Stephen and Betty Eaton

The Cattaraugus County Bird Club held a dinner in honor of Stephen and Betty Eaton on Thursday, April 24th at the Saint Bonaventure University Club. Members honored Steve and Betty Eaton for their life time of devotion to the natural history, the local history, and the community of Cattaraugus County. Dr. Eaton, retired biology professor emeritus from St. Bonaventure University, also received a lifetime achievement award from the New York State Department of Conservation for his work in preserving the Wild Turkey in New York State. Founding member of the Cattaraugus County Bird Club, Dr. Eaton inaugurated the St. Bonaventure Audubon Christmas Count and participated in all 59 counts to date. The Eaton’s have been active contributors to life in Cattaraugus County and will be missed by all as they begin their retirement in southern Pennsylvania.

Dr. Stephen Eaton receiving a DEC award from Emilio Rende

Dinner at the Bona Club

Bufflehead

Today the Cattaraugus County Bird Club had their Annual Waterfowl Fieldtrip along the Allegheny River and Conewango Wetland Area. We had a wonderful birding day with 53 species of birds and we survived glacial like temperatures!

Wilson’s Snipe

Waterfowl observed included: Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Horned Grebe, Mallards, Blackduck, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, Woodduck, Bufflehead, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, Common Goldeneye, Canada Goose, Tundra Swan and American Coot.

Rusty Blackbird

Although waterfowl was our target species . . . we did observe a few other great birds like the Ruffed Grouse, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Bald Eagle (2 different nests), Northern Harrier, Turkey Vulture, Killdeer, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Snipe, Horned Lark, Tree Swallow, Belted Kingfisher, American Robin, Eastern Bluebird, Song Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Wild Turkey, Rusty Blackbird, and the many other commonly found birds.

Tundra Swan

by Tim Baird for Catt. Co. Birdclub

Cabin fever more than anything else brought me out on the 25th of January. A temperature in the low teens, strong northwesterly winds, and a deep snow cover held little promise of bird activity. My decision to hike the upper elevation forests of Allegany State Park was stimulated more by a need for exercise than a desire to watch birds. Of course one of the perks of having an interest in birds is that you can enjoy their company whatever the task at hand.

It takes the first few paces of a walk in nature for the mind and body to adjust to the surroundings. Once one is set in the scene, the enveloping details begin to emerge. On this day, the sound of a cold wind punctuated by occasional cracks of protest from frozen trees dominated. Wisps of wind blown snow unable or unwilling to settle down to earth coursed through the leafless forest. Being outside in such conditions tends to focus my thoughts inward. Fifteen minutes passed, and no birds disturbed my arctic meditations.

Thirty minutes later the first sign of birdlife; a branch above my route cradled what appeared to be the remains of an American Robin’s nest. How exposed it now sat in contrast to being once hidden from the eye by leaves that have long since departed. An increased intimacy with birds surfaces whenever we discover a nest. Twenty minutes more and I find another bird sign without the bird. Feather imprints in the soft snow indicated where a Wild Turkey took flight. I had been walking now for over an hour, and I had seen no birds, heard no birds. The rarity of this experience began to dawn on me.

Slow bird days in winter are not unusual, but I could not recall being out for so long without any contact with a living bird. Perhaps my senses were becoming as frozen as my surroundings. I know my hearing has lost some acuity, was I missing distant bird notes? Even if that were the case, by this time I should have encountered some birds near enough to note despite senses weakened by cold or time. Where were they? Was this forest really without birds or was my meditative mind closing them out?

While I stood watching a gust of wind liberate snow from distant trees, my thoughts turned to May when these woods would be alive with birds and bird sounds. From the shrubs near the trail, a Common Yellowthroat will be proclaiming territory, and a Red-eyed Vireo will be in continuous song as it searches for insects among the leaves of nearby trees. The voice of a Hermit Thrush will emerge from the depths of these woods and betray his presence.

I was hearing them all in my mind’s ear.

Another half hour and I returned to my car without a bird on my list. I had walked for the better part of two hours and as many miles without encountering a living bird. I closed my eyes and listened one last time. Mixed with the sounds of the winter wind I thought I heard a distant song. Yes, I had heard it. The song of an American Redstart rode the wind through the woods and settled in my thoughts. I left with my spirit renewed.

Today a few of us from the Cattaraugus County Bird Club participated in the NYS DEC / NYSOA annual waterfowl survey. Each January a quarter of a million ducks across New York State are counted by bird clubs, state officials and your average birder. We are also participating in the Mid-winter Bald Eagle Survey, where we are locating Eagles wintering along the Allegheny River. The results of these two surveys will help determine the long-term monitoring of waterfowl and Eagle populations within New York State during the winter months.

Canada Goose with a cold wake up call.

Today was our target date and we could not have asked for a better January day to conduct these surveys. The river and streams were open due to the warmer temperatures that occurred this past week. Although last evening we were hit with a hard frost, we did encounter ice in most of the smaller lakes. The sun peaked through the clouds on numerous occasions and temperatures were low to mid ~30’s!

Common Merganser through the trees.

	2006	2007	2008
Bald Eagle	8	1	6
Pied-billed Grebe			1
Canada Goose	125	185	223
Mallard	89	96	99
Black Duck	7	3	5
Common Merganser	26	46	41
Hooded Merganser	2	3	9
Bufflehead	2
Common Goldeneye		1
Long-tailed Duck		1
Total	259	336	384

Mallards

We observed a total of 23 bird species with my highlights being a Coopers Hawk chasing European Starlings, Eastern Bluebirds, Cedar Waxwings, Common Raven, Tree Sparrows, Pileated Woodpecker, and the Pied-billed Grebe which we almost overlooked (thanks for finding Tim).

