BirdBoy

Memorial Day Vermont

2011-05-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

I am heading up to vermont on saturday to do annual birding with the bestest uncle in the world, uncle Michael. He has a cabin in southwest vermont, with tons of birds in his backyard. We are also planning to go to the North East Kingdom. Last year we broke 100 birds for the weekend. This year some target species include:

Golden Winged warbler

Bicknells thrush

Mourning warbler

Cape May warbler

Update

2011-04-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lack of a recent post. I am done some awesome birding including cape may in fall, sea ducks in winter, and a trip to costa rica. I have all sorts of pictures to post. In August I did some awesome shorebirding with my Uncle, including a trip to plum island massachussets. white rumped sand pipers were very numerous, and gave good identification looks. At one shorbird stop we were treated by a peregrine falcon divebombing yellowlegs !

PEREGRINE FALCON

Here are some more recent pictures. I have so many to post, especially the hundreds from Costa Rica.

Fine One Costa Rica Teaser

Northeast Kingdom-Vermont

2010-07-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

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 :)

More central park

2010-05-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

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

may 2nd Central park

2010-05-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

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

Long Island Birds

2010-04-25T13:37:00.001-07:00

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.

Early warbler

2010-04-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

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

florida pictures

2010-03-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

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

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30566773@N08/sets/72157623372845231/

And here are teasers

Backyard shots

2010-02-26T20:27:00.000-08:00

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.

some new shots

2010-02-17T07:15:00.001-08:00

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 :)

duckkkks

2010-01-31T09:20:00.001-08:00

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.

400mm fun!!!

2010-01-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

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?

Countdown begins!!!!

2009-12-13T16:34:00.000-08:00

This is probably the most exciting post I have made so far.In my recent posts I have talked a bunch about wanting a 400mm f5.6 canon lens. Well Bird-Boy has made a financial plan and is a week away from shootting with a 400mm lens. Hopefully my picture level will increase and I will get some awesome results. I will treat it like a baby.My friend let me use his 400mm f5.6 on my body and it worked awesome:pictures below.

Wish me Luck!

Long--Tailed Duck !!!!!!!!!

2009-11-09T18:17:00.001-08:00

The feeling is great when you find a rare bird. I went to croton point park and got this magnificent duck. They are mainly found in salt water, but this guy prefers brackish water. Everything played out perfectly. Its a male which is a big plus, and it was close. Most ducks are boring but these and harlequin ducks are my favorite. It was fun watching my dive and swim under water. And again with a converter or 400mm i would have had this duck at the perfect distance.

here is the duck submerging

Here you can see him underwater...kinda :)

Green Heron

2009-11-04T19:11:00.000-08:00

This summer I took a trip to ocean side marine park. It is pretty much a heron heaven. There are numerous black crowned night herons, green herons, and yellow crowned night herons. I got pictures of all three. The immature black crowned herons are ugly. I got some awesome flight shots of them but they are hideous haha. The green herons are good looking birds. I am thinking of upgrading my camera setup, to maybe a 400mm lens. These shots are taken with canon xsi and 300mm.

blackpoll warbler-lifer

2009-10-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

I got a lifer this past weekend. A blackpoll warbler! Although it isnt the pretty spring molt, its a good bird. He must have been tired from a long night trip, because he sat on the ground and let me get really close. Heres some pictures :)

Peregrines-fire island

2009-10-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

Birdboy does have some luck sometimes. I have been to fire 4 times in the past 3 years, and have hit 3 amazing days. Well saturday was another amazing day. The winds were north west so i left my house at 6 30 to get down there. We got there at 8 and the birds started moving. At the end of the day we had a total of 65 peregrines!!!!!! that is the second most peregrines that ever flew by the hawk site. Not jut peregrines but a total of 160 merlins. It was a lot of fun to see these birds. I didnt get amazing photos to post as it never got sunny, but maybe thats why the birds moved.. who knows. But friday night i knew i had to be there. I had a feeling god wanted me to be there. Thanks bud! My soccer practice got cancelled, I found a ride by some birders, it was all looking good! Well the next two weeks are when the adult male merlins move. They call them blue jacks, with there beautiful blue backs. Well here are some of my shots!

