A PHOEBE WITH A HICCUP

Yes, I mean that. I heard a Phoebe this morning down by our Acre Pond Stream who indeed had a hiccup. It sounded like, Phoebe-be-be, and not just the long drawn out Phoeeebee!!, Phoeebee!!. I will include a link here to an ordinary Phoebe call. You be the judges! tp://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Eastern_Phoebe.html The Hudson River is now ice-free, and there is only one slowly dissolving stack of dirty oldish snow over by the pine grove. Our resident red tail (I think an immature or nearly one year) was literally making, as is sung in "Oklahoma"...."lazy circles in the sky".... I followed it up and up till, without my binocs. it disappeared.. I send a link to an interesting article about a subject we birders would like to deny which is the decrease in the population of migrating birds. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/19/AR2009031902055.html?referrer=emailarticle

I hope to have some new photos next week. Enjoy this new migration!

DEFINITE SPRING ARRIVAL AT ESOPUS

There is no doubt! SPRING IS HERE AT ESOPUS. Out on what we stll call "Pells" (because it is the piece of property that we bought from Robert Livingston Pell later on in 1954) I heard a Long-Eared Owl (or more!!), an Eastern Tohwee, Song Sparrows, an Ovenbird.....(Well, I heard what I understood as its "Teacher, Teacher, Teacher!!) call, the usual crowd of Red-Winged Blackbirds, an Eastern Phoebe and a Carolina Wren) Well, let me be honest! (Because anyone who knows anything about us birders knows that an "unchaperoned birder" is capable of, if not "outright deceit", at the minimum...a bit of "exaggeration"). So, being honest, I have to say that what I "thought" was the Ovenbird's song might have ACTUALLY been a "variation" of the Carolina Wren's. And so I will put two links here: 1. Song of the Carolina Wren--http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Carolina_Wren.html and 2. The Ovenbird. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Ovenbird.html You, who I HOPE will respond will be the judges. So get out there and enjoy this early "March Spring" yourselves!!!

ANSWER TO MY POLL: LEWIS'S WOODPECKER

I had a poll with the question, What bird is named for Captain Lewis of the Lewis & Clarke Expedition? The answer is Lewis's Woodpecker. (I had posted it as the mystery bird a few days ago. But no one who answered the poll caught it). A few years ago I went with two friends: Andy and Clem on a trip in which we visited Traveller's Rest the place where Lewis & Clarke camped after their hazardous crossing of the Rockies. I was on the lookout for Lewis's Woodpecker, with its interesting mixture of green and red. But I never did see it. One interesting thing that they learned was how the Poor Whill hibernates in a way that they actually seem dead if one finds them by day as either Lewis or Clarke did.

Yesterday our small herd of deer were "cavorting". That's exactly the word that came to mind as I saw them kicking up their heels and frolicking along the field. It is I guess an early spring. The noreaster of a week and a half ago did not drop much snow here in Ulster County. My snowshoes are definitely "packed away". (This picture is of my brother Dan enjoying the River from a bench at Esopus Lighthouse.

MYSTERY BIRD WAS THE LEWIS WOODPECKER

KINGFISHER AT ESOPUS MEADOWS

The Kingfisher that I saw last Fall at Esopus Meadows (within the "Esopus Lighthous Park") has returned. Yesterday (March 11th) he (or she) was clicking over the water towards the point heading down towards Esopus Island. A lot of driftwood has come into the shore on the Read Path over there. You can see this HUDSON RIVER BIRDER showing the girth of a piece of one large tree. (I am not sure if it is an oak, but I suspect it is "or was").

I had an interesting exchange with a very nice and committed person in the NYSDEC, Mr. Peter Nye. He reminded me of something I really should have taken into consideration. This is the need to preserve in tranquillity the nesting sites of birds. This applies to ALL nest I believe, but most especially to those that are endangered. I was speaking to my younger brother and he told me something that is sadly true. He said, There are lots of hunters that are good people and responsable ones. But there are others who just like to kill things. He described to me a picture he had seen somewhere where some people had killed an eagle. Then they proudly (???) spread it over the hood of their car, took a picture and "showed it off" to their "friends" (???). When I was young I ran into kids who liked to torture and dismember animals. It gave me the chills then and still does to remember it. I really believe that all life is sacred. I am grateful to Mr. Nye for reminding me not to advertise the exact location of nesting sites if I so happen to discover them. We all, including our friends in the animal and tree world, as well as those of us who are supposed to be the "stewards and caretakers of nature" WE ALL DESERVE A PEACEFUL, UNDISTURBED PLACE TO LIVE, TO GROW AND TO BE AT PEACE.

