Twelve Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club (HMBC) members and guests gathered at the Collins Lake Beach on this cool and lightly breezy Halloween morning.
Our first bird was a cooperative Merlin, perched in a tree just above the parking lot. A Bald Eagle was spotted by several of the group before it hid in the pines along the Sunnyside Avenue side of the lake. The lake itself was devoid of many of the usual waterfowl subjects; hopefully more of these will pass through on their way south soon. And, next year maybe we should bias this HMBC walk a bit later into November.
There were SOME waterfowl, though -- almost 20 Wood Ducks near the island. And a Canada Goose.
The water level on the Mohawk River was low enough to expose shoreline mud, but only Ring-billed Gulls and a Mallard took advantage of this recently exposed territory.
The second half of the trip, along the Scotia-Glenville stretch of the Mohawk-Hudson Bike Path allowed us several chances to warm up in the sun, as well as plenty of bird encounters. A young Peregrine Falcon perched for several minutes at the top of one of the electric transmission line towers. A Cooper's Hawk gave us a nice fly-by view, as did a Red-tailed Hawk or two.
All the local woodpeckers -- except Yellow-bellied Sapsucker -- made appearances for us.
The "usual suspect" song birds were also plentiful: White-throated Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Cedar Waxwings, House Finches, MANY American Robins, along with a couple Northern Mockingbirds.
A calling Hermit Thrush alerted us to its presence, and several of the group got eyes on the bird itself.
Total count for the day included 35 species, up from the past two years, despite the lack of most waterfowl.
