Winter Turns to Spring, and Birds Abound
By Brian Kluepfel
By Brian Kluepfel As the last (hopefully) snows of the winter recede with each day, I look forward to the spring migration and more comfortable walking weather. It’s also possible that higher temperatures may benefit my aching knee.
But that doesn’t mean it’s been an entirely barren landscape over the past few months. Venturing out to a few local spots, I’ve seen bald eagles, house finches, Carolina wrens, plenty of northern cardinals, the ubiquitous and raucous corvids (crows, ravens and jays) and even eastern bluebirds. Not to mention the eager house sparrows who congregate on my porch every morning for a handful of seed.
I have many people to thank for keeping my interest in birding alive. Anne Swaim, executive director of Saw Mill River Audubon, added me to a Whatsapp group for local bird sightings. Though I made a couple of missteps in the first two weeks, once group-replying and once mis-identifying a duck, I haven’t been kicked off yet. (I fear an expulsion committee may be forming, however.)
I’d also like to thank my friends, Karalyn Lamb of Pollinator Pathway Northeast for hipping me to the Whatsapp group’s existence, and Larry Trachtenberg for giving me good directions and warning me of the many potholes on the New Croton Reservoir perimeter road.
My comrade, Scott Craven, of the Ossining Public Library, a man who’d you definitely want on your pub quiz team, sends me updates from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Almanac. This includes citizen science sightings of river denizens like the glass eel, a “fish of the week,” (of 233 fish species in the river!) and lots of bird and mammal activity. Did you know that “northern stargazers have an organ in their head that can deliver an electric charge that can stun prey and perhaps ward off predators?” I didn’t even know such a fish existed.
People see seals way upriver from the ocean; people find evidence of eagles murdering pileated woodpeckers. People see all sorts of things. Finch irruptions in Ulster, seal spotting off Cold Spring, the almanac is a trove of contemporary Hudson Valley natural history. So thanks, Scott.
Today my favorite birding partner – my wife Paula – and I saw three different woodpecker species, some tufted titmice, dark-eyed juncos, a house finch, a pair of red-tailed hawks and a passel of mourning doves. And that was just taking our compost to Cedar Lane Park in Ossining.
A subsequent drive over to the New Croton Reservoir revealed dozens of coots –the true chickens of the sea – a cormorant and some lovely mergansers. I’d like to say I saw a lesser scaup, too, but I’d hate to guess wrong and get jettisoned from the Whatsapp group.
All in all, lovely birding on a crisp winter’s day, and considering there is both a Quaker Ridge Road and Quaker Bridge Road, and that they actually intersect, it’s a miracle I, not the savviest of suburban navigators, made it home at all.
Good will to all and happy birding.
Brian Kluepfel is a proud member of Saw Mill River Audubon and encourages you to join, buy seed and take part in the beautiful birding community. He also writes for Westchester Magazine, Birdwatching Magazine and the Lonely Planet travel series. Find him at birdmanwalking.com.
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