Taylor Pond

Taylor Pond, autumn shot, afternoon from near the dam - © Dave Spier

The Taylor Pond Wild Forest Unit Management Plan Final Draft has been released. A copy of the draft plan can be found on the D.E.C. website. A discussion of the final draft and it's key points can be found on The Adirondack Almanack website.

Taylor Pond is north of Whiteface and Wilmington in the southwest corner of Clinton County. It can be accessed from County Road 1 (Silver Lake Road) between Hawkeye and Black Brook. A dirt road leads in to a seasonal state campground and boat launch near the dammed outlet. The water flows to Black Brook and then to the West Branch of the Ausable River.

The orientation of Taylor Pond is SW to NE, typical of many Adirondack waterways that follow fault zones. The lake is moderately forked with an arm extending east and then northeast to the dam. On an aerial photo, the "pond" resembles a one-armed lobster on a long-walk (24 miles) to Plattsburgh.

For birders, there is an eBird hotspot at the state campground, but so far there are only 30 species from three checklists (June and two in October) on the bar chart.

Taylor Pond, autumn shot, seen from the point about a mile west of the campground where the lake forks. From the air, the lake resembles a one-armed lobster. - © Dave Spier

Corrections, questions and suggestions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There is a separate community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Northeast Naturalist and Heading Out.

Ravens

Common Raven over Copper Rock Rapids (Grass River), 10/1/12 - © Dave Spier

Here's a bird for Halloween. It was made famous as a symbol of death by Edgar Allen's poem.

Found completely circling the northern hemisphere, the Common Raven (Corvus corax) is one of the most widespread bird species in the world. Across North America, they occupy a wide swath from Central America to Alaska and east across most of Canada to the Atlantic, northern New England, and the Adirondacks, then south through a disjointed narrow band marked by the Appalachian Highlands. This range covers a great variety of climates and wild habitats, and sometimes they can be found near rural settlements and towns.

Ravens are larger than crows, but it's hard to judge size at a distance. In flight, ravens can be mistaken for hawks until they're overhead. Note the raven's long neck and long tail that ends in what's described as a "wedge" shape (meaning it's longer toward the middle of the tail). They are all black, but several hawk species have dark-phase members, which can be misleading. Like hawks, ravens also alternate flapping and gliding, unlike crows that have a steadier flight. When perched, ravens have shaggy throat feathers and long feathers covering their nostrils and the base of their heavy, thick bills (likened to a "Roman" nose because of the downward curve).

Common Raven eating a roadkill, Rts. 8/30 south of Speculator - © Dave Spier

The raven's diet is omnivorous; it eats anything edible. As scavengers, they can be found feeding on carrion beside country roads (in areas where they are common). I've heard people talk about ravens flying down the middle of a road as they search for new roadkills. You're less likely to actually see them when they're catching insects and rodents or eating eggs, birds, seeds, grain, berries, acorns and buds.

raven above DeGrasse, St. Lawrence County, NY

Ravens generally make croaking sounds, sometimes written "cr-r-ruck," plus gurgling and snoring sounds and woodpecker-like knocking calls. It's hard to realize they are actually songbirds (technically, passerines, or perching birds) obviously related to crows but also to jays, all in the Corvid family, and all can be year-round residents of their chosen locations. All About Birds has several recordings for your listening enjoyment. (There's also a page to help you ID and separate the crow/raven corvids.)

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect on  my Facebook pages including Dave Spier (photographic naturalist) or my personal page, Dave Spier with the profile photo, birding through a spotting scope. There is now a community page for The Northeast Naturalist.

 

Please report your sightings to eBird.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk circling above DeGrasse on October 21, 2006 (note the wing tips pushed slightly forward, a typical soaring aspect for this species) - © Dave Spier

Red-shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus) can be expected anytime from mid-March through early November in the Adirondacks, based on the combined eBird bar chart for four northern New York counties. More of the reports come from St. Lawrence and Franklin, with few from Hamilton and a moderate number from Essex. The red-shoulder is considered a woodland species associated with mature deciduous and mixed deciduous-coniferous forests and likely to be found near rivers, streams, ponds and swamps. It typically avoids pure-conifer stands and it may hold to this pattern during migration.

