Category: Extralimital

Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Extralimital

Bald Eagles

During the winter, about an hour north of Manhattan on the Hudson River, you can find Bald Eagles.  On Saturday, Teatown’s Hudson River Eaglefest 2009 was held along the river.  I drove up with James O’Brien and Ben Cacace and we ended up seeing over sixty eagles!  (We might have actually seen more, but we didn’t count the eagles we saw on the west side of the river to avoid double counting.)

We birded both sides of the river from Croton-on-Hudson on the east bank, up to George’s Island and Bear Mountain and down as far as Haverstraw on the west bank.

Map
The early morning view from George’s Island Park.
The view across the river from George’s Island.
There was a nice mix of adult and juvenile eagles on the river.
If you count closely, you’ll see ten eagles out on the river.  This photo was taken about two miles south of Bear Mountain Bridge on the east side of the river.
Fishing!
More Fishing!
Eagles were not the only ones riding the ice, the Greater Cormorants were too.
Extralimital

Reef Bay Trail, St. John VI

A large portion of St. John is a national park.  The Reef Bay Trail in the park has been rated one of the ten best trails in the Caribbean.  It’s a great deal of fun when you go on a guided Park Ranger tour.  The Park Service arranges for transportation to the top of the trail, provides a guide to the bottom of the trail and arranges for a boat to pick you up at the bottom!  No walking back uphill!

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Our transportation to the trail head.
Our Park Ranger guide.
Spider webs were everywhere on the way down.
This plant can be used as a “Brillo pad”.
Lots of creepy crawly insects to avoid.
Ruins from the days of the plantations.
A few mushrooms.  Termites take care of most of the decaying materials, so there weren’t that many mushrooms.
Termites
Waterfalls which had Petroglyphs below them.
The Petroglyphs were where bats appear at night to drink.  It is believed that the islanders believed that the bats were angel like visitors.
Mongooses were introduced to the Island to control rats.  However they are day hunters and ended up just being a second pest.
The Park Service has to control their population, along with other introduced mammals such as donkeys, goats and deer.
The Reef Bay Sugar Mill.
After slavery was abolished, steam power was introduced without much success.
Land Crab
Bats, the