Archive for Orange County

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Black Mud, Floating Onions, and Great Birds – A Day’s Birding in Orange County, New York

By September 12, 2011 2 comments

There were three of us that made the trip to the famed Black Dirt region of Orange County, New York yesterday.  We had as our goals spotting the reported Cattle Egret and Blue Grosbeaks and as many shorebirds as could be found in the flooded environs.  You see, the Black Dirt region, an agricultural area [...]

Wood-Warblers at Sterling Forest State Park

By June 29, 2011 7 comments

On the same day that I tracked down and digiscoped Cerulean Warblers at Doodletown Road I had the genius plan of also getting over to Sterling Forest State Park and digiscoping some of the Golden-winged Warblers that breed there.*  Now those who bird in New York State regularly are probably shaking their heads right now [...]

Visiting Storm King Art Center

By June 28, 2011 3 comments

When I was in sixth grade I went on a field trip to Storm King Art Center, a huge (500+ acres) outdoor museum loaded with cool sculptures that were very fun to climb on and swing from until we got yelled at and threatened with all kinds of dire consequences if we didn’t behave ourselves [...]

Yorba Linda Birding

By January 16, 2011 5 comments

As I have already mentioned in my post about finding and identifying a California Gnatcatcher I spent quite a bit of time wandering what little open spaces are left in the small portion of Yorba Linda I could reach on foot from where we were staying over the holidays.  I did this both because I [...]

Finding and Identifying a California Gnatcatcher

By January 15, 2011 5 comments

One great aspect of visiting southern California in winter is that birds are everywhere that there is even marginal habitat.  On my trip we stayed in Yorba Linda in northern Orange County, which, you will be unsurprised to learn, is pretty much the archetype of sprawl.*  Despite the developed nature of the landscape there were [...]

Curve-billed Thrasher at the Shipley Nature Center

By January 10, 2011 10 comments

As I have probably already mentioned, I was in southern California over the holidays.  Before I headed out there from my home in New York I was monitoring the local listservs in California for birds I had never seen in the hopes of adding some birds to my life list during my time in the [...]

Fail Whale Watch

By January 9, 2011 10 comments

There was something missing in all of the birding that I did in southern California over the holidays.  Sea birds!  And I am not a huge fan of seawatching unless it is done from a boat, in which case it becomes the much more enjoyable pelagic birding.  Being in a boat looking for birds is [...]

Birding 1.1.11 Part 2

By January 5, 2011 3 comments

After leaving San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary behind I made my way back out to Jamboree Road and headed downhill, west, towards the coast.  Before actually reaching the ocean I cut right onto Back Bay Drive and started making my way along Upper Newport Bay.  The tide was just past high, the sun was shining, and [...]

Birding 1.1.11 Part 1

By January 4, 2011 2 comments

When it is the first day of a new year and you are a birder and you have nothing you have to do all morning long you better believe you are out birding.  My biggest problem when this situation was presented to me on 1 January 2011 was figuring out which of Orange County’s marvelous [...]

New Year New Bird

By January 3, 2011 5 comments

With 2010 receding in the rear view mirror I had a great morning out birding on the first day of 2011.  The undisputed highlight of the morning’s outing, which netted eighty-something species of bird, was the one lifer I tracked down almost as an afterthought.  A Vermilion Flycatcher had been reported from El Modena Park [...]

Insects at the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge

By June 17, 2010 1 comment

The Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge actually spans two states, New York and New Jersey, and has a host of species that call it home.  When Seth, Stella, and I visited on Sunday, flush from finding the birds we had been seeking, the sun had finally come out and it was late in the day [...]

Black Dirt Dickcissel

By June 15, 2010 1 comment

After our successful search for Upland Sandpiper and a quick visit to the Shawangunk Grasslands for Eastern Meadowlarks, we three birders, Seth, Stella, and I, were off to Orange County, New York, to see about some recently reported rarities.  More specifically, we were off to the “black dirt” section of Orange County, an area known [...]

Butterflies at Sterling Forest State Park

By June 5, 2010 No comments yet

Sterling Forest State Park in Orange County, NY, is well-known for its breeding population of Golden-winged Warblers, to say nothing of the yearly Renaissance Faire.  But the diverse habitat of Sterling Forest State Park supports far more than Vermivora chrysoptera, lusty wenches and mead-drinking fools; everything from bears to dragonflies find what they need to [...]

Insects in Rockland County and Orange County

By June 2, 2010 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 [...]

Birds in Rockland County and Orange County

By May 31, 2010 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 [...]

Herps in Rockland County and Orange County

By May 30, 2010 6 comments

I spent a great day yesterday (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 [...]

More than a Mississipi Kite

By July 11, 2009 3 comments

It’s been eight days since my trip on Friday, 3 July, to upstate New York to see the Mississippi Kite and I still haven’t told the full tale of the trip.  That will now be rectified with apologies for the two of you who have been sitting on the edge of your seat constantly hitting [...]

Stalking the California Gnatcatcher

By October 24, 2008 4 comments

Business brought me out to Orange County, CA for a week in mid-October. Despite the length of my stay, I had precious few available moments for birding. My dear pal Amy brought me for some Upper Newport Bay birding not once but twice. The first attempt was undermined by the severity of Santa Ana winds [...]

Better Birding at Upper Newport Bay

By October 21, 2008 4 comments

Upper Newport Bay has a sterling reputation as a locus for some of the best coastal Orange County birding around. This is a big deal, considering both the outstanding avifauna this part of California can deliver as well as the other superlative sites along this stretch of the Pacific. Unfortunately, my first taste of the [...]

Blown Away at Upper Newport Bay

By October 20, 2008 5 comments

Business has brought me once again to a shiny section of the Golden State. It is the height, indeed the very definition, of privilege to rise up after breakfast over a variegated expanse of autumn hues to arrive for lunch in a portion of the Pacific coast where one is far more likely to spot [...]