Close to home….
Looking south from the summit of Bear Mountain…… Composite panorama - Nikon Zfc with Z 24mm f/2.8 1/125 sec, f'/11, ISO 250
With the forecast for some severe thunderstorms on the horizon this afternoon, I decided to stay close to home and visit two of my favorite sites. The first area is narrow two lane road that is not heavily traveled and runs through some pretty habitat parallel to a stream. Mine Road is actually part of the West Point Military Reservation and at times is inaccessible due to training maneuvers. Today, it’s wide open and very quiet, however. Fortunately, the bird song was not quiet and the air was filled with bird song. The down side was that very few of the birds chose to come out into the open, and getting photos was quite difficult. In spite of all the chatter, only two birds really made a decent showing to the point that they could be captured by the camera.
Red-winged blackbird - Mine Road Nikon Z8 with Z 100-400 zoomed all the way out. 1/1250 sec. f/7.1, ISO 200
The Red-winged blackbirds love marsh and grassland habitat where they can find an abundance of the favorite items on the menu - seeds and insects. About 3/4 of an adult’s diet consists of seed from grasses and weeds of which there are an abundance along the roadway. These birds are among the most loquacious and can be heard along this stretch of road at any time of day. This bird perched at the topmost branch of the highest ash sapling and sat there singing away for what seemed like an interminable period of time. It seems like when you’re trying to catch the bird in flight, they decide it’s time for a siesta and you really have to be patient in order to catch lift off. Eventually, the red-wing did oblige and gave me a pretty nicely lit image. The red shoulder patches are generally bordered in yellow as seen on this male. Females look more like big sparrows and have very little in common with the male as far as appearance goes.
In close proximity to the red-wing, a beautiful Baltimore oriole was singing its song. Rich and pure the notes of this oriole carry long distances and can give the impression that the bird is much closer than it actually is. This bird was fortunately nearby and came flying in over head to give me a nice shot. This is my third oriole species of the year. The Spot-breasted is quite rare and is pretty much relegated to the southern parts of our country. I did manage to get a photo of him which can be found in an earlier post from the Miami area. The second oriole was the Orchard oriole which was the subject of a post from the recent past. All quite different in plumage and song and all beautiful.
The final two images of the day we taken at the summit of Bear Mountain, another of our favorite spots to visit and the home of our Fall Hawkwatch. My wife tells me to avoid saying “always” when referring to the cbances of finding a bird in a certain location year after year. BUT….every year in early to mid-May, I (dare I say it?) always find the Prairie warbler. Very distinctive in song and plumage, this bird loves high elevations in spite of its name. I always tell new birders to look for the little football players with the black under the eyes which may in fact help reduce glare when these birds are trying to catch insects on the wing. So happy to be able to count on this little gem year after year at one of my absolute favorite places on the planet.
After spending some time and taking a lot of shots, the bird and I decided to part company (or at least he did) and away he flew. As is seen in the image at the top of this post, the clouds were thickening and it became obvious that it was about time to head down off the mountain. This was my first visit up here since our return from the south, but for sure we will make many return trips to this bit of paradise that is so “close to home”.
