Last weekend, I took an impromptu birding trip with my friends, Jon and Steve. Steve invited us along to chase a Painted Bunting that was just over the Pennsylvania border in Andover, New Jersey. A beautiful male life bird at a private feeder that can be viewed from a public trail? Sounded like a plan! We had vague plans afterward to go to Wallkill New York for some field birds. We had no idea what the day would end up being as epic as it was.
When we arrived at the location for the bunting, it started to snow. Thankfully, the bird had been hanging out in a tree right before we got there. After a nice scope view, he flew to the feeder.
Painted Bunting on a private feeder
A life bird for all three of us. He flew into the brush shortly after and disappeared for some time, probably finding shelter from the weather. Satisfied enough, we left and made our way to Wallkill, New York.
On the way up, we drove through some farmland back roads and said hello to various local cows. We found a large flock of Horned Larks feeding on the melted parts of the field. Every time they would get close, a car would pass, so I did not get any good photos of them.
We arrived in Wallkill almost two hours later. We made our way through the marked paths, even though the snow was a foot or more deep. The first owl was spotted in the distance, followed by another who wanted the perch. We saw several Rough-legged Hawks flying around and perched in trees – at least six of them that we could differentiate all at once. We also saw a Bald Eagle flying in the distance and a Red-shouldered Hawk perched near the parking lot.
Rough-legged Hawk in flight
We walked around the paths, through the deep snow, looking for any way would lead us to a better location. We decided to go to a hunting blind across the field where some of the owls were perched (one was ON the blind). While we were walking, most of the owls slowly made their way into a single tree stand. It was really cool to see all of them in one spot!
Four Short-eared Owls in the trees
I also got my closest views of this beautiful bird.
Short-eared Owl perched
We made out way to the blind, but just as I set my camera up, the owl who was perched nearby flew off to meet the other birds.
Short-eared Owl in flight
We decided to settle in the blind to see if the birds would come in close. That lasted all of five minutes after I checked Facebook to see this message:
3:30 PM Saturday: Curt McDermott reports that the GYRFALCON is being seen now at Hoagerburgh Road near Bates Lane at Blue Chip Farm, Wallkill, Ulster County
That was in the exact area that we were. This Gyrfalcon was reported the day before, but they aren’t known to stick around, so we did not have high hopes of seeing it. That changed quickly! We trudged back through the snow to the car and made our way to Bates Lane. The line of cars gave the exact location away.
This is not even a quarter of the Gyrfalcon crowd, more were in front of me
We could see the bird sitting on top of a pole as soon as we got out of the car. It stayed in the same spot for the entire twenty-or-so minutes that we hung out until a Red-tailed spooked it off. It was nice to watch the flight too!
Gyrfalcon iPhone-scoped
Scope views were beautiful. This was not my lifer Gyrfalcon – I saw one at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge a couple of years ago, but I did not get these same killer looks at it for this long, let alone decent photos, so this was a real treat.
We started the day with a rare bird from the southern US and ended the day with a rare arctic visitor. In-between these two amazing birds, we saw six Rough-legged Hawks and seven Short-eared Owls – two species that the three of us enjoyed very much. This day easily completes with the top birding days of my “career!”