Common Ringlet

While I was in the Catskills last weekend, I spied a small new-to-me butterfly fluttering weakly close to the grass.  According to Brock & Kaufman’s Butterflies of North America it is a Common Ringlet and has expanded it range southward here in the northeast and is common.  Huh! The things ya learn.

White-winged Crossbills in the Catskills

A small flock of singing White-winged Crossbills was reported from Sullivan County, New York in the middle of August, in the same locale as the Pine Grosbeak last winter.  They are one of the life birds that I have been trying to get for years.  With their erratic wandering though; finding them has not been easy.  Since there were still postings on the ListServ; I decided to make seeing them a priority over the holiday weekend.   Everytime I told someone I wanted to drive to the Catskills to try to see White-winged Crossbills, I would get the eye-roll.  I don’t get it.  It is not that far.  Well, at least not from my house.  So directions in hand, and a general idea of where I was going, I headed up alone into the mountains.

It took me slightly over an hour to drive to the boreal bog where the Crossbills were being seen.  Two women with straps adorning their bodies were intently scanning the tree tops as I pulled up.  Anxiously, I stopped to ask if they were looking for the Crossbills.  With nods and smiles they assured me that I was in the right place.  Eileen and Ann Marie had driven all the way from Long Island to see them, again.

Having been to see them several weeks earlier, they knew which trees they were frequenting.  As we stood chatting, we listened and scanned the tops of the trees for movement.  White-winged Crossbills are partial to trees with small cones like hemlock, larch and spruce.  There, they were eating black spruce cones.  We heard the trilling before we saw them.

I first saw movement high in a tree across the road from where we were standing.  The bird was backlit but I could see two distinctive flashes of white wing marks.  We crossed over to get a better look.  Ann Marie and Eileen got on it and said they saw red.  Red.  Two white wing marks.  The bird was flitting and hopping at the top of a spruce.  I kept losing him amongst the branches, but then he popped out into a sunlit window and sat.  I could not have asked for better view.  The camera, of course, was in the car.

Eileen and Ann Marie are wonderful birders.  Ladies, if you want to chase again.  Let me know.

Winter Finch Invasion

I started to hear talk of a possible winter finch invasion sometime in the fall. There were notices published on the various ListServs about the dearth of food sources in the north woods. You could hear the muttering through the emails. Then the odd winter finch started showing up at feeders. There was a building excitement over random Purple Finches and Pine Siskins. Then reports started trickling in of Evening Grosbeak. Now, that is a beautiful bird and worth seeking out. But the holidays came putting a whammy on it.

So it was not until a few weeks ago that I was able to go with a friend to the Catskills to look for winter finches. We drove 2 hours with detailed directions and a local county map. It was a brittle, cold but sunny day with lots of snow cover. The wind was fierce every time we got out of the car.

I was hoping for a Hoary Redpoll, she for Pine Grosbeaks.

We crawled up and down the back roads peering at pines trees, commenting on the delicious looking pinecones and where, oh where, were the Crossbills?

We saw 100s of Common Redpolls, no Hoary. We missed the Evening Grosbeaks by 15 minutes. Disheartened we drove to the stand of crabapples where the Pine Grosbeaks were reported. When we pulled up, it looked like we had missed out again. But as we pulled beside the trees, dozens of Pine Grosbeaks were nibbling the crabapples. Then, something spooked them and they irrupted and flew off.

We decided to eat our lunch and wait. Shortly, the birds returned and we were able to get excellent looks at them. They are as ridiculously tame as the Birder’s Handbook says.

We ended the day at the Wallkill with great views of Short-Eared Owls.

I love winter birding. You never know what may show up. I am still on a look out for a Hoary Redpoll.