Adirondacks Birding Day I...

Graylag Goose in the Adirondacks NY

Last Tuesday, my friend Joe Guinta and I made a trip up North to the Adirondacks for some northern birding. Our first stop was in the town of Keene in hopes of Bohemian Waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus). As we were driving around, I noticed activity at a residential feeder and picked out Common Redpolls (Acanthis flammea). This led to a pull over and scoping, which got Joe his first of the year Redpolls. The owners came out to inquire about our presence and after we explained that we were just harmless birders out looking for birds, we were invited in for lunch and shown their pet Graylag Goose.  We turned down the lunch, but I took some photos of the Goose.  It just so happened that a couple of our own local birders, Rob Bate and Richard Fried had made the trip up north as well and pulled up while we were speaking with the home owners. They had seen birders with a scope and wanted to make sure they were not missing out on any birds. We exchanged pleasantries and intelligence.

Bohemian Waxwing flock in the Adirondacks NY

They had seen a flyover flock of Bohemian Waxwings near where we were, so Joe and I took off to scout the area. After about an hour of patiently searching the area, we spotted a flock of birds flying in the distance and picked out that they were Bohemian Waxwings. The views were not satisfactory, so we continued working the area. We drove around and then walked into a field where we found about 9 Bohemian Waxwings perched that took off before we could get the scope on them. This was a good enough look for a check, but we wished for better looks. However, we decided that we needed to move on if we were going to hit other spots before nightfall and so headed on to our next stop which was to try for Black-backed Woodpecker and other boreal species. Along the way we had a flyover Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) and several Common Ravens (Corvus corax). At one of our sites we heard the sound of Black-backed Woodpeckers (Picoides arcticus), but never got on any of them. By then, it was time to call it a day. We arranged to join Rob and Richard for dinner and over dinner decided to join forces the next day to go after Evening Grosbeaks (Coccothraustes vespertinus), Hoary Redpoll (Acanthis hornemanni) , Black-backed Woodpecker and a few others species.  Next up Day II.

Tags: Bohemian Waxwings, Common RedpollsBlack-backed Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Hoary Redpoll, Adirondacks NY