Search for the Yellow-headed Blackbird

Two Saturdays ago, February 6, I woke up fairly well rested for the first time in a while. A little ways into the day, I brought up the idea of trying to see the Yellow-headed Blackbird, which would be a lifer for me, at the Pruyn Sanctuary in Chappaqua. Mom said that she wanted to come and we could leave at around 1:00 in the afternoon if I got my room picked up and did my laundry. With a life bird on the line, I set myself to cleaning. I was done well before one, and had some time to print up directions to the sanctuary and locations of where it was recently seen. At around 1:10, we left for Pruyn.

After a fifteen-minute drive, we pulled into the parking lot for the sanctuary to find two birders already there. They, though also looking for the blackbird, had a Fox Sparrow in their scope. I snapped a few pictures of it with my camera and then started scanning the blackbird flock up in the trees.


Fox Sparrow

There were plenty of Red-winged Blackbirds, the first ones I had seen in New York this year, and a lot of Brown-headed Cowbirds, the first ones I had seen anywhere this year, but no Yellow-headed Blackbird. The only thing to do was wait. At one point, the entire flock flew down to the ground, but all the birds had dark heads. After about an hour, another car pulls into the lot, and who should get out but Tom Burke and Gail Benson, friends of mine from the Bronx-Westchester and Southern Nassau Christmas Bird Counts. Tom told me that it was their eighth time looking for the bird. Within moments of their arrival, however, the blackbird flock flies back up into the trees from out of sight, bringing with it the coveted Yellow-headed Blackbird! Everyone got looks at the bird, and then the flock moved again, but this time to the open field right in front of us, giving us amazing photographic opportunities of my six hundred and fifty-first life bird.


Yellow-headed Blackbird

About a half-hour later, the entire blackbird flock lifted into the air, circled around twice, then dropped back down into the trees. This time, however, we couldn’t relocate the Yellow-headed Blackbird. Mom suggested that head out, so I folded up our scope. As I was saying goodbye to Tom and Gail, Tom asked me if I had been over to Croton Point park for EagleFest. I had completely forgotten that it was that day, so I asked mom if it would be ok for us to head over there to search for Bald Eagles, a bird still missing from my New York year list, though I had picked one up in Massachusetts for my ABA year list. Saying farewell to the other four birders who stuck around to keep searching for the bird, mom and I drove west.

Reaching Croton, we picked up signs to EagleFest and headed out to the park. When we reached EagleFest, mom headed into the information tent and I went out to where there were people with spotting scopes. One of them happened to be Megan Aitchison, who was my camp counselor for two years, worked with me at Ward Pound Ridge this last summer, and went out on the Bronx-Westchester and Southern Nassau Christmas Bird Counts. I said hello to her, and she introduced me to her dad, who was standing next to her. Though Megan told me they hadn’t had an eagle at their spot yet, there were three Buffleheads and a single female Common Goldeneye swimming just offshore. The Goldeneye, amazingly enough, was a New York year bird for me.

After about half an hour of no activity, I said farewell to Megan and her father and went up to the tent. Here I caught up with mom and saw two other people I knew: Jason, who ran Marshlands up until this year, and Scott, who had been one of my counselors at Ward Pound Ridge even before I met Megan. With daylight rapidly fading, mom and I headed off in search of eagles at the Croton boat launch.

Pulling into the boat launch, I spotted an adult Bald Eagle flying over the water. Moments later, an immature rose up to join it, and mom and I took good looks at both through the binoculars. Continuing on to the little station further down the lot, we discovered that, besides the two eagles that were already gone, there was nothing of interest. The man working at this station, however, told us about the night roost up at George’s Island. With even less light remaining than when we left for the boat launch, mom and I sped north.

Reaching George’s Island, I found that another person I knew was there: Bill, who had also participated in the Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count. On the island itself were twelve Bald Eagles, and while we were watching four more, including two adults, flew in. The biggest excitement, at least for me, was not the eagles; instead, it was the small flock of Canvasbacks in the bay. As we were leaving, four Mute Swans drifted up the Hudson, looking like slabs of ice with long necks.


Canvasbacks

We reached home just as the sun was setting, and the orange light illuminated a Cooper’s Hawk perched on a branch that reached out over the road. The day had yielded several year birds, two state birds, and a life bird. After my pretty productive day, my lists stood as such:

Life: 651 (previously 650)
ABA: 493 (previously 492)
New York: 193 (previously 191)
Year (ABA): 94 (previously 89)
Year (NY): 80 (previously 72)