News & Views

2013 came in with a bang when on New Years Day I awoke to find close to 100 Common Redpolls at our feeders, by far the most Paula and I have ever had here at the Bashakill (beating our previous high of 54 back in March of 2011). On January 3, I noticed an extremely "ghostly" Redpoll among the flock now numbering 150 birds. Could it be a HOARY?

My birding pals John Haas and Lance Verderame, both of whom check our feeders on a regular basis, had also noticed the bird. On January 9th I finally got some photos with my point and shoot of the "ghost" bird and immediately sent them off to John, and he was as excited as I was!

On January 10th John, along with my friends Deb Powell and Lee Hunter, came over, and Lee was able to get a quality photograph of the HOARY on the triple thistle feeder. This bird was also photographed nicely by John. We first thought it was a female because of the absence of any blush. We later found out after extensive study of the field marks by both John and Tom Burke that this was a first year male. In addition both John and I found a second bird, a beautiful adult male with hint of blush, but could never get a good photo of it. Now we have 2 confirmed HOARY REDPOLLS (only the fourth record of this bird for Sullivan County), and we started to get the word out.

On January 12th we had over a dozen birders here watching the huge Redpoll flock now numbering 250 birds, and Lance Verderame found a third HOARY REDPOLL! This one was also determined to be a first year male and was well photographed by both Tom Burke and Jeff Nicoll. On that day everybody got to see at least one of the three and in some cases two of the three HOARY REDPOLLS. I was fortunate to see all three birds on the same day which was most exciting!

Despite constant harassment by a Sharp-shinned Hawk and the presence of the resident Red-tailed Hawk and Red-shouldered Hawk which always send them into flight, the flock has stuck around. At times there can be 50 to 100 here but as recent as the snowstorm on February 8th, which deposited 11 inches of snow, the flock of Redpolls numbered 200 birds including one of the HOARYS.

I don't know how long this flock will stick around, and it is hit and miss trying to find a HOARY in the flock, but the Redpolls are fun birds to watch in such large numbers. They are welcome to stay at our feeders for as long as they like! Looks like I'm going to have to load up on some more thistle! I've gone through over 200 pounds of thistle seed since the first of the year!   

                                                                                                       — Scott Baldinger