Their primary diet is rodents followed by frogs and snakes. (A Michigan study placed small birds a close second behind mice.) It was getting late in the season for reptiles and amphibians when I found a red-shoulder soaring near DeGrasse in St. Lawrence County one October 21st.

Red-shouldered Hawks breed across the entire state of New York, with heavier nesting concentrations in southwestern NY, the Tug Hill Plateau and the Catskill Mountains. Slightly lower densities occur across south-central NY and the Taconics. There is a scattering of possible, probable and confirmed nest records across the Adirondacks with Essex County having the highest number of confirmed blocks at six. (Each Breeding Bird Atlas block is 5 x 5 km or roughly nine square miles.) Overall, nesting activity has increased statewide since the initial 1980-85 Atlas, although it may have declined slightly in the Adirondacks.

Rather than re-invent the wheel, so to speak, you can learn more about Red-shouldered Hawks at the All About Birds website along with a variety of photos. If you have The Sibley Guide to Birds, the species is illustrated on page 117. (There's a smaller Eastern version of Sibley's which I don't own.)

For a list of birds in St. Lawrence County and their seasonal abundance, I've linked to that eBird bar chart too.

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Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There is a separate Fb page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature topics can be found on the parallel blog Northeast Naturalist. 

Ferd's Bog

Donna at the end of the Ferd's Bog boardwalk (Sept. 20 photo) -- © Dave Spier

Ferd's Bog

© Dave Spier

Anders Peltomaa recently posted a link on the group, Northern New York Birds, to a photograph of a Black-backed Woodpecker perched in a tree along with a Gray Jay near the Ferd's Bog boardwalk.  This Black Spruce bog, stream and bog pond are roughly 50 acres of wetlands surrounded by another 50 acres of boreal forest.  The Central New York Hiking website lists the site as 170 acres, but that likely includes the upland forest between Uncas Road and the boreal forest.

Ferd's Bog is in the Pigeon Lake Wilderness of west-central Hamilton County. The eBird hotspot coordinates are 43.788692, -74.74973.  If you use eBird and zoom in using satellite view, you'll see that point next to the boardwalk, the end of which is a mere 0.3 mile north of Uncas (Brown's Tract) Road.

  

The Adirondack Experience website has a Ferd's Bog page with an interactive Google map.  The page also contains a list of birds and when they can be expected, based on information taken from or used by the Hamilton County Birding Trail Map.  Directions indicate the tiny parking area is about 3.5 miles east-northeast of Route 28 after they split east of Eagle Bay.  However, the CNY-Hiking site gives the distance as 3.2 miles.  I've never had the foresight to record my odometer readings, so I'm no help on that point.  There's a small D.E.C. sign, usually in the shadows, so it can be hard to find.  A search of the D.E.C. website came up empty-handed.

Questions and corrections may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Transition from boreal forest to open bog (Sept. 23 photo) -- © Dave Spier

More photos from Ferd's Bog:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113480357145545980499/AdksFerdSBog?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Alternate link to Picasa Web album:
https://plus.google.com/photos/113480357145545980499/albums/5725120738014783569?banner=pwa
Other links used in this blog:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/landp/6876391912/in/photostream

http://www.adirondackexperience.com/recreation/birding/ferds-bog

http://www.cnyhiking.com/FerdsBogTrail.htm

http://ebird.org

Christmas Bird Count

Two Common Loons were seen on Bolton Landing’s 2010-2011 CBC.  One was seen on the Old Forge count, which is unusual for the time of year.  This winter-plumage COLO was photographed in early January.  (© Dave Spier)

Christmas Bird Count -- © Dave Spier

It's time again for the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC).  Not that it actually occurs on Christmas Day anymore, but now it can be any day from December 14 through January 5 (i.e., 11 days before and after Christmas).  The CBC was invented in 1900 as an alternative to the Christmas side hunt in which teams of men went out and shot everything in sight.  The biggest pile of feathered and furred animals won.  More of the history can be found on the Audubon website.  You also can follow links to individual counts and past results.