We had a good assortment of adult and immature birds. Below are some audlts hsot followed by adults

Below is a picture my Friend James Vellozzi took at fire island last year. This is a blue jack, the back is a nice gray blue. James takes some awesome raptor photos, and teaches me a lot. His website is jamesvellozzinaturephotography.com

More Merlins

2009-09-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

Im telling you go to fire island on a north wind and you will get birds. We had 20 merlins and 40 kestrels migrating that day. We also had 7 sharpies, which i have one picture of. The Merlins came in but kestrels are sissy falcons and stay away. One of the merlins was eating on the wing, meaning he was flying while eating. End of september means peregrines will start moving. I may take this wednesday off of school if it is good weather! I was there two years ago and had 60 peregrines in one day. and 100 merlins. Well enjoy some more of these pictures. My favorite shot is the first one where he was banking and i got his back!

below is the sharp shinned hawk

Bird Boys Back

2009-09-24T18:13:00.001-07:00

hello, Everyone, I am now back for some more bird posts! I have had a really busy summer. I am now into junior year and it is really hard. Therefore I needed my sleep and havent had time to post :) Well I didnt bird much either. Now its mid september or end of it, the hawks are in full force. I went shorebirding for one of my first times ever at Jamaica bay this august. I got some really cool shots of least sandpipers. I also got some awesome merlin shots last week at fire island which gave me the inspiration to post today. these are only half the merlin shots, I will post the rest soon. BirdBoy

peregrines take 2

2009-07-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

I had a lot better luck with the peregrines this past week. I cant say a lot better because I still havent achieved what I want from them, but thats me being greedy. Atleast these pictures the belly of the peregrine look white inseatd of black, which is good haha. I like good pictures of the peregrines in which their white body is against the brown cliff, photographer Steve Sachs who takes way better pictures than me :)has great pictures of these peregrines on his website stevesachsphotography.com Hope you like

We arrived at the nest at 7 and by the looks of the peregrines crop it most likely already hunted.

Full frame of the peregrine with top of cliff in background

peregrines

2009-07-02T07:33:00.001-07:00

Its summer!! that means sleep and eat and bird. I went to the palisades cliffs to watch a nesting pair of peregrines. By this time the young are about to fledge.While I was watching them and they mated? That usually means the first brood did not survive and they would try again. That means i got the whole summer to watch the peregrines. I managed to get a few shots even though here in NY the weather stinks. It goes from sunny to hail back to sunny in 5 minutes. Well these two pictures are good silhouettes. if you look up and see a black object like this it may be a peregrine falcon :)

Powerlines=birds!

2009-06-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

The part I like most about birding is using knowledge to find birds. There is one part of my town in which there are huge powerlines that have great habitat underneath. I drive by it all the time and I cringe because I want to survey it. Well I finally did and now I go alot. Birdgirl would love this place because there are numerous prairie warblers. They are everywhere. There is also a good amounts of blue winged warblers, orioles, indigo buntings, and towhees, and bluebirds. The biggest surprise was a fledgling screech owl, that was in a bush not 4 feet off the ground. Ofcourse I didnt have my camera. I feel if you put the camera in the car the birds will come out. URghhh

Well here are some songbird picturess!

bird boys perspective

2009-06-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

I havent talked really about where I am located. I do pretty local walks. I am located a mile from the Hudson River.This is awesome because it is a major flyway for birds. Sadly no warblers move through my yard :( Across the river on the palisadesis where I count hawks every fall. Now I have my camera i will be posting some awesome shots. We put up a fake Owl and the hawks will dive bomb it for awesome pictures. The palisades is also awesome for peregrines.

Below is taken from a high street in Ossining my town.

It is a picture of the palisades side of river and croton point park

Croton point park is very famous for birds. I recently found out, this is where Peterson was when he decided to make the field guide.

Raptors part 2!

2009-06-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

here are some more pictures from the feastival last weekend. My favorite picture is the Eagle Owl face shot. His eyes are awesome red orange.