LONG-EARED OWLS

This moring it is cold (34F) and damp. Down by our two "Entrance Lakes" I heard what seemed very much like this sound http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Asio&species=otus which I think is the Long-Eared Owl. To hear them either the male or female go to where you have the sounds for either the male "Asio Otus" or female. (I compared them to the Saw Whet (to which it sounds nothing like) and the Short-Eared Owl which have a faster whoo and with the female which have a very different call). So please check it out. And feel very free to call and correct me. (That's what blogs are for...."two-way" communication). I am also "pretty" sure that I saw and heard a Pewee yesterday. It was not the Wood Pewee but the simply Eastern Pewee. I also got a comment from someone in the NYSDEC in Albany. I am pretty sure it is about the Eagle's Nest. Let me "guess" here a bit. I am figuring that they will want be to be very careful about not identifying the "exact" location of the nest and also about being most respectful about approaching it and allowing others to approach it. I fully understand these concerns. One of the problems about beautiful private property is that people naturally want to "see it and admire it". The other day I read something that defined environmentalists as persons who "see humans as a blight or at least a threat to the environment" and conservationists as simply "wanting to preserve a healthy and coexistence between the human, and non human parts of creation/environment"... I don't know if all people accept that definition of each group. But I personally believe in the need....for humans to coexist and respect ALL of the world, all of creation. BECAUSE IT IS, OF COURSE EVERYBODY'S HOME.

OUR EAGLE'S NEST AT ESOPUS AND ROCK CLIMBING THE SHAWANGUMS

Yes, I know, as I said before, they are not OUR...but everybody's eagles. But since I' ve seen this one rebuilding its nest...you you will understand I feel "close" to them. They are building their nests and I may see an immature flying with its parents as I did over the Hudson last Fall, an awesome sight indeed! That is him "or her"...flying. (If I had Debra or Lloyd's or any of those Central Park birders' cameras, the shot would be much more impressive!) I took these last week..

One of my favorite sites (I have a link to it) is the Mohonk Nature Preserve founded by the Quaker Smiley Brothers the in the 19th century (about 1864). Yesterday, since I am a member, I was walking the Undercliff Carriage Trail on the West Trapps Trail of the Preserve. It includes the Shawangums Mountains just west of New Paltz, NY which are one of the best Rock Climbing sites in New York and maybe in the USA. The grey white quartizite conglomerate is extremely hard, about 99% pure quartz. There are many approved routes up the cliffs. Yesterday there were about 15 climbers that I could count. The last one I met was quite interesting. There she was, a young mom about 70 feet up the cliff while her young husband had the support rope in one hand and their 7 or 8 month baby in the other hand. I greeted the man, looked at the baby and said, And do you want to climb when your grow up too just like mommie? The little boy smiled which I intrepreted as a "Yes!"

IT IS EVERYBODY'S BALD EAGLE

About four years ago American Bald Eagles began to build their nest near where I now live. Idid not live here at the time. But those who did, mainly Father Gene got a call from someone who works for the Audubon Society . They could see the eagles building the nest. Since then Audubon has tagged the nest and some of the eaglets born there. (The year before the tagger just missed tagging one of the eaglets as they flew from the nest.) Unfortunately one of the things they did was to leave a chain up near the nest which would help the skilled Audubon expert get close enough to grab and band the eaglets. However last year it probably was that very metal chain that attracted the lighting bolt which destroyed the nest. But, thanks be to God American Eagles are very tenacious. And so they are in the process of rebuilding the nest, if they haven't done so yet. I said "OUR" eagles. Well, of course they are not "ours". They BELONG TO US ALL. I have seen at least one of them flying above our roof last week. Two men that had come to make a Matt Talbot spotted them as they were getting their luggage out of their trunk.

RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS....AND BIRDSONG

One of the real happy moments here at The Mount is this month of February when the Red-Winged Blackbirds return. Their "call" and their unmusical song, ---Con-Con-Coreeeeee!! is pretty easy to recognize. The Tufted Timouse's "Peter, Peter, Peter" is also is a no brainer to recognize. The same is true for the ever present Black-Capped Chickadees and the White-Breasted Nuthatches with their plaintive "Ank, Ank, Ank!" We have at least one Piliated Woodpecker and their call is pretty easy to recognize as is the broken or off-key guitar call of the Red-Bellied Woodpecker. I usually to to the net occasionally to sites that have birdsong. The Cornell site that is over to the right in my Birding Favorite Links will have pretty much all the North American birds. You can google the name of pretty much any bird and the net is more than likely going to take you to a site where you will both hear it and sometimes see it graphically represented. I have heard that sometimes the only way that experts can come to a positive ID of two birds that sing "sort of" similarly is to graph it. If you read Marie Winne's book Central Park After Dark which I enjoyed immensely, you will see that sound graphs (or whatever they are called) are often the only way to distinguish the sound of certain bats. I will give you hear an interesting link to NORTH AMERICAN BIRDSONGS. It is http://www.naturesongs.com/birds.html.

WHIRLING HUDSON RIVER SNOW

Even the jays are taking a rest today! And if there are saw whet owls, short eared or long eared ones one in our inviting connifers they are saving their diving and predating skills till the winds die down. (Is there someone "out there" who knows if an owls vision is impaired by swirling snow flakes??). If we get at least another foot of snow out will come my closeted snowshoes. Maybe those white-winged crossbills that have been seen in such abundance in Central Park will be back up here, if indeed they ever passed through Esopus. By the way if any of you know any birders in the Kingston, Esopus, West Park, Ulster Park, Highland or Pougkeepsie, Wappingers Falls area, let me know. Other than Rusty Johnson who is a licensed falconer, does eco tours in the Amazon and is the recognized "Hawk and Bird Man" here in Esopus .http://www.ecologychannel.com/mail.htm (His wife Jessica works with us at The Mount). I haven't connected with many of the local birders. Let me know if you know someone that would like to bird in this area with this HUDSON RIVER "LONE" BIRDER.

NO OWLS LAST NIGHT

Last night, as the night before I did a 10pm round of our conifers, mainly the ones in the grove opposite The Mount. But I also checked the pines that surround the Redemptoristine Convent, especially where they slope down towards the river. All I saw were the gleaming red lights bouncing off our "curious noctural grazing deer". No Long nor Short Eared owls. No Saw Whets either. Fr. Gene has told me that the huge conifers between our two entrances along 9 W have "hosted owls" in past years. I will check tomorrow. There are mere patches of snow on our fields and meadows. I would like just one good week of snowshoeing. Let's see what the midnight brings.

GIANT "WELCOMING ESOPUS OAK

This oak I guess was "born" more or less when we bought 200 of these 400 or so acres from Robert Livingstong Pell in 1904. I see it as "welcoming". It welcomes all who come to see our beatiful property, to look at our birds, our deer, our abundant wildlife...It ALSO "has welcomed" many of my Redemptorist brothers and sisters who have been lain to rest in our Mt. St. Alphonsus Cemetery which is located just northwest of the orchards and just above one of the two large ponds that then feed off through the pastures into the Acre Pond.

Just southeast of our orchard with this imposing oak is the remaining silo of a barn torn down last year. It will be rebuilt way out in Montana I am told. Well, that barn and the horse stables where a "much younger Hudson River Birder worked".... that will be for a future blog. Please be patient (as those phone messages always tell us).

JEALOUS OF CENTRAL PARK

The disadvantage of being a birder here at The Mount is that our property from Highway 9 W to the River is about a half mile wide. The reason for this title, Jealous of Central Park is that my friends, Bob and Deb De Candido, Brian and others have been seeing these White Winged Crossbills for the last month "down there". But up here, scouring as I am our Conifers, and we do have many, I have yet to see one. We have "barrels" of Eastern Bluebirds. The Red Winged Blackbirds have been down on our marshes leading into the Acre Pond. We have many Downy Woopeckers as well as Red Bellied, Flickers and at least one Piliated Woodpecker that nests near the dock on the Hudson. So maybe I shouldn't be complaining. But I am! I don't know that the Central Park Owlers would consider it ethical. But I have this nice big flashlight. And I plan to check our conifer spots tonight around 10pm. If I "hear a hoot" that flashlight will light him/or her...up. Well, just for enough time for me to see them...