The Christmas Bird Count is an annual citizen-science project now in its 112th year.  Such a long-term perspective allows ornithologists to monitor population trends - some good, some bad.  Please consider joining one of the five local counts inside the Adirondack Blue Line [note: the Ferrisburg, VT CBC circle extends west across Lake Champlain into the Adirondacks], or one of the many peripheral counts in New York if you can make it.  If you lack confidence, it's often possible to be paired with an experienced observer.

Counts inside the Blue Line:

Bolton Landing - code NYBL

Elizabethtown - code NYEZ (Sun., Dec. 18)
[Ferrisburg, VT - code VTFE (Sat., Dec. 17)]

Old Forge - code NYOF

Saranac Lake - code NYSL (Sun., Jan. 1)

Closest peripheral counts:

Fort Plain (Fri., Dec. 30)
Massena-Cornwall - code NYMC (Tue., Dec. 27)

Plattsburgh - code NYPL (Sun., Dec. 18)

Saratoga Spa - code NYSS

Thousand Islands - code ONTI

Watertown - code NYWA

Wilson-Lake Plains - code NYWL

Counts are conducted in predetermined 15-mile diameter circles during a 24-hour period (midnight to midnight).  In fact you can start at midnight by listening for owls! (but most people wait till at least dawn).  For easier coverage, the circles are divided into sectors (sections) and participants can bird as long (or short) as desired, but time and any mileage must be recorded.  To cover administrative costs and keep the count going there is a $5 participation fee for anyone over 18.

If you live within the 15-mile diameter circle of a particular count, you also can choose to stay home and just watch your feeders and count all the yard-birds including any fly-overs.  All species count.  Keep track of the maximum number of individual birds of each species seen and the length of time you spend watching for birds.  Contact the compiler in advance so he/she knows to expect your data; final results can be phoned in the evening.

(Most) counts are followed by a compilation dinner or meeting.  For example, the E-town post-count meeting will be at the Deers Head Inn Restaurant (7552 Court Street) in Elizabethtown, NY around 5:00 pm.  Contact Charlotte Demers in advance.  For the Massena-Cornwall CBC, contact Eileen Wheeler.  For Fort Plain, it's Tom Salo.  For Saranac Lake, Larry Master.

            Regarding this blog, contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com and visit our parallel blog at http://northeastnaturalist.blogspot.com/

Crossbills

Male White-winged Crossbill in ornamental Douglas Fir -- © Dave Spier


Crossbills -- © Dave Spier

           White-winged Crossbills, an irruptive species in winter, are frequently reported on NNY Birds.  Their traditional diet of Canadian spruce seeds sometimes runs low and once exhausted, the birds head south in higher numbers.  The birds' small, thin bills, which are crossed at the tips, allow them to specialize on the small, soft cones of Spruces (White, Black, and Red), larch, Eastern Hemlock, Northern White Cedar and Red Cedar.  The White Pine, unlike other eastern pines, has soft cones that can be utilized by crossbills.  They also use Douglas Fir and Blue Spruce, introduced species in the east.

          White-winged Crossbills (Loxia leucoptera) are medium-sized finches with a year-round range from Alaska eastward through the boreal forest zone to the Canadian Maritimes.  There’s a fair number of breeding reports from around the Adirondacks with a concentration of confirmed sightings in northern Herkimer County and adjacent Hamilton County.

           In the winter, they migrate erratically into the northern states with sporadic reports from the central states.  Adult males are dull red with black wings and two prominent white wingbars.  Females are yellowish gray with similar wings.  Juveniles are heavily streaked and somewhat resemble Pine Siskins, another winter visitor.   In Europe the white-winged is called the Two-barred Crossbill.