Participants of the 2007 Christmas Bird Count

Today the Cattaraugus County Bird Club participated in the 58th Saint Bonaventure Christmas Bird Count (108th Audubon). The weather temperature for the count was around 20-25F and we had very the cold blowing winds!! We had a wonderful dinner where we reflected the many birds we saw today. We recorded 49 species within the 6 sections of the circle.

Black-capped Chickadee

Snow Buntings were commonly found this year during the count.

American Kestrel Observed

Wild Turkey who wouldn’t come out into the open!

This was first posted on Mon@rch’s Nature Blog and then reposted by Tom for the Catt. Co. Birdclub.

On International Migratory Bird Day the Cattaraugus County Bird Club attended our annual trip to Presque Isle State Park in Erie Pennsylvania. Although the temperatures were very chilly, we had a wonderful day with 72 species of birds!! We found 13 species of warblers on our trip.

Palm Warbler and Warbling Vireo were a few species found!

Below is the list of 13 species of warblers that we found.

Their were so many wonderful birds found like the Magnolia Warbler and Black-and-white Warbler in the above photos! I have also posted some vista views that I captured.

We found two recently hatched eggs (which we were unable to identify the species). My guess was Mourning Dove since their was a pair just above the spot we found these two eggs. But the book doesn’t show that this species has speckled eggs! Tim Baird finally looked these eggs up and found them to be House Finch eggs.

We ended our day with a flurry of all kinds of warblers and this one Scarlet Tanager who put on a show for us. Film people were running out of film and digital people continued taking numerous photos!

This was first posted on Mon@rch’s Nature Blog and then reposted by Tom for the Catt. Co. Birdclub.

Today the Cattaraugus County Bird Club went for our annual hawk field trip to the Ripley Hawk Watch in Ripley New York. We headed to this hawk watch because the birds will migrate north along thermos and then reach Lake Erie. Since the lake water is cold (causing cold airs and no thermos) the hawks will not cross the lake and follow the waters edge until they find a land bridge. These areas are perfect spots in seeing many raptors in one location. Although, it was a clear sky and hard finding these bird specks way up in the sky. It was fun anyways with many great birds.

Sharp-shinned Hawk moving along Lake Erie!

We saw so many hawks that I had a hard time putting a specific number on many of the species we saw (so I will give estimates)! Some of the raptors we saw included: Sharp-shinned Hawk (few dozen), Cooper’s Hawk (dozen), Goshawk (5), American Kestrel (4), Merlin (1), Red-tailed Hawk (few dozen), Broad-winged Hawk (100+), Northern Harrier (1), Bald Eagle (2), and Turkey Vulture (to many to tell for sure between locals and migrants). Other migrants we observed included a Common Loon, Great Blue Heron and Double-crested Cormorant.

One of the Goshawks that flew right over our heads!

We had many other birds while on this field trip which included a Western Meadowlark singing out in the field!

One of many Broad-winged Hawk Kettles we saw!

This post was first posted on Mon@rch’s Nature Blog and then reposted by Tom for the Catt. Co. Birdclub.

Today we participated in the 57th Saint Bonaventure Christmas Bird Count or also known as the 107th Audubon Count. This evening the group reflected the past 57 years in counting birds in this circle. I learned that Dr. Eaton has participated in every St. Bonaventure count since he started it back in 1950. He told us that “back in the early years that they would be happy with 20 species of birds”. Over time they slowly increased their numbers which currently averages around 50 species. With low numbers this year we found ourselves discussing better optics and other ways to increase our numbers (like taking a boat down the Allegheny River).

My day (mon@rch) started today in section 3 with an American Kestrel stirring up 70 European Starlings. I then hiked through the woods for an hour with only a handful of chickadees. Hmm, so is this what the day is going to be like?? Quickly I learned that this year we needed to work for our birds but working hard would result in good birds!! I did have many new finds for my section and satisfied in the total numbers of birds that I observed.

The Cattaraugus County Bird Club as a team recorded 40 species and individually counted 3026 different birds. I was able to see 28 of those 40 species in 2 of the 6 sections within the circle. These numbers are much lower than our typical 50 species days from years past. I would have to believe that these numbers are low because of the unusual warmer temperatures and I can’t wait to see how other circles have or will do this season.

In between counting birdies, I did find many photographing opportunities but for most of the morning I was having all kinds of problems with my camera. Ever try taking pictures with a 400mm lens with it manually set on F22 ? When the sun came out, most everything was strongly washed out due to the auto ISO requiring it to be set on 1600. It wasn’t until I completed section 3 and move over to section 1 that I realized my F stops were so high!! I missed some very close encounters of a Golden Crowned Kinglet showing its colors on his head. I also missed out on numerous Sparrows and Chickadees that came close to investigating my pishing. The only picture which I would say was acceptable to publish was this Common Merganser. A good rule of thumb is once your camera is working again, the birds will not cooperate like this White-breasted Nuthatch mooning us.

It was great getting out to see the birds.

This post was first posted on Mon@rch’s Nature Blog and then reposted by Tom for the Catt. Co. Birdclub.