Greetings,

With a little time this afternoon, I decided to go do some birding in nearby Greene County on the west side of the Hudson River. My main goal today was to look for some winter gulls, waterfowl, field birds, and of course raptors. For those not familiar with Greene County, one of the better areas to bird in the winter is in and around the town of Coxsackie and its nearby grasslands. For those looking for winter waterfowl and gulls, the Coxsackie Boat Launch is a good site to start. Here, one can often find Bald Eagle, winter ducks (before ice becomes too thick), and various gulls that are perhaps hard to find elsewhere along the Hudson River (white-winged gulls: Iceland/Glaucous, and Lesser Black-backed). Winter raptors of note that are often around in abundance in the grasslands include Northern Harrier and Rough-legged Hawk, as well as the occasional owl (Short-eared, Snowy). Today, these all were on my target list as most have been reported in the past few days.

Starting off at Four Mile Point Preserve, I was able to find several large flocks of Black-capped Chickadees, but nothing of note was observed flocking with them other than a few White-breasted Nuthatches and Tufted Titmice. While they all came in readily for a fair Screech-Owl imitation, no creepers or kinglets were found. Just beyond the preserve on the same road, an overlook facing the mouth of the Stockport Creek yielded a high-perched adult Bald Eagle. This would be my only eagle on the day. After leaving the Four Mile Point area, I bombed up to the Coxsackie Boat Launch. As I approached the boat launch area I noticed several large flocks of gulls streaming overhead away from the river towards their feeding spot at the local correctional facility. My immediate thought was ****! With all the gulls heading away, I had less of a chance of finding any of my target gulls (Iceland, Glaucous, and Lesser Black-backed). This obviously comes with the fact that with the more gulls in one spot, there is a greater percentage that the remaining flock will contain a valuable species.

However, I was not totally disappointed. As I got out of my car and assessed the gull situation (two to three dozen), I put my binoculars on the closest group of three. As I did, I noticed one of the individuals immediately was a white-winged gull. Upon further inspection, it quickly showed itself to be a 1st year Iceland Gull. Not far from it actually, was a second Iceland Gull of the same age class. These would be the only gulls of interest at this first scan of the gulls. Other birds of note at this time included several Common Mergansers (the most common diving duck during ice conditions), and a small roving flock of Eastern Bluebirds that actually snuck up behind me while I photographed the Iceland Gull (poorly, by the way). One male bluebird allowed fairly decent photos through my binoculars considering the light conditions (see below).

After leaving the boat launch, I headed down for Farm to Market Road, a quick loop that I do often to look for raptors and field birds. In this area were several raptors including a female Northern Harrier, two Red-tailed Hawks, and a single dark-morphed Rough-legged Hawk that perched near the road and allowed for a quick photograph. While it was not the darkest dark-morph that I have come across, it was certainly stunning in its chocolate brown plumage.

After leaving this area of the grasslands, I headed up to the Serta Factory on 9W, a site which has historically produced Northern Shrike for myself, as well as more of the common raptors. Staying here for a good while, I had no luck turning up the shrike, or the reported Snowy Owl, which I found out later on was discovered at this site. Disappointed with my results so far, I headed back down to the boat launch to search for more gulls, which I found. However, I only discovered one more Iceland (three total) among the now larger gathering of gulls. The other thing I came across was 1 Richard Guthrie. Richard stated that as close back as Sunday, two 1st year Glaucous Gulls were present at the site. He stated that they were rather bright individuals that stood out fairly easily. No such luck today! We chatted for a bit before parting ways. I headed back up to the Serta Factory to look for the Snowy Owl, as well as any shrikes. Once again, I struck out, but I did discover three Eastern Meadowlarks weakly flying around before perching in some short grass showing off a bright yellow breast against the white snow.

All in all, it was a fun time, and I loved watching the Iceland Gulls. Coxsackie has some real good opportunities for winter raptors and gulls, and even if one isn’t looking for specialties, the gulls provide lots of learning opportunities as it is often stated that to be good at identifying gulls, one needs to be good at aging them. I don’t want to talk too much of Coxsackie as others have much more experience there then I do (Richard for one), but I would definitely suggest trying it out if you live in the Capital District area. Speaking of Richard, he tried the Serta factory a few hours after I did at dusk, and easily spotted the Snowy Owl atop a post, as well as a Northern Shrike right where I should have seen it at the Cul-de-sac. Also of interest, several Short-eared Owls were found hunting in a field a few miles away. All of this gives me confidence in trying this area again in a couple of days, especially if the weather for the weekend keeps my girlfriend and I from driving north to look for the Northern Hawk Owl in Peru, NY and all the other reported owls (Snowy and Short-eared) along the way.

Bird on!
Chad