This is the first time in the ten years that I have been back from the Dominican Republic that I "am truly enjoying winter". I really am. Buying these snowshoes was the best investment in my winter health and good cheer I could have ever made. Many times I have seen our or an "other" Bald Eagle overhead or one of our local immature, maybe first year Red Tailed Hawk...right overhead. God bless winter...and the other three seasons that will follow.

My Friends Brian, Bob and Debra

B

Today I added a link to my favorites. It is to Debra Allen's Bird Photography Site. Bob De Candido and Debra are well known birders in Central Park, NYC. I met them in 1997 when I was up on a inner city parish mission in Bushwick-Brooklyn and East Harlem. It was September. I had discovered a nice old set of binoculars and wandered over to Central Park where I discovered the "Hawk Watchers" (..and "Counters"..) On the top level of Belvedere Castle (which is right below the park's Great Lawn and Turtle Pond, and right beside the Delacourt Theatre Bob, Debra, my friend Brian and many others like Richard, Eva, Lloyd,.... watched the huge Fall Migration of Raptors. I was "hooked on hawks", and I was making some nice new friends like Bob, Debra and Brian who has also come to see our Esopus lands here at The Mount. Bob and Debra are also naturalists. Debra is a wonderful nature photographer as you will see when you visit her website. Both of them have spent time in Central America, in Thailand and in places like Pennsyalvania taking part in various studies of hawks, nesting habits and the like. Bob will just "love" my new gmail address. Because it has the name of a raptor that he and Debra are presently studying in New York City--- the American Kestrel or "sparrow hawk" as they are also known. When I lived in the South Bronx I discovered one of their nests and Bob and Debra came to photograph it. I never told them this. But I once wrote a story about Kenny and Katherine, two inner city kestrels that "watched people"....for instance....people like ME who were watching them.

ROBERT LIVINGSTON PELL

I would like to tell you something about how this Hudson River Birder got to live on this Hudson River-front property. I place I love to visit is what we used to call "Pells". It is the northern-most border of our property that was owned until 1904 by Robert Livingston Pell. Nearer to On that property which had at one time ten artificial lakes back in the 1800's Pell grew grapes, and planted the famous apple called the "New Town Pippin". He sold the best apples for as much $30 per barrel. He had at one time 20,000 of these apple trees 40 years old. The first and second quality apples were barreled. And with the third quality apples he at one time produced at one time 300,000 barrels of cider. In 1908 my Redemptorist missionary congregation acquired the Pell Estate and in 1908 built in Mt. St. Alphonsus ("The Mount") which one of us once called My Grey Grandmother on the Hudson. It was a seminary until 1987 and then became this Retreat Center, continuing to be....."a wildlife and scenic wonder.."

These apple trees are about all we are growing these days. As I said they are near our Giant Oak. We have been told that our soil is wonderfully rich. What Pell did in the last century seems to bear this out. (People from winery have encouraged us to grow grapes that, they say, would produce a tasy Pinot Noir wine. Maybe it will happen.) Meanwhile I visit the grave of Amanda on the small cemetery that must have been one of the young daughters of those who worked for the Pells. I say, Amanda, what do you think is going to happen to this beautiful land that your family worked so long ago. It is as beautiful as ever. You remember the Eastern Bluebirds, Amanda? Well, for many years they disappeared from here. But about ten years ago people began placing birdhouse. Now they are the delight of our winter.

OUR "GIANT ESOPUS OAK AND THE FALLEN "ACRE SHACK"

Next to our nice old apple orchards (the few that survive the great Robert Livingston Pell era) ,stands this truly enormous oak. It has to be over a hundred years old, measuring some 23 feet around. It is one of the many wonderful symbols of strength , beauty and survival that surround us here at The Mount. However, sadly, not ALL survives !!!

You can see, even in the winter, the boards in the snow that are the last remains of what we used to call The Acre Shack when we played hockey, skated at night, traded gifts at Christmas and grew in affection for this wonderful Hudson River landscape..