            Another species, the Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) is similar, but has a heavier bill and lacks the white wing bars.  [In rare cases, a variant of the first-year male can display weak wingbars.]  There are nine recognized "types" (similar to subspecies) of Red Crossbills and some of these may be evolving into separate species.  The specially adapted beaks are pointed and crossed at the tips, but the size and exact structure varies among the different types depending on the species of cone they are best adapted to.  The heavier bill allows Red Crossbills to pry out seeds from heavy pine cones in addition to spruce and fir.  An individual crossbill can extract and eat 3000 conifer seeds in one day, which probably explains why they keep moving in search of new food sources.

            Send comments, questions, and corrections to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com  You can also ask for hyperlinks to my other blog and photo websites

Pine Siskins

Siskins -- © Dave Spier

           

Pine Siskins (Spinus pinus) are heavily streaked with yellow feather edges on the wings and yellow patches on the inner tail sides.  The amount of yellow varies with less on young birds and more on adult males.  Since this gregarious bird tends to travel in flocks, at least some members will show varying amounts of yellow.  There are also two buffy wing bars.  Siskins also hang with goldfinches; both are members of the same family and about the same size and once shared the same genus (Carduelis).  Female House Finches are similar, but larger with lower-contrast streaking.  Siskins also resemble redpolls, another finch, but redpolls have a red cap.  Siskins have notched tail ends, but so do female Purple Finches which have high-contrast streaking, a plumper build and heavier bills.  If you’re having trouble, the best bet is to take a photo and send it to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

When winter food supplies are short in their Canadian boreal homeland, siskins wander south, showing up first in similar forested habitats in the Adirondacks where significant flocks have been reported throughout October and November.  (Details can be found on the Google group, Northern New York Birds.  There's also a link in the right sidebar.)  Recent reports [Nov. 29] have come from Joan Collins at Sabattis Bog, Little Tupper Lake, several locations on Rt. 28N including flocks totalling 200 in Minerva, and the Roosevelt Truck Trail with 150 siskins.  Joan's more recent posts [Dec. 4] from Horseshoe Lake and Low's Ridge-Upper Dam Trail have reported smaller numbers in these locations.

Pine Siskins are one of several kinds of birds referred to as “irruptive species,” meaning they can show up unexpectedly anywhere in the lower 48, and the pattern changes from year to year.  A few birds may linger into the spring and act as though they will nest locally, which they do in New York State.  The heaviest concentration of nesting records occurs in three clumps from roughly Norwich to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid.

Siskins are seed eaters.  They prefer conifers [spruce, pine, cedar and hemlock], but also eat seeds from deciduous trees [especially birch], shrubs [particularly alder], flowers [weeds] and grasses.  They readily come to thistle-seed feeders, sometimes in large flocks, but also eat sunflower seeds – basically the same diet as goldfinches.  By the way, goldfinches and siskins can feed upside down.  Special feeders are made with the seed holes below the perches.  In the case of siskins the skill is useful in extracting seeds from conifer cones.

            Questions, comments and corrections are welcomed.  Some of my other nature columns [more relevant to the Adirondack perimeter and New York lowlands] can be found on http://northeastnaturalist.blogspot.com

Boreal Chickadees -- © Dave Spier

Boreal Chickadee in a White Pine by Dave Spier [scanned from a old slide]
see the links at the end of this blog post for great photos by other photographers

Judging by recent reports on Northern New York Birds, there's no shortage of Boreal Chickadees (Poecile hudsonica) in the Adirondacks.  If you're looking for a specific location, try the Roosevelt Truck Trail off Route 28N in Minerva.  The trail runs north from the old, narrow sideroad 1.6 miles north of the Boreas River bridge; details are in the ADK guidebook.  Birding guide, Joan Collins, said, "I had a beautiful walk on the Roosevelt Truck Trail [November 16]. I don't recall ever finding as many Boreal Chickadees on one walk. Views of the Boreal Chickadees were terrific throughout the hike.”

