Birds

Birds in Rockland County and Orange County

May 31, 2010 by Corey 3 Comments

I spent a great day on Saturday, 29 May, visiting a variety of parks in Orange County and Rockland County in downstate New York with a fellow Queens birder, Seth, and a Rockland County birder, Gene.  Though, really, to call either of them “birder” doesn’t give a complete picture of what they are about considering the diverse array of life forms that pique their interest.  Over the course of the day we looked at birds and plants and dragonflies and reptiles and mammals and butterflies and amphibians and more but a single blog post could not contain the images I got of all of those things.  This post, therefore, is focused on just birds, which are, of course, my primary focus.  If you want to see the reptiles and amphibians, well, just click here.

Sadly, some of the best birds of the day, birds that are good anywhere to anyone, like Hooded Warbler and Golden-winged Warbler, managed to dodge my camera, as did some species that are really cool for a New York City dweller, like Wild Turkey and Broad-winged Hawk.  Nonetheless, the birds that did pause in front of my digiscoping rig long enough to be photographed are, I think, worthy of this blog post anyway.

Blue-winged Warbler Vermivora pinus

Yellow-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus americanus

horrible picture of a singing Cerulean Warbler Dendroica cerulea

Black Vulture Coragyps atratus

Indigo Bunting Passerina cyanea

Barred Owl Strix varia

Eventually, I will post on the cool insects that we saw but they are taking me quite a bit longer to identify…stay tuned!

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.