Out with the old….

Ice formation along Route 9W at the summit of Storm King Mountain 12/31/25

There have been reports of recent sightings of several Iceland gulls along the waterfront in Newburgh, so I set my sights on making a trip up to that area on this final day of 2025. Along the way over Storm King Mountain, the ice formations resulting from groundwater seeping out of the fractures in the granite bedrock make for a fitting seasonal image. The alternating freezing and thawing of these waters will result in expansion and contraction on almost a daily basis and the fractures are pushed and pulled apart causing surface rocks to be pushed off the face of the readcut. There is a secondary road over the mountain below this major route and that roadway is now closed due to potential rockfalls, so you always have to be cautious when traversing the mountain in winter.

Storm King Mountain 12/31/25

Upon my arrival at the Newburgh waterfront, I can’t help but notice that there are very few gulls of any sort here this morning. A small flock of Ring-billed gulls and a few male Mallards are about the only birds on the Hudson. I surmise that the gulls must have moved over to the opposite side of the river at the Beacon Train Station which is often the case. What is available here on the Newburgh side, however, is a young Bald eagle perched in a tree close to those few Ring-bills and Mallards.

Young Bald eagle overlooking the Hudson at Newburgh 12/31/25

This appears to be a second or third year bird to me as the head is just starting to become all white. He soon takes flight and heads down river. I decide to head across the river via the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge to see if the Iceland gulls have possibly moved over there for the morning.

Vast flock of gulls on the ice at Beacon Train Station - 12/31/25

This will be another one of the “needle-in-a-haystack” exercises as there are hundreds of gulls to scour through in search of the few Iceland gulls. Looking for “cream” colored gulls with white wing-tips among this group can be pretty frustrating, but fortunately I ran into another birding bud of mine who was already on the birds. He had located three of them and pointed them out to me. Although quite distant, they made for easy id through the scope if not great photo ops. After a number of attempts to get the exposure and focussing as good as I could get on these birds, I was able to salvage a “documentary” quality image. Suddenly, they all take flight as another Bald eagle flies overhead. They soon return, however, as the eagle lands in a distant tree.

Iceland gull - Beacon waterfront - 12/31/25

And so, my final bird of 2025 is a bird relatively rare in these parts. The “Kumlien’s” or eastern form of this gull had probably spent the summer in Northeastern Canada where it nests. In winter, the bird is a short-distance migrant normally coming down only as far as New England but occasionally wandering down into the Hudson Valley. I will miss the Hudson Valley and these winter climes, but for now it is “out with the old” and “in with the new” as we bid farewell to 2025 and New York and prepare for 2026 and winter and spring in the sunshine state.