Below is a Goshawk

Peregrine falcon Does anyone know why the breast is orangey?

A funny looking snowy owl

Raptor extravaganza

2009-06-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend i went to a big falconry gathering here in New York. It was awesome, there had to be atleast 50 different birds of prey. It gave some good oppurtunities to get portrait shots of raptors i would never get in the wild. They had birds including Goshawks,snowy owls, Gyrfalcons, all sorts of hybrid falcons, Hawks, Pretty much everything. It really made me want to become a falconer. Well I got a lot of pictures so this may take two posts :)

Below is a Hybrid falcon of some sort

Below is a red tail with a beautiful red background

The coolest part of the day was when one of the falconers flew his falcon. he swumg his lure around and the falcon would dive extremely fast! and hit the lure. I got the perfect shot feet out and u can see the lure in the left part of frame, he was flying so fast it was too hard to focus on it

Blackburnian sweeetnesss

2009-06-04T19:05:00.000-07:00

Blackburnian warblers are such awesome birds. I saw and photographed my first one up in vermont during memorial day weekend. Their song its awesome too. It was in this huge stand of pines that made photography very hard. It was so dark and I had no flash. Luckily He hopped into sunlight a few times giving me some oppurtunities. Defenitely one of my new favorite warblers. Hope you like them too!

Black throated green warbler

2009-06-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

Another shot from Vermont. These birds were numerous on the street. Sadly I only got one picture of a black throated green. I was very lucky the BTG came down on a rock. Luckily my camera got a clean sharp shot of it. Atleast I got one nice shot insted of nothing.The next post will be Blackburnian, and they are my favorite. I got some pretty sweet shots of Blackburnian. I think one of the coolest looking warblers.

Vermont- Black-throated blue

2009-05-31T13:56:00.001-07:00

Here are some more warbler shots from vermont. The black throated blue warblers were everywhere. Just like the chesnut sided warbler he was very cooperative and moved around giving me a back shot. I dont know if i will be able to beat these pictures in the future.

I just got back from camping, got some good bunting prairie warbler and field sparrow pictures.

Bay breasted or Parula????????????

2009-05-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

Abe from http://mybirdsblog.blogspot.com/ recently posted a picture of a northern parula. I saw it late after 16 people commented on it. To me it looks different. I went in my sibleys and really thought it looked like a female bay breasted. I could be totally wrong and thats why i am making this post below is the picture he took with my arrows on it.

ARROW 1- shows the white patches on the side of face. Seen on bay breasted warblers not parulas.

ARROW2- Shows the rufous colors below the face and there are some down the sides that most bay breasts have.

Parulas and bay breasted both have wing bars and female bay breasted have the eye ring making them hard to differ from parulas. The key feauture that stuck out was the white on the side of face. Notice abes and the two other bay breasted pictures have the white pale sides of face but the parula doesnt. Lets hope this is a bay breasted and Abe will have a new lifer bird!!

Below is a parula notice there are no pale sides of neck

Vermont birds!

2009-05-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

Vermont was a lot of fun. I had big expectations and it turned out to be great. We ended up with 14 warbler species. Both waterthrushes seen in back yard. Black throated blue and greens were all over the place.Chesnut sided were also everywhere. There was 5 or so blackburnians throughout the different conifer grooves. We had parula this morning as we left so i never got a good picture. Of course i did not get a magnolia warbler... or canada. The habitat wasnt good for them but o well.On the bottom of road theres a field that had 5 bobolinks, and a alder flycatcher near by. 4 thrushes: hermit,wood,veery,swainsons. Magnolia warbler seems to be my nemesis bird. And big thanks to birdgirl because the R2D2 thing totally helped find me a Bobolink :)

I got good pictures of black throated green, black throated blue, blackburnian, and chesnut sided. Ill start off with the chesnut sides

He turned around on the perch giving some cool oppurtunities to get back shots.

