of may- northern vermont


B1rdBoy






Sunday, March 28, 2010

florida pictures

Hello, I am sorry for the late post. Here are my shots from Florida Keys. There are so many I didnt know how to post them. So what I will do is post the link to the flickr set, and post a few teaser pictures on here :p Below is link to the florida pictures






















And here are teasers

Friday, February 26, 2010

Backyard shots

last week I was in the florida keys for vacation. It was a bird haven, I got 53 shots that are up to a good standard for me and will take a few posts. This post is a catch up from shots I got at my feeder a fews ago. I really like the sapsucker.













Wednesday, February 17, 2010

some new shots

We finally have off of school this week and I am taking advantage of it. I got lifer red header woodpecker this week, but no shot due to stupidity difficulties. I got my favorite duck in flight the other day. The common goldeneye is hands down one of my favorite ducks. They are so skittish and hard to photograph around here. The other day I was down at the river and I heard this noise looked up and a male and female came whizzing by. I thought i missed them, but they turned back!!! It was cloudy and I had my camera set to AV thinking the camera might be smart, no it shot at 1/4000 of a second. I dont understand why, but weirdly the shots came out alright. Also Im posting some kinfisher shots I got a week ago. They are another tricky bird to get a picture of. Yesterday I got one of my favorite shots I have ever taken. A sapsucker came to my feeder and landed on the tree to pose for me. I had been waiting on my porch for this, and got one shot. Thatll be next post :)




























Sunday, January 31, 2010

duckkkks

I have been enjoying shooting(photographing) ducks this winter. Bufflehead ducks are every where but I have yet to get a good picture, up to my standard. I found a redhead duck which is pretty rare around where I live. I really want to get a shot of a Pintail duck, which has been hanging around at the same park. Last weekend I went to point lookout in Long island and got lifer Harlequin and black scoters, great looking ducks. I want to go to Barnegat lighthouse, which is famous for its Harlequin ducks. Hope you enjoy the pictures.






Sunday, January 17, 2010

400mm fun!!!

Hey everyone. Sorry for the lack in posting. School had been rediculously hard this year. I did get my 400mm though and use it as much as possible. The weather has been great the weekends when I have to to shoot but I have gotten some nice pictures. I got good pictures of red tail, red shoulder hawk, and redhead ducks. I guess its a red thing? Well I will start off with the red tail. Two days after i got my lens, I went to the local croton point park, where I had a close encounter with a red tail last year. Well Again I had a good encounter. I think he likes me :) I still wasnt used to the 400mm but I was getting better holding it, and focusing. well I got so close to this hawk which was sitting on a pole in the field. I litterally had to move back to get the whole hawk in the frame. Here are some shots!!! Can you see the difference in these pictures compared to my old ones, because of the new crazy expensive lens?