Greetings,

With a quick bout of roadside birding along two of my (new) favorite haunts, I was able to pick up my First of Season (FOS), WILSON’S SNIPE and TREE SWALLOW.

The snipe were in the expected field at the juncture of Miller Road and Route 27B in Churchtown (Columbia County, NY). This field in the past has housed Wilson’s Snipe during spring migration, as well as other types of shorebirds including Killdeer, both Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper, and Pectoral Sandpiper. Of the latter only Killdeer have been observed here so far in 2008 along with the snipe. As always when finding snipe they can be a bit hard to detect at first, but luckily within my first scan I quickly saw a single bird fly a short distance before taking off again, this time joined by a flock totally 23 individuals. The flock whirled around, called, and quickly landed. Of course once they landed their plumage made them nearly invisible and a total of 2 snipe could only be found later with the aid of binoculars from the road.

The next stop at Catskill View Road’s pond yielded little in the way of waterfowl and only a handful were found. In fact only a pair each of Canada Geese, Mallard, and Hooded Mergansers were found. The previous flocks of American Wigeon and Wood Ducks were not to be found. The highlight here however was a pair of Tree Swallows foraging in the breeze over the pond. I couldn’t tell of their luck however as I had a hard time detecting any emergent insects. But there must have been something to feed on as a single Eastern Phoebe was flitting around as well.

As some of you can tell, my birding forays as of late have been brief, and sporadic. This of course can be attributed to my time being given elsewhere. However, despite my lower intensity of birding I have done a good job this spring to come across the expected migrants. Birds I am still hoping to see in the next week before my move to NJ are: Pied-billed Grebe, Belted Kingfisher, and Chipping Sparrow. What luck I’ll have on this will remain to be seen, but for now I’ll enjoy the nightly display of local woodcocks at my girlfriends house. I think that will hold me over nicely….

~Chad