Memorial weekend excitement

2009-05-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

Bird-boy is ready for this upcoming weekend. I have been waiting for this for 2 months. My birding extravanganza. I am goin up to the the warbler breeding ground in vermont. My uncle owns a cabin on a huge mountain road in southern vermont. The habitat is unbeleivable. There are possibably 5 houses and millions of birds. Well I hope there is. The road has all habitats. At the base is a hgue field with nesting bobolinks. Then you wake your way up a stream wetland habitat, more fields, and dense dense conifers. My uncle is a birder and says its awesome. SOme key warblers he said nesting that I am excited for is Blackburnian,canada,magnolia,bt green, bt blue. Its a bird-boys candyshop. Wish me luck and i hope to come home with some beautiful shots.

Bird-boys anger--- Maybe I am excited because my warbler luck in New york sucks. This blue winged warbler shot i got the other day. He was singing right at me. When i took the shot a leaf must have swayed in fornt of his face urrrrrrrrrgggggg

Small birds in flight....too hard

2009-05-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

I find it almost impossible to get a passerine in flight. They are so fast and unpredictable. Every picture I ahve of a small bird in flight is quite horrible. There is something that always can go wrong. I had a scarlet tanager as you can see below, perfectly in focus off the branch... too bad i was on the worst possible shutter speed making the red bird look black.

The parairie warbler is just bad

Swallow out of frame

Yellow warbler that can be confused with a plane.

Nesting warblers

2009-05-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

I traveled to a local nature preserve yesterday. It was late about 5. I can not get enough of warblers so when my parents can drive me somewhere, were gone. Well we took a path through these huge powerlines. The habitat beneath them was awesome. Tons of prairie warblers called. Dont forget the blue wings. I really hope i can pull a golden winged warbler from that place this year. We were there for about a half hour and also had redstart, b and white, oriole, and scarlet tanager. This weekend i will wake up early and see if anything is different. Urggh school. I should go to tommorow but noooo, math class at 7:45 ewww

More migration

2009-05-11T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures from Jamaica Bay and forest park. The coolest part of the trip was a canada warbler. Such awesome colors. Sadly the only picture of him i got was him high tailing it out of my frame :( Got some pictures of other things including Northern Water thrush, black throated blue, parula, common yellowthroat, american redstart

Spring Migration!

2009-05-09T19:04:00.001-07:00

I really do love spring migration. I went to two birding hotspots today. We started the morning at Jamaica Bay. My favorite bird ever is the magnolia warbler. yet for some reason I have never seen one. When its left im right. When the magnolia is the south garden at Jamaica Bay im in the north. Well today i hit it perfectly. A quick 5 second glimpse made me happy. There were birds everywhere today. We also stopped at forest park where i got a lifer canada warbler..AWESOME!! Here are some pictures but not all at once.

above is btg warbler

above is b&w warbler

above and below chesnut sided warbler at forest park waterhole

Barred Owl Back On Nest

2009-05-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

Last year, I found a Barred Owl nest. It was awesome. I called up a friend and cursed so much i was so happy. They produced two young last year. Well I got a call that they were back in the same tree this year. I went to check it out. Sure enough big mama flew out of the whole when i got close. Not great picture but my first Barred Picture! yay

Warbler Madness

2009-05-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

I went to Jamaica Bay again this weekend. It was crazy. I spent along time training my bird songs. It was almost usless. There were so many birds calling I had no clue where to start. I had around 13 lifers. Unfortuneally it was very gloomy and almost impossible to get a picture of birds with such little light. There were tree swallows all around. I had fun taking pictures of them and the house wrens.

This one was very upset the tree swallow stole his house :(

Bird List

warblers

yellow

myrtle

parula

black and white

common yellow

nashville

chesnut sided

black throated green

black throated blue

blue winged

ruby crowned kinglet

white eyed vireo

blue headed vireo

white crowned sparrow

green winged teal

baltimore oriole

orchard oriole

rose breasted grosbreak

scarlet tanager

great crested flycatcher

tree swallow

rough winged swallow

chimney swift

barn swallow

Very yellow yellow warbler

2009-04-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

The warbler season is starting to pick up. I went to a local park where I heard tons of yellow warblers. There were four in one tree! By spishing one came right into a close tree. There red striped breasts are cool.