They're also likely to be encountered in northern New England, much of Alaska and certainly in their trans-Canada strongholds from coast to coast south of the tree line.  For an eBird range map, look under View and Explore Data, and then zoom in for finer detail.  At the highest resolutions you’ll find individual locations and checklists.  If you continue north on the map through Canada, you’ll find the data is incomplete, so if you’re ever up that way, please submit your complete checklists to eBird and help fill in the gaps.

Not surprisingly, almost all of the 2000-2005 Breeding Bird Atlas records for Boreal Chickadees are clustered in the Adirondacks.  The two exceptions are on the Tug Hill between Lake Ontario and the Adirondacks.

The Boreal's preferred habit is dense northern (boreal) coniferous forests, so whenever they move in search of winter food, they're usually found in a similar environment, often in association with their close relatives, the Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapilla).  At a distance the two species can be separated by song, with the Boreal's being a slower, raspier version of the familiar "chicka-dee-dee-dee," but more like "che-day-day" at a lower pitch.

All chickadees come to suet and sunflower seed feeders.  If you have conifers (spruce, pine, firs or hemlock) in your yard or nearby, pay some extra attention to any chickadees coming to your feeder.  Watch for any with a brown cap, gray sides of the neck behind the white face, and light-brown flanks.  (All chickadees have the black bib and underthroat.)  If you see one [or more], please report it [them] to eBird, or email me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

For great photos of Boreal Chickadees, please visit Jeff Nadler's website and Larry Master Conservation Photography

The Northern Harrier, once known as the "marsh hawk," is what I call an Adirondack peripheral species more common around the edges. It's a slender and buoyant hawk with a somewhat owl-like face. The hawk's long wings and tail are designed for life in the open. If it tips toward you, look for the distinctive white rump patch. When soaring, the wings are held in a shallow V (called a dihedral) with the tail fanned. At low altitudes, the tail is usually closed and the wings held flat to the sides. In a steep glide, the wings are sharply bent and swept back like a fighter jet.

Mostly it flies low over the grasslands and the marshes while it looks for small mammals, especially Meadow Voles (also called field mice) which are caught with a sudden pounce. Sometimes this large bird's flight drifts back and forth, then stops momentarily to hover before pouncing. In warm weather it hunts snakes, frogs and insects. When all else fails, carrion is eaten.

Male Northern Harrier eating prey (probably a vole) in a field -- © Dave Spier

In the winter, harriers hang around with Short-eared Owls and share the same fallow, grassy fields where mice have had time for a population explosion. Both species will use fence posts for hunting perches as they listen for prey. Though unrelated species, the facial disks of both harriers and owls seem to help focus sounds on the ears.

The harrier's Latin name, Circus cyaneus, refers to its circling flight and the supposedly blue plumage of the males. The color is actually gray, but that's only half the story because females and juveniles are brown, an unusual disparity for raptors. The bodies of juveniles are orangish underneath. The name harrier is Old English for "harassing with hostile attacks." Other colloquial names include blue hawk, mouse hawk and white-rumped hawk. Males are smaller and more agile and catch smaller prey, including birds.

Female Northern Harrier (note the white rump) over a marsh -- © Dave Spier

Harriers breed from Alaska across Canada to the Maritimes and south into the United States as far as a line from California to Pennsylvania. The 2000-2005 N.Y.S. Breeding Bird Atlas contains 32 breeding records for harriers in the core Adirondack region (not counting the Champlain lowlands). Of these, six are confirmed, three more are probable and 26 are possible. There is a heavy concentration of harrier breeding records in the St. Lawrence lowlands of northern Jefferson County. In fact, the Adirondacks are surrounded by numerous records including the Champlain area.  (Click for a map)

Most harriers head south for the winter and return in the spring, but a number of birds, likely adults with good hunting skills, will stay in the north (see the previous post about the Fort Edward Grasslands Important Bird Area).

[bold blue type indicates a link]  Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Male Northern Harrier tearing apart prey in a field -- © Dave Spier