Autumn, Fall, etc

Cooper’s Hawk Accipiter cooperii

Find the Winter Wren Troglodytes hiemalis

Common Raven Corvus corax

Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina

Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina

Eastern Grey Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis

Super Harvest Moon in partial eclipse

NDG, Sept 22, 2024

-Plenty of Chipping Sparrows around, in a confusing mix of plumages.

-A Winter Wren tisked several times from dense brush, but would not show itself.

-I watched a squadron of Northern Flickers fly across a clearing. Just as the last one was about to reach the relative safety of a row of trees, a Cooper’s Hawk collided with it in a dramatic mid-air puff of feathers. The flicker gave a long call as the pair fell into the grass in a spinning tangle, then went silent. The Cooper’s Hawk fed for a good long while, while the other Northern Flickers called angrily from the trees.

-Decent numbers of Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows moving through the scrubby edges.

-No warblers or kinglets, bummer.

-Still quite buggy.

-18 species in 90 minutes.

Birds of late, late

White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis

American Robin Turdus migratorius
(juvenile)

Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus

Woodchuck/Groundhog/Siffleur Marmota monax

Catching up, innit.

NDG, September 15

-Hot and summery, feeling like 30+ degrees

-Black flies were out in full force, silently tearing chunks from my scalp

-The Song Sparrow nursery has cleared out, but I stumbled across quite a few juvenile American Robins bumbling around in a dark woods

-Seasonal movement: 6+ Northern Flickers and 8+ White-throated Sparrows

-12 species in an hour

-No warblers

Blackburnian Warbler Setophaga fusca

Bay-breasted Warbler Setophaga castanea

Wilson’s Warbler Cardellina pusilla

Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia

Eastern Grey Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis

NDG, September 8

-Plenty of warblers peeping through the treetops, but the stout wind and backlit overcast made finding and identifying them tricky

-Five warbler species (low single-digit numbers of Magnolia, Cape May, Blackburnian, Bay-breasted, and Wilson’s Warbler)

-16 species in 2 hours

-12 degrees and blustery

Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus

Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina

NDG, September 1

-Pretty quiet on the first of September, with 9 species in 90 minutes

-Two ‘sparrow nurseries’ were encountered (Song and Chipping Sparrow)

Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis

Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice

NDG, August 27

-12 species in an hour

-A migrating Eastern Wood-Pewee was notable

Common Nighthawk Chordeiles minor

Common Nighthawk Chordeiles minor

Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus
Tufted Titmouse Baeolophus bicolour

Carolina Wren Thryothorus ludovicianus

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Polioptila caerulea

Eastern Wood-Pewee Contopus virens

Nyawk, August 24-25

Awesome to watch a platoon of Common Nighthawks overhead at dusk on the 24th. They circled and fluttered overhead for five minutes before melting away to the south. A small patch of woods in the hills of Saugerties held a bounty of species that are uncommon in the Montreal area, such as Carolina Wren, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Wood Thrush (and the aforementioned Common Nighthawk).