Warblers Back In Town

2009-04-25T20:42:00.001-07:00

Took a birding trip over to Jamaica Bay and Hempstead Lake state park. It is still a little early but we had some nice birds. I had two life birds today.. YAYAYA I spent all winter practicing my warbler calls and it paid off. We started at Jamaica Bay where it seemed slow. I am hopefully going next weekend. We had A black crowned night heron, myrtle and yellow warblers. I perfectly knew the yello warblers song... sweet sweeet so so sweet. They were hard to get pictures of. Then we left for Hempstead. We had yellow and palm right off the bat, but for some reason did not get a picture. Then we started the walk. And my warbler calls paid off again. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ BEEEEEEEE. I yelled blue winged warbler. The darn thing never left the bushes, teasing us with his song. Then we had a Blue headed vireo. It was awesome looking. One of my life birds. I got one good picture of him. Then right before we got into car, I heard a crazy call> Prairie warbler> had some cool photo ops with this guy. LAst pictures are best

Below is the Yellow Warbler and Yellow rumped Warbler

Blue headed vireo below

Here starts the awesome prairie warbler

Killdeer and Kestrels

2009-04-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Still waiting for the passerine migrants i decided to shoot the kestrels still hanging around. I found the strategy to get oppurtunities. I used the high northwest winds to might advantage. When you chase them they will fly away quickly. I did the sit in wait game today. I would sit south to where they were hovering and hunting. They all seemed to hunt one patch north to east. They would hover then move 20 feet to te right and hover. But the way i got my shots was when they north wind hit them right over my head. The only problem they were so fast and so close it was actually hard to get them in frame and focused. The killdeer were much easier. I heard them fly in. I knew exactly where they would be. There are little stone paths next to field. I got pretty close to these guys. I wonder if the killdeer was sitting on the nest?

What warbler are you aiming for this spring

2009-04-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

You dont understand how these past two months felt knowing warblers were on their way. I started birding two years ago and was mainly into raptors. Now i am starting to branch off into other birds. Therefore this will be my first big spring for warblers. I have all the spots ready to be checked out. Im getting my calls down. The biggest problem for me is telling the diffference between the magnolia and the hooded warbler haha what a bird nerd!! Well Magnolia has to be my favorite warbler. I have never seen one but i really want to. My bud James Vellozzi went to Main last year and got amazing shots of magnolia and blackburnian warblers. He also got some awesome shots of cerulean here in NY. These are three species i have never seen but i am hoping to see this spring.

Here are pictures James vellozzi took of these species. He is still updating his new website but sent me these shots through email last year. His website jamesvellozzinaturephotography.com If anyone is wondering hes the one that took the header shot. I missed that day :(

The late short eared

2009-04-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures from the short eared owl. I did not get good shots of them. But that is ok because i had many oppurtunities earlier in the winter. I am so happy about these Owls because i waited two years to get them at this park which is 5 minutes from my house. I am also the only lucky guy that sighted them here this year. It was really windy and they jetted around being chased by crows. The wind pushed the bird in the pictures backwards with his butt facing me . So my best picture is his butt.... :( well I went crazy with joy when i saw them so here are some pictures.

Better kestrels

2009-04-13T12:31:00.001-07:00

My third try at the kestrels paid off. I ended up getting some nice shots. Also 2 short eared Owls played a nice surprise. They have been found here twice in the last two years, so i feel happy that i found them. I will post those later. Anyways the kestrels! This park is located on the hudson river. There are many migrants that follow the river and land here. So, there are usually lots of kestrels. If there are 50 kestrels that come here and go, one will have to be a good bird that lets me get some good shots. Even though i got some good shots, my card filled up right when he was 20 feet away. Urrggg never perfect

Waiting for Warblers

2009-04-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

I have been mostly a raptor guy since i started birding 2 and a half years ago. But i am starting to spread tot he passerines. I want to get some good warbler shots, so i need to be perfect. I need to get their calls down pat. I made warbler flash cards just likee i make spanish flash cards. Yellow warbler on front, and sweet sweet so so sweet on the back. I am going to the store to hopefully buy a cd, with bird songs. Then instead of listening to regular music in the shower i will listen to the black throated blue warbler haha. Warbler season is really only a few weeks away and I have a lot of work to do. I have a place I am going where there are the following warblers nesting

1.) Cerulean

2.) Hooded
3.) prarie

4.)yellow

5.)Blue winged

6.) golden winged

7.) black and white

during migration i saw black throated blue and black throated green and chesnt sided warbler too.

