Putnam Highlands Audubon Society Newsletter

Local Birding News, Sightings and Coming Events

April 30, 2023

Putnam Highlands Audubon Society President’s Letter

Greetings PHAS Members and Friends!

On March 18th, Putnam Highlands Audubon hosted our annual dinner at the Taconic Outdoor Education Center. The overarching theme to this dinner was the importance of conserving our lands and “keeping our eye on the sparrow” and realizing our love for birds and wildlife is why we’re all at this event. Also, realizing that not all progress is good progress when it comes to the outdoors because once habitats disappear, it and its species aren’t coming back. You can read my opening remarks in the link at the bottom.

This year’s dinner was very special, we honored former PHAS president of 13 years, Connie Mayer. Her dedication to the chapter, Constitution Marsh, and the greater Cold Spring/Philipstown area and beyond were highlighted eloquently by Pete Salmansohn and an entertaining story or two was shared by Lew Kingsley.

Our guests were also treated with a presentation from author Kathryn Schneider about birding in the Hudson Valley. She spoke about her book that gives in depth detail on popular spots to bird from Albany down to southern Westchester. She also spoke about what it takes to get into birding, what gear do you use? What’s the difference between a birder and a bird watcher?

Our silent auction contained a wide array of items ranging from experiences such as a canoe trip at Constitution Marsh or a day of birding with the chapter president to items from the local businesses and some excellent artwork and framed photography.

I’d like to thank the PHAS board for all of your hard work putting this event together, the staff of TOEC and NYS Parks for hosting us, our many sponsors (list here) and most importantly to everyone who attended or contributed. Without your support, this chapter doesn’t exist.

For the birds! -Sean Camillieri President

PHAS 2023 Dinner Opening Remarks

Notable Bird Sightings

PHAS Board Member and prodigious birder Anthony Macchiarola continues to rove the Hudson Valley Counties sighting scores of fabulous bird species and noting them in eBird.

All of the notable sightings listed below were compiled using eBird.org. eBird is a fantastic website that allows you to find birds and places to go birding (both locally and while travelling somewhere new), as well as a way to keep track of your bird lists and photos. All of the data you input into eBird contributes to science and to the conservation of birds and their habitat. We encourage everyone to join eBird (it is free, you just need to create an account) and record all of your bird sightings there. And remember, eBird is not just for notable sightings! Please visit ebird.org/about to learn more and to sign up. And visit eBird Putnam County to see Putnam County’s eBird page. 

December 1,2022 to April 30,2023

September 1, 2022 - November 30, 2022

June 1, 2022 – August 31, 2022

February 1, 2022 – May 31, 2022

October 15, 2021 – January 30, 2022

Putnam Highlands Audubon Society Position Statement on Indian Point Decommissioning

Holtec Pauses Plan to Dump Toxic Nuclear Wastewater into Hudson

At its April 12th Putnam Highlands Audubon Chapter Board meeting a Resolution was adopted in opposition to the dumping of 1,000,000 gallons of radioactive wastewater from the de-commissioning of the Indian Point Nuclear Facility into the Hudson River.

Holtec, the Corporation charged with handling the de-commissioning has planned to start this dumping in the coming months, but has announced it will hold off starting immediately, as there has been tremendous opposition from environmental organizations and the community. The Hudson River has just gone through a long and extensive clean up from the dumping of PCB’s into the river causing degradation to the fish species that migrate into the river to spawn each year. The contamination build up then caused harm and mortality to other wildlife species as the PCB’s moved up the food chain and into Bald Eagles and humans and other species through consuming the fish.

Read Full Letter By Connie Mayer, PHAS Conservation Chair

Winter Bird Walks

By Sean Camillieri, PHAS President

This winter’s bird walks consisted of two very different styles of birding.

In February, thirteen participants stood in the parking lot area of the Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge and enjoyed nice views of Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawk, and American Kestrel while waiting for the main event, the evening emergence of the Short-eared Owls.

This species is crepuscular, meaning, that they will come out in the early evening or early morning while most other nocturnal animals are asleep for the day. The first owl was seen around 4:45 and by the end of the evening and with some patience, we were able to enjoy up to 5 of these spectacular animals at a very close distance. With their lanky oar-like wings and erratic flight style this owl is always a crowd pleaser. This is one of our best walks of the year and always a great time, the group that joined us was enthusiastic and a pleasure to bird with! Please enjoy some photos, video, and audio of the owls we saw here.

