New York Day 4

Well, time keeps marching on, and we keep falling further behind in our New York posts. Never mind that it's been a month by now, we'll still stay the course!

That Tuesday, Becca had to go back to work, and to the doctor in the morning. That made it a good time to check out Bill's local "patch" -- a birding term for the park you most commonly survey. For me, it's Creek Park. For Bill, it's Whipple Woods and the Lehigh Swamp.

It was fun to walk around in the woods, which are a wet assemblage of various aged second growth deciduous forest. American Redstarts and Yellow Warblers were the most common birds in the woods, though we also saw Brown Creepers, Hairy Woodpeckers and other forest birds. It was nice to hear the haunting song of Wood Thrushes, but we never saw the cryptic things. The woods were a great place to get out and enjoy a northeastern birding experience. It's completely unlike anything we have out here!

After Becca got back from the doctor, where she learned she didn't have a broken wrist(!), we took the car for a spin out to Owl Woods. This was another really neat place where Yellow Warblers were thick as flies, and though we missed some interesting birds that had been seen there recently, it was fun to check out the migrant trap. The rest of the day we spent checking out the local shoreline.

Lake Ontario is huge, and we went up and down a small section of the shore, staring off into the distant horizon, unable to catch a glimpse of Canada at all. That was an incredible amount of fresh water. At one stop, we found our first Bank Swallows, which was pretty awesome, and we also saw several Mute Swans. These beautiful birds are an introduced pest, but our first American individuals of that European species.

In the evening, we meandered over to the Braddock Bay spit to look for a recently reported Black-billed Cuckoo. We didn't find the bird, but we did find a beautiful sunset!

Libby in the sunset light.

Pictures have been uploaded: New York Day 4.