The early migrants are on the way though. At a local park yesterday i came up with chipping sparrows, pine warblers calling, a palm warbler, my first osprey, and kestrels, and bluebirds.

Brawl of the Hawks

2009-04-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i went to a local park that has a large field. It contains bunches of kestrels during the migration time. There were 3 or 4 yesterday. But they dont like me. We would walk on side of the field and none would be there. So we look and yup they are on the other side of the field. So we make are way to the other side. With out us seeing we look back and they are now hovering where we stood 2 minutes ago. 4 kestrels and not one pictures yesterday, well ill try again today. The coolest part of yesterday was a male harrier, he usually flew by relatively close. when i was leaving him and a red tail started going at it. The red tail took the harriers attention off me and i took some shots. Harriers have been a hard species to get pictures of.

A little out of focus but i got the two in the same frame

the harrier dipped and dived

Some more Tail

2009-04-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

Here is another set of pictures from the very cooperative Red-tail. This was at a local park so he is very calm around humans. If only Rough legged Hawks were like this. I find this time of year is abd and boring for birds. Its too later for winter birds and too early for the migrants. Maybe i should use this time to pay attention in school :)

Red tail showing some leg fuzz

2009-04-03T19:57:00.000-07:00

Luckily this is a male red tail because his legs are pretty furry. This is the same Red tail from the mating pair. He came right in and sat on a pole 10 feet away( future post) but right now is the red tail hovering and landing. I think they are my best Red tail shots. Tell me what ya think!

April Fools

2009-04-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

Since today is April fools day I had to do something different. I also downloaded a photoshop like thing called gimp. It is awesome and I had a lot of fun playing around with it. I was testing it out on some of my photos. I did some cross genetics on my photos and invented three new species of raptors!!!! We have the rough legged eagle, the keserlin, and the short tail hawk( which is a real species i think)... Well i think they are funny. APRIL FOOLS

Below is the infamous Rough Legged Eagle ( bald eagle+rough leg)

Of course the Short tailed Hawk (redtail+Short eared)

My favorite the keserlin( Merlin+Kestrel)

Awesome Pics

2009-03-29T14:57:00.001-07:00

I dont have any new pictures to post right now, so i thought i would post some of my friends pictures. he just made a website check it out, jamesvellozzinaturephotography.com

He awesome pictures of a crap load, of species. He hasnt even finished his webiste because of all the material he has to upload. I thank him very much because he is one of my photography mentors and drives me around :) Here is just a few of his great pictures

Spring migration

2009-03-25T17:17:00.001-07:00

Hawks are continuing to move northward to their breeding grounds. Sunday at Hook mountain Hawk watch we got a fair number of hawks. We had a merlin, but probably a mile over head.....you can tell by the horrible shot. At Croton Point park there are kestrels on the landfill. I chased one male around. They are such annoying birds to photograph. You can never get close to them. Hope you like the pics :)

Below are the kestrel pictures, Yep all of them is him flying away from me

Below is a immature red shouldered hawk migrating over hawk, They have windows on their wings which seperates them from red tails.

And here is that horrible merlin shot i was talking about.

Peregrine with Prey

2009-03-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

You are lucky when you can get to see peregrines hunt. They are so fast and very successful hunters. It is always fun to see what the peregrines hunt, Here is a picture i took a of peregrine with a bird in its talons. Its a pretty bad picture but you can see red on it.

