I’ve spent upwards of 60 hours in the field in the last week with most of my time spent surveying for birds (besides butterflies, dragonflies/damselflies, amphibians, reptiles, plants, you know..basically everything!) and here are more of the photos I’ve taken of a bunch of species.
Black-throated Green Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Palm Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Bobolink
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Eastern Kingbird
White-crowned Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Scarlet Tanager
American Redstart
Field Sparrow
From May 6 to May 10, without trying to accumulate a high count and simply working on specific properties, I saw 141 bird species in Chautauqua County. What were they, you ask? Here’s all of them!
- Canada Goose
- Wood Duck
- Gadwall
- American Black Duck
- Mallard
- Blue-winged Teal
- Northern Shoveler
- Redhead
- Hooded Merganser
- Red-breasted Merganser
- Ring-necked Pheasant
- Ruffed Grouse
- Wild Turkey
- Common Loon
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Great Blue Heron
- Green Heron
- Turkey Vulture
- Osprey
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Red-shouldered Hawk
- Broad-winged Hawk
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Virginia Rail
- Sora
- American Coot
- Killdeer
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Lesser Yellowlegs
- Least Sandpiper
- Bonaparte’s Gull
- Ring-billed Gull
- Herring Gull
- Great Black-backed Gull
- Caspian Tern
- Common Tern
- Rock Pigeon
- Mourning Dove
- Black-billed Cuckoo
- Barred Owl
- Common Nighthawk
- Chimney Swift
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird
- Belted Kingfisher
- Red-headed Woodpecker
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
- Downy Woodpecker
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- Pileated Woodpecker
- American Kestrel
- Eastern Wood-Pewee
- Alder Flycatcher
- Willow Flycatcher
- Least Flycatcher
- Eastern Phoebe
- Great Crested Flycatcher
- Eastern Kingbird
- Yellow-throated Vireo
- Blue-headed Vireo
- Warbling Vireo
- Red-eyed Vireo
- Blue Jay
- American Crow
- Common Raven
- Northern Rough-winged Swallow
- Purple Martin
- Tree Swallow
- Bank Swallow
- Barn Swallow
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Tufted Titmouse
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Brown Creeper
- House Wren
- Winter Wren
- Marsh Wren
- Carolina Wren
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Eastern Bluebird
- Veery
- Swainson’s Thrush
- Hermit Thrush
- Wood Thrush
- American Robin
- Gray Catbird
- Brown Thrasher
- European Starling
- Cedar Waxwing
- Ovenbird
- Louisiana Waterthrush
- Northern Waterthrush
- Blue-winged Warbler
- Black-and-white Warbler
- Nashville Warbler
- Mourning Warbler
- Common Yellowthroat
- Hooded Warbler
- American Redstart
- Cape May Warbler
- Northern Parula
- Magnolia Warbler
- Blackburnian Warbler
- Yellow Warbler
- Chestnut-sided Warbler
- Black-throated Blue Warbler
- Palm Warbler
- Pine Warbler
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- Canada Warbler
- Wilson’s Warbler
- Eastern Towhee
- Chipping Sparrow
- Field Sparrow
- Savannah Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Swamp Sparrow
- White-throated Sparrow
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Scarlet Tanager
- Northern Cardinal
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak
- Indigo Bunting
- Bobolink
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Eastern Meadowlark
- Common Grackle
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Baltimore Oriole
- House Finch
- Purple Finch
- American Goldfinch
- House Sparrow
On May 9 alone I had 111. Today’s count was only 96. It really depends on how many various habitats you visit in a given day and each day I have added more and more new “first of the year” species to my personal list. There are a bunch of birds that I have missed which others have recorded and more “first of the year” birds will come for me every day for a while. Western New York is an extremely rich area in terms of natural resources with an explosion of wildlife underway at the moment.
We are only scratching the surface and our conservation department will be hard at work in the field on every form of life all spring and summer. Tell your family, friends, neighbors, anyone…even those who live far away…to get outdoors or travel here and soak in what the Chautauqua-Allegheny region has to offer. A good chance to do so and to learn more will be during RTPI’s Bird Fest 2014 and we hope you join us then.
Scott Kruitbosch
Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Photos © Scott Kruitbosch
