Greetings,

With a few minutes today before an obligatory bank run, I took a quick 15 minute walk down the local trail near my house in Claverack (Columbia County). Within the first 100 feet I found several Cedar Waxwings and Gray Catbirds, including young of both, as well as a small mixed species flock.

The first bird spotted in the flock was a female ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK that did not yield great looks unfortunately due to her secretive nature. With a little coaxing however, a few more birds popped into view including great looks at MAGNOLIA, CHESTNUT-SIDED, and PINE WARBLERS, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, and a single female Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Walking down the trail further yielded a nice look at a male BLUE-WINGED WARBLER, and 2 CLIFF SWALLOWS flew overhead. At the cattle pen pond there was a single Great Blue Heron (again), however this time it had a whopper of a fish that it was trying to swallow (12-14″). Unfortunately as I tried digibinocularing a photo at a great distance, it dropped the fish, so a positive id on this fish was not had.

All in all for a quick 15 minute walk it was a great spot of birds, and I hope to get out some more when time allows. In fact, I think I will try tonight for migrating birds, and if anything interesting turns up I will post about it tomorrow.

Bird on!

~Chad