You are browsing the archives of saugerties.

I spent my weekend in upstate New York with Daisy visiting my folks and we had a good old time eating far too much food, having far too much fun, and, somewhat unfortunately, considering some of them were of the biting variety, seeing far too many bugs.  The wet summer that has been the bane [...]

Folks might remember that last year I did what I grandly called an Anti-Global Warming Big Year, the idea of which was was to see as many species as possible while burning as little carbon as possible.  To offset the carbon dioxide released from a flight to California and back from my home base in [...]

Window feeders are great.  Especially when the birds that come to said feeders are used to people walking up to look at them.  They’re not so great when the squirrels learn that the window serves as an effective barrier to human intervention and start launching airborne assaults, commando style, from the roof to the feeders [...]

Daisy and I spent this weekend in Saugerties visiting my folks, and, as is only to expected when we spend a weekend upstate, especially when it is the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count, I spent quite a bit of time watching the feeders and photographing the birds that showed up for free food.  [...]

While home for holidays in I didn’t just go chasing after a Northern Hawk Owl.  I also watched the feeders frequently, often outside my parents’ house hidden in a woodpile.  Seriously.  In a woodpile.  You see, the woodpile is next to the deck which is where the feeders are, and the deck is attached to [...]

Though I did enjoy my birding with Will across the wilds of Greene and Albany Counties, most of my birding over the Thanksgiving Day weekend was done at my parents’ and and my aunt and uncle’s feeders.  My dad  had only put his feeders up about a week earlier and hadn’t drawn much of a [...]

Though I’ve been back in the city for almost a week I haven’t come close to using up all of my upstate birding tales yet!  Like the last time I visited my folks I spent some time photographing hummingbirds, but this time I was at my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Paul’s house taking advantage of [...]

Way back when I started my Anti-Global Warming Big Year I decided that if I flew somewhere and stayed there for more than a couple of days I could count the birds I saw there provided I offsetted the carbon that the flight produced.  So I counted a bunch of birds in California that I [...]

Being upstate is great.  Not only do I get to see my folks, swim in their pool, and enjoy the great outdoors, but I also get tips about the locations of cool birds.  But I really shouldn’t have needed a tip to know the location of the Cliff Swallows I’ve checked out a couple of [...]

During my second trip upstate in the last three weeks (and after my second Big Day in as many weekends) I was up for some relaxation Sunday, and got it with my family. Of course, for me, relaxation includes watching birds, so the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds coming to my parents’ feeders featured prominently in my [...]

This weekend Daisy and I traveled upstate to my hometown of Saugerties for a wedding. We had a blast and my good friend Mary (whom I’ve known since we were geeky adolescents ) looked beautiful as she married Mathew, and I wish them the best. Now that we are geeky adults we are [...]

My contribution to the Great Backyard Bird Count this year, the first year I have participated, consisted of me sitting at the windows of both my aunt and uncle’s house and my parents’ house watching the feeders.  Of course I am aware that the Great Backyard Bird Count can include birds counted anywhere but I [...]

The eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is either a boon for those who consider them cute and like to watch their antics or a bane to those who want just birds to sample their backyard suet and seeds. While at my parents’ house over Christmas I watched the many, many, Gray Squirrels congregating around [...]

As always when I am in the car, while Daisy and I drove to my folks’ house in Saugerties, NY, to join family for the Christmas holiday, I paid careful attention to any and all bird life I could see. I did not, however, expect to have yet another encounter with what is now [...]

Good luck on this one. All of the pictures were taken at my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Paul’s house in Saugerties, New York, this past weekend. These are birds at bird feeders and they were photographed at close range with my macro lens. Can you get all three? First to do so will earn the [...]

This year, like most years, my father planted some Moonflowers (Ipomoea alba), hoping they would grow up the cedar trellises, built by my late grandfather, that stand against the railing on my folks’ back porch. And, unlike most years, he’s had a bumper crop of the giant, fragrant, nocturnal blossoms, topping out at 15 [...]

Earlier this month I found and photographed this spider in my grandmother’s backyard. I finally got around to trying to figure out what it was today by searching obsessively through web page after web page. Well, I think I mostly figured it out, narrowing it down to its family, the Agelenidae, [...]

Chipping Sparrow, macro-style
On Friday, at my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Paul’s house in Saugerties, NY, I enjoyed myself watching their feeders and photographing the freeloaders. Their two clear-plastic feeders suction-cupped to their living room window had a steady stream of visitors but only titmice, chickadees and Chipping Sparrows would let me get close [...]

There are many routes to take from the southern end of Albany to the western part of Saugerties. The fastest is straight down the New York State Thruway to Route 32 to Route 212. But the best birds you’ll see taking that route are Turkey Vultures, Red-tailed Hawks and American Crows unless you [...]

Welcome to the first feeder watch! Where birds get free food and you get pictures of them getting it.

The first featured feeder is one of the small, clear, plastic, suction-cupped-to-the-window types. It is located on my parents’ dining room picture window. My parents have long fed their feathered friends and lately my father [...]