Iona Island
Northern Mockingbird feasting on Bittersweet - Nikon Z8 with Z 100-400 lens 1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 1100
The second half of our wildlife inventory of Harriman State Park concentrated on Iona Island, Tompkins Cove and the waterfront at Bear Mountain Dock along the Hudson. The snow from the morning persisted in spite of the Weather Channel’s prognostication of a snow-free day, but by afternoon the snowfall was abating. Bird life began to be bit more visible and the first sighting on the island was a Northern mockingbird taking advantage of some available Bittersweet berries.
Swamp sparrow - Nikon Z8 with Z 100-400 lens @200mm 1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 8000
Our next sighting was actually heard before it was seen. The song drew our attention to a pair of Swamp sparrows perched in ideal swamp sparrow habitat. This sparrow has a characteristic dark body with chestnut on the wings which can be seen in this image. Its gray face is complimented by a rusty cap and white throat. Listen to the tell-tale song of the Swamp sparrow (downloaded from the site “Xeno Canto) by clicking the button below.
We also count mammals during the annual winter census. A nice find today by our resident biologist Ed McGowan was this Big Brown Bat. This was a meaningful addition to our inventory today as these bats have been an issue of concern recently. Many of these bats have succumbed to “White-nose Syndrome”, a fatal fungal disease that kills bats in North America, so finding this specimen is a glimmer of hope for the
We end our busy day with Ed scanning the sky above Anthony's Nose at Bear Mountain Dock.
Tech Tip - Photography is the practice of capturing light. In the case of the photograph of the bat, we were in an old WWI bunker on Iona Island where there used to be an amunitions depot. With no source of light and me not having a flash unit on hand, I enlisted the help of one of our team to use his cell phone to illuminate the subject…our big brown bat. The lighting proved to be sufficient to make the bat bright enough to capture with the camera. In hindsight, the phone camera may have been sufficient! “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
