Sunday, May 17, 2015

May 17 - Local Breeders

As I have seen most of the migrating Wood-Warblers at the hot spot of Garret Mountain my attention now turns to finding the species I have not seen.  Fortunately several of these species are still 'local' because they can be found within a one-hour drive to some spots in New York's counties of Rockland & Orange.

First up today was Rockland's "Doodletown" which is located just south of the Bear Mountain Bridge.
Here we saw the glorious Cerulean Warbler in very good numbers, which means we see several of them and that includes both sexes.  Another specialty of this place is the Kentucky Warbler, which has been seen here annually since 2009.  Before then I had to go at least 2 hours south into New Jersey to see this species.  Also seen here today was Olive-Sided Flycatcher, another migrant.  The breeders seem were Louisiana Waterthrush, Worm-Eating Warbler, Blue-Winged Warbler, Yellow-Billed Cuckoo, and Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.

Next was a visit to Orange County's Sterling Forest, specifically the Ironwood Road section.  Here the target is the ever declining Golden-Winged Warbler and we were able to see one of the males today.

Finally back in New Jersey we stopped in Bergen County at the Mahwah park known as 'Mary Patrick'.  This Water Company property is open to the public and here we were able to see the Mourning Warbler, thanks to help from Doug M. who kindly showed us the spot where he had seen it earlier afte rit was reported by Rich K.

So today has a good quantity of birds and species, along with the bonus of seeing some of the rarer migrants.