Photographer Steve sachs has some cool pictures of peregrines with birds in its talons. Below is a picture he took with a oriole in its talons. his website with tons of raptor photos here

On the quest for a saw-whet

2009-03-21T08:17:00.001-07:00

Being a birder, one of the best feelings is finding a rare bird. In the fall i help band Saw-whet owls at a local banding location. Some also stay and winter in Hudson river valley. Here is a website showing information on Saw-whets in Hudson river valley. Last winter was a very good year for them down here. We found a lot, over 15! Well this year we went back to all those places and saw nothing not even a pellet. Then about two weeks ago i went hiking through a very urban local park. I saw some small conifers and decided to check them. Unbelievably i found a good amount of pellets and whitewash. Its in a perfect area, a hill going down to a stream. There were several patches of conifers with whitewash and pellets. But ofcourse they werent fresh. It looked as if i missed the Owl by 2-3 weeks. I am checking now as it might come back to migrate.

Below are pictures of the habitat in which Saw-whets roost
they like small conifers during the winter time

Look for white wash and pellets, for evidence of an owl

Red tails mating

2009-03-17T13:17:00.001-07:00

I had a very unusual encounter at a local park this weekend. A Red tail was sitting right above me in a tree. I started taking pictures when through my view screen another red tail landed on her. I didnt know what was going on at first until i realized they were mating. As awkward as it was i stood there and took pictures. I thought someone would think they were cool. The female Hawk has only one eye and has survived like that for three years.

How not to get birds at your feeder

2009-03-15T09:35:00.001-07:00

I built a platform feeder the other day. Its not the best but it seems like it can work. I was hoping to get some orioles this spring to come. Well there was one problem with the feeder. The cat was on patrol...

She sits under it for shade, but it gets worse.

She thinks it would be fun to get on it..

And then she laughs when she knocks it over.

Peregrine

2009-03-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

Before the red shoulders on sunday, it was dark and gloomy. We made a trip to the local peregrines. Luckily they are very close to the hawk watch. Above the cliffs thousands of red winged black birds were migrating north. The Peregrines kept flying back and chasing them. They chased crows, and almost caught a bird in my camera view. Well these are the shots i got, I will hopefully get a lot of better oppurtunities. If you know about cameras, i had to shoot at iso 1600 :(

A red shoulder day

2009-03-08T15:59:00.001-07:00

Today was most defenitely a red shoulder day. It is that time of the year, that Red shoulders are moving back to nesting grounds. So with the warm weathers i went up to Hook mountain Hawk watch. We stayed from 10-11. And we got 7 adult red shoulders migrating. It was the most i have ever seen. But that wasnt the last of the shoulders. We traveled an hour to a red shoulder nest site in Connecticutt. The Hawks were all around and screaming. Their song is awesome! I missed some great oppurtunities, but got decent shots. In all a great day.

Below is one of the nesting hawks

Below were taken at Hook Mountain

So close but yet so far!!

2009-03-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

Inn my few months of photography i have noticed luck is'nt always with you. I have many shots, where the bird has a few mistakes that stop it from being awesome, Full frame birds that are out of focus, or birds where the heads are being covered. Here is a picture of a rough leg taking off. I think the focus is pretty sharp. he was right on the side of the road. But ofcoure when i took the picture his wing was covering his head........

i

2009-03-02T09:37:00.000-08:00

Before I had my canon dslr, i used a video camera to record things i saw. here is a video i took last march. These peregrines nest on the palisades cliffs. It was very hard to follow them with the video camera. They went very fast. Hopefully this year i will get some good pictures of them. On my sidebar are more videos i took. Hope you like it

fly over peregrine

2009-02-26T14:40:00.000-08:00

It is always good have to your camera in the car. I was going across the Hudson on the tappanzee bridge when this guy flew by. I opened up sun roof and got shots while my camera was on auto. I could atleast put a check down next to peregrine! peregrines are very common on the Hudson. They nest on many of the bridges and cliffs.

Belted Kingfisher

2009-02-24T16:22:00.000-08:00

I was down at croton poitn park the other day. I took a walk down to the beach. There was a good amount of eagles fishing down on the river. We were watching two fight for a fish. Out of the corner of my eye, i saw a smaller bird start zooming towards me. I thought it was a falcon it was going so fast. It turned out to be a belted Kingfisher. It never got too close, but good enough for a picture. It would have been cool to see his crown up. Hopefully in the summer time there will be more, and i will get better uppurtunites for a shot!

