Greetings,

Upon leaving work I met up with Betsi for a little bit of birding across the Hudson River in Greene County this evening just before dark. We made several quick stops throughout the Coxsackie area looking for Northern Shrike, white-winged gull species, and winter raptors. We were successful on most of our attempts.

Our first attempt was for the Northern Shrike that has been spotted as of late at the Coxsackie Creek Grassland Preserve which borders the Serta Mattress factory on route 9W. Driving into the commercial park’s access road we quickly spotted our first of 5 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS at the preserve. A noticeably high amount (4) were of the dark morph variety. As we drove down the road to the cul-de-sac the NORTHERN SHRIKE was quickly found atop a tree on the left hand side of the road. The bird was well observed through binoculars for 5 minutes, however attempts at taking photos were not so lucky. One of the better *ACK* results can be found below. At one point the shrike was observed taking a diving plunge apparently at a prey item only to return to another perch without anything.

After leaving the factory we made our way down to the Coxsackie Boat Launch in search of white-winged gull species. Getting out of the car it was obvious that our chances were slim with the majority of gulls being found down river on an ice float. Later inspection of the float produced no unusual or unexpected species with the three major species being present (Ring-billed, Herring, Great Black-backed). Between the boat launch and the spot further down river Rich and I were able to observe a total of 3 BALD EAGLES, 1 NORTHERN HARRIER, and 1 COMMON GOLDENEYE as birds of note. There were also many Mallards and several American Black Ducks present.

All in all it was a fun outing that ended at Reds Seafood Restaurant with a great meal. I will hopefully try to get back to the area again in the coming week to search for more eagles (with a friend) and white-winged gulls.

Good Birding,
~Chad