On March 18th, myself and board members Kyle Bardwell and Steve Rappaport hosted a small group walk at Croton Point Park. This period is often referred to as the “doldrums” of birding. The migrants haven’t come up from the south yet and many migratory ducks have begun to clear out heading north, leaving not much left…Because of this we decided to use this opportunity to teach some folks how to use eBird.

For those that are not familiar, eBird is a citizen science program where anybody can create a free account and log their bird sightings from wherever they are in the world. The data can then be viewed real time on their website. The interface on mobile phones is fairly easy to use but there are some shortcuts we showed our participants that helps make data entry easier. This was our first time holding an event like this and we would like to incorporate this more into our walks.

If you’re ever on a PHAS walk and have an eBird question, please ask one of the walk leaders.

We saw 41 species that morning including nesting Bald Eagles, American Kestrel, White-crowned Sparrow, Winter Wren and some early signs of spring such as singing Red-winged Blackbirds. Checklist can be found here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S131178012

To learn more about eBird, please visit their website: https://ebird.org/about Visit our chapter’s eBird website at https://ebird.org/profile/MTQxNjM5Mw/US-NY-091

Educational Programs Report

By Pete Salmansohn, PHAS Education Chair

 The last four months have seen over 200 people participate in our local presentations, a sure and hopeful sign that people continue to be very curious about wildlife and ecology. 

In January, Anne Swaim, executive director of Saw Mill River Audubon and a topflight birder, gave a colorful and well-illustrated talk to a crowd at the Desmond-Fish Library, on “Winter Birding in the Lower Hudson Valley.” 

In February, Garrison resident and regional wildlife biologist Dr. Ed McGowan spoke about the often-mysterious and hidden lives of Eastern Coyotes,  to a standing-room only audience at the Parish House at St. Philips Episcopal Church. 

In March, expert naturalist and gardener Janis Butler, from Cornell Cooperative Extension, shared with another large group at the Desmond-Fish Library how to “build backyard habitat for wildlife,” focusing on the planting of native species of flowers, shrubs, and trees.   This program was co-sponsored with the Philipstown Garden Club. 

And in mid-April, we gathered a group of people at the Little Stony Point Citizen’s Association for a hands-on workshop in “the basics of bird-identification.”  This included time outside, observing the birds who came to the array of feeders, which are well-stocked by our friends and collaborators at NYS Parks.  Stay tuned to our website for future offerings

More Than Just the Philadelphia Eagles Were Seen on this Eaglewatch

Every fall, Bald Eagles that live north of us migrate south in search of food. The abundance of birds is heavily dictated by the severity of our winters down this way, mainly when it comes to ice cover on the river. Eagles are predators and scavengers and when resources and open water are scarce to the north they will come down. However, with the mild winters we had, there wasn't much of a wintering population of eagles this winter. 

On February 12th (Superbowl Sunday for the lame joke above), PHAS and Constitution Marsh held an eagle watch in lieu of Eaglefest. Boscobel was gracious enough to host the event and we were able to watch over the marsh and the scenic view that their property has to offer. PHAS members educated visitors on why eagles migrate south in the winter and when our local eagles begin to set up their nests. Charlie Roberto was also there and was able to get folks on the eagle nest in Foundry Cove and offer additional information and facts about these birds. 

While no eagles flew closeby, we were fortunate enough to see 2 adults and a juvenile eagle down in Constitution Marsh perched over the railroad tracks. There were also some ducks that were calling the marsh home for the winter such as Northern Pintail, American Black Duck, Hooded Merganser, and Green-winged Teal. eBird list can be found here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S128209114

We’ll Need More Than Just Batman to Rescue These Species!

By Sean Camillieri, PHAS President

The Northern Long-eared Bat (NLEB) was put on the federal endangered species list on March 31st, 2023. This is the latest and unfortunately not the first or last of its kind to be added. Many factors are playing a role in many bat species declines. Windmills from wind farms, heavy use of pesticides, climate change and white nose syndrome are making it almost impossible for any of these species to make a rebound.

Event hough they aren’t the most colorful and can be perceived as gross and ugly, bats play a crucial role in our ecosystem; recent studies estimate that bats eat enough pests to save $1 billion dollars/year in crop damage and pesticide use! Across all agricultural production, this amount can be raised to $3 billion!

Indiana bat was the first species to be introduced to the ESA back in 1973. White-nose syndrome exacerbated the issue and now as of 2019 93% of the entire Northeast population resides in a single mine in New York. The same trajectory holds true for NLEB, this species has suffered a 97%+ decline.

The most recent studies and the same trend applies to Tricolored Bat which could be proposed for listing come September 2023 and Little Brown Bat is not far behind.