Long eared owl

2009-02-22T18:16:00.000-08:00

Last weekend i had the perfect opportunity to get a good shot of a long eared owl. But ofcourse i messed it up. My friend James vellozzi found a great roost site. We pulled up and there was one sitting on the outside of the conifer. It was perfect. I didnt think to use manual focus and looking back now, i know i should have. You can still identify the bird though.. thats always good haha

Vulture vrs. rough leg

2009-02-20T15:23:00.000-08:00

Dark morph rough legs and turkey vultures can easily be confused. They are black with white parts of the wings. I got a picture of a dark morph rough leg, and a vulture to show a comparison. I took these on the same day.
Below is a Dark morph rough legged hawk

Below is a Turkey vulture

The mighty falcon

2009-02-19T21:06:00.000-08:00

I found a merlin along with the kestrels and other winterign raptors. We pulled u pretty close to this guy. I shot from the sunroof, which is the best way to get good shots. Hopefully this fall i will get even better shots, of this species. At fire island hawk watch i have seen over 300 merlins fly by in a single day. The best part is they are all eye level. In spring time i will post pictures of my favorite bird the peregrine falcon. They nest twenty minutes from my house!

Rough Legged Hawks

2009-02-19T05:58:00.001-08:00

I have a lot of pictures of these hawks as they are everywhere. This post is a a bunch of light morph rough legs. I will make another post with dark morphs. There is also a red tail, which i think is in focus and sharp. For some reason i cant get the rough legs in focus! Hope you like the pictures!

Below is a redtail, sorry if it is a little small :(

Kestrels on the Highway

2009-02-12T14:34:00.000-08:00

Going on a major highway i saw a kestrel perched on the wires. There most common place to see a kestrel. Since it was on a major Highway it was more comfortable as we pulled up to it. I got to take some perched pictures and some cool pictures of it jumping off the wires. They are the prettiest birds, but definitely one of the hardest to get great pictures of.

Barn Owl!!!!

2009-02-10T17:41:00.001-08:00

Sunday me and my birder friends came upon a Barn Owl. We walked into a Barn, and a Barn owl flew out!! Me and Steve Sachs started blasting our cameras. Of course the bird never looked at me once. But at least it is cool to see the colors on their back. We have been getting very lucky this winter. Our other bird friend James Vellozzi, who is also a great photographer has a knack for finding birds. Well here are the pictures i got. Steve Sachs kindly sent me a photo of the barn owl he got, he was lucky enough to get its face. Therefore the picture i post with the barn owls face is his. View his website here.

Below is a picture taken by Steve Sachs

Eagle on the hudson

2009-02-08T17:41:00.000-08:00

Located right on the Hudson River, its not hard to find Bald eagles. My friend located a Golden eagle at one of our favorite birding locations yesterday!! Here are some pictures of a bald eagle coming right over my head! I was birding with Steve Sachs today. He is a very experienced and well known photographer. He is my mentor and consider him one of the best photographers. Check out his work at here
click on pictures and make larger.

RoadSide Redtail

2009-02-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

Driving along a road, my buddy caught this bird out of the corner of his eye. It was beautifully lit up with the sun shining on him. I went through the sun roof and shot this bird for 15 minutes. The bird did not mind us at all, and kept munching away at its prey. These pictures may be a little graphic!

More Short Ears

2009-02-04T09:17:00.001-08:00

At around 3:00 pm everyday the short ears will come up and start hunting. They roost all day in the ditches and tall grasses. At times twenty short ears will be flying around you. They make really funny sounds like little dogs. They play around with eachother, and lock talons. They are really fun to watch. They fly really weird, people say they fly like moths. When you see them on the ground they look tiny but their wings are huge when the fly. Heres some more pics!!

Wintering Owls

2009-02-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

In the winter Short eared owls and Rough legged hawks make their way south and winter in the hudson valley. If you find a big farm you will find the raptors. You may have seen these pictures on owlbox.blogspot.com but i thought i should add them here.