Summer Bird Walk at West Point Foundry Cove Preserve

Another awesome Saturday walk led by Ryan J. Bass backed up by Perry Pitt and Kyle Bardwell. 

Following the recent storms that have hit our region, there was some excitement for what interesting bird could show up on the Putnam Highlands Audubon walk at Foundry Cove. Many times migratory birds can get stuck in these storms and get blown off course.

Foundry Cove is tucked in on the side of a the migratory flyway of the Hudson River and can be a perfect place for an unusual bird to hide from the storms. Although we never ended up finding a rare or unusual bird we had some good looks at some of our more classic Hudson Valley Birds.  

Highlights from the walk included sightings of:

Multiple Great Egrets and at least one Great Blue Heron were seen hunting in the shallows. We then went west along the gravel path and picked up some good birds along the way.

A Pileated Woodpecker that flew overhead along with many Goldfinch throughout the walk.

Indigo Buntings put on a show as both male and female birds landed on the gravel path in front of the group.

Song Sparrows and Blue Gray Gnatcatchers were also landing in the path.

A Catbird hung out on a open perch in the open for the group to see.

Blue gray Gnatcatchers seemed in high numbers as multiple of them foraged for tent caterpillars in the trees along the path. A Blue Winged Warbler offered short viewings before flying off.

Towards the end of the walk a kettle of vultures appeared overhead. There were 31 birds in the kettle including 6 Black Vultures and 24 Turkey Vultures and 1 Red Tailed Hawk.

Looking forward to the next cold front

Kyle pointed out that a day like today illustrates that fall migration starts now, in late August, not necessarily when the leaves change...

Catbird

A Catbird hung out on a open perch in the open for the group to see.

Downy Woodpeckert

Downy Woodpecker is a juvenile. Note the red crown. Very cool.