Heavy rainfall in the Black Dirt Region of Orange County NY attracts shorebirds headed north to their breeding grounds. Today was the perfect conditions for viewing many beautiful plovers stopping over to refuel.

Pine Hill Road Marsh in Chester is often a fine place to locate aquatic species of birds like sandpipers and herons. Today, the only visitor was the Great blue heron. The surrounding vegetation was active with warbler and vireo song and activity, however.

My main goal in visiting Silver Mine Lake today was to capture images of Barn swallows on the nest. Too early for that, but just in time to capture a beautiful spring warbler.

Memorial Day is always considered the unofficial start to the summer season, and we found evidence of the emergence of summer at Morgan Farm and the Cranston Lakes today.

A return to Twin Lakes Park in Eastchester to try and capture images of the birds I missed earlier this week. Success!

A beautiful sunny day through Twin Lakes Park in Eastchester proves to be more of an auditory experience than visual. Still, several nice captures make the day more than worth while.

images of some of nature’s homeliest critters against some of here most beautiful made for a quick sampling of both back at Iona Island.

A visit to a local marsh provides me with some excellent views of shorebirds which have migrated over a thousand miles to be with us in New York today.

A walk along the banks of a pond during the spring can yield a surprising amount of wildlife coming to life. One has only to look and listen…….

A walk through Black Rock Forest produced a nice diversity of birds, reptiles, and amphibians as we experienced this living laboratory.

A great morning of birding which was prefaced with a morning chorus of at least 17 birds singing and calling from the surrounding forest. Signs of a great day of birding ahead.

A short trip to the Hudson River and the Newburgh Waterfront proves to be fruitful as a rare Neotropic cormorant makes a repeat appearance just off shore.

With the weather looking rather ominous, I decided to stay close to home and bird two of my favorite local haunts….Mine Road and Bear Mountain.

The Bashakill is an incredible wetland habitat serving as a home or stop-over for many various species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians as well as spectacular flora.

Like clockwork, when the Kentucky Derby weekend arrives, we can expect to see our first Rose-breasted grosbeaks of the season. They’ll stick around for a week or two, and then move on, continuing their journey north.