Bro. Charlie's Wood Duck nest (an image of which is someplace on this blog) is right up to the right of where the Shack was standing. Charlie constructed the nest recent years long after the beavers, erosion and wind had flooded the Acre Shack which eventually fell.

The Acre Shack fell. But now we and our neighbors have a wonderful two lake wetland with plenty of ducks. (There are Black Ducks wintering on the stream that feeds the Acre Pond). It is so very apt the name of our great conservancy group in this area: Scenic Hudson. IT TRULY IS!!!

ALPHIE, POSSUMS AND OUR "ALBINO SKUNK"

I am patiently...waiting and hoping no one chooses BORED or CONFUSED as their reaction to this Hudson River Birder.
And so...let me tell you, in order about some of the "critters" we have on our Esopus land here looking right up the Hudson to the Esopus Lighthouse, which is on a diagonal from our main building or Norrie's Yacht Basin which is straight across the Hudson from us. Esopus Island is on a diagonal about southeast of us.
1. ALPHIE: is Fr. Gene's nearly eight month old female Black Labrador. She probably knows our property better than any of us. She now knows what a possum is and that they are not good to eat. She has seen but wisely not chased our herd of wild turkeys. And she has had at least two "uncomfortable encounters with......our
2. ALBINO SKUNK: Yes, there are albino skunks. (There is even a quite famous "albino squirrel" over in Tillson which has not been seen recently. The snow might have something to do with this.... )Our albino skunk, after these two encounters has not succeeded in convincing Alphie that skunks are not nice to "hang around with". Well, hopefully Alphie will learn as we all do.
3. JUNCOS: Juncos are birds that are like "little maitre des" They seem to get a nicer darker coat as winter wears on...or "wears out". And their neat white chest sometimes looks like a swell tuxedo to me. During my morning walk they flitter from bush to bush just ahead of me. The Eastern Bluebirds and Tufted Titmouses (Titmice???) as well as the ever present Black Capped Chickadees, and White Breasted Nuthatches "hang out" with them.
4. OUR EAGLE FAMILY: About three years ago an Audubon person from across the river spotted nesting eagles on our property. He has tagged some of the hatched eagletts and protected the nest also for which we (and the eagles) are very grateful.
5. BRO. CHARLIE'S WOOD DUCK HOUSE: Two of our largest ponds left over from the Pell Estate era in the last century have been host to, well, of course our "over eager beavers" who have damned them and damned them again. But many migrating ducks including Woodducks have "passed through". Our now deceased Bro. Charlie Summers constructed a very good Woodduck Nesting House and placed it at what we considered the proper distance from the pond, the proper height (about 10 feet) and with the entrance facing "away" from the pond. I have snowshoed many times up past it on route to the old Pell Barn (now fallen) and the little old cemetery that has graves of people born as early as 1732. But so far I don't think any wooducks have checked in. (Maybe this has something to do with the housing market.)

MY FRIEND SKIP

I never fully appreciated the wildlife here at THE MOUNT when I spent six years here about....40 years ago. I still remember that my friend Felo nearly went into ecstasy when he saw an osprey down the river near the entrance to Black Creek. He was raised in South Florida where ospreys, great fishers just enjoy the inter coastal waterways with so much to eat. A few years ago we had Wood Ducks here. So Bro. Charlie (now in the great "Wildnerness Beyond") designed a Wood Duck house which Fr. Tom later assembled and placed just away from our "Acre Pond" Well, that's what WE used to call it. Well, now that I live here I have met Skip Doyle who was born and raised right near here in Port Ewen. He has helped me learn to love and appreciate the beauty of my new Hudson River home. Now the beavers (protected as they are) have had their way and damned it up uniting it to what was the next lake along our 9 W property here in Esopus. They tell us that Arthur Pell the former owner of this and much more Esopus land had many artificial lakes on this property. There remain. let me think... about about 5 today. That was before 1908.

I don't have any pictures yet. But please be patient. There is still snow on the ground. But I will be walking and snapping photos so you can see what a great piece of God's creation THE MOUNT is. We used to help with the little Black Angus cows. Fr. Charlie who lives here now was one of the "seminarian farmers" in those days.