Birds of a Feather is back with our new blog, Birding and Bonding! Our previous objective remains the same. Our goal is to find all birds that live on Long Island year round. The only rule is that in order to add a bird to our list, we must see it when we are together. That's where the bonding comes in. Life can get so hectic that we sometimes fail to enjoy the more important things. This gives us a wonderful outlet to make sure we take the time.

Of course, Long Island has many migratory birds, as well. We certainly don't want to ignore them. We will blog about them as well. Armed with new cameras and renewed incentive, we look forward to getting back on the birding trail!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Big Day II

Hard to believe but we went birding twice in one week.  After our first Big Day we were so psyched we went out again within the week.  

Again we stayed local, first we went on a bird walk with a guide at the Nissequogue River State Park.  There were six of us in the group, but must of them seemed to be backyard birders not professional birders like us, lol.  

The tour started out on foot and armed with camera's and binoculars we headed over to a pond where we actually saw a new bird for our blog.

We spotted a Gadwall duck.  Up close the male shows a remarkable pattern of intricate markings on all of its body feathers with a white patch under his wings.  

As we continue our trek thru the woods our guide hears a Chipping Sparrow.  Their loud, trilling songs are one of the most common sounds of spring woodlands.  We can't add them to our year-round list but it was the first time we spotted them together.

We also saw another bird that we can add to our list an Eastern Towhee (Rufous-sided Towhee) which is a strikingly marked, over sized sparrow of the East, feathered in bold black and warm reddish-browns – if you can get a clear look at it. Eastern Towhees are birds of the undergrowth, where their rummaging makes far more noise than you would expect for their size. Their chewink calls let you know how common they are, but many of your sightings end up mere glimpses through tangles of little stems.  

The grounds are beautiful and as we went to one particular spot on the grounds we were told that we have a juvenile Bald Eagle that lives on Long Island year-round.
 We searched the skies and all the tops of the trees in search for this Bald Eagle, but it wasn't meant to be this day.


So immediately we made plans to come back until we find our LI Eagle, but at the end of the tour our guide informs us that the State will be demolishing all those abandoned buildings this summer and they will close off portions of the park.  This then facilitates the need to get there quickly.
When we made our way back to the pond we saw some turtles taking in the sun and they were joined by some Mallards.



 







After we left NRSP we decided to head over to Sweetbriar Nature Center.  Though they house many different birds and animals we can't count the ones that are caged.  There was a Fox, Hawk, Vulture, and a Bald Eagle.  

The Nature Center has many trails and supposedly people have spotted Great Blue Heron's so off we go into the woods to see what we can see.  But alas it wasn't meant to be.  We were trying for 30 birds spotted for the day.

All in all we saw 26 birds this day, walking past the abandoned building of the Psychiatric Hospital now part of the NRSP and along the trails of Sweetbriar.  

 



As birders, when faced with many trails you don't always know which one to take, but no matter the direction, birding with your BFF makes any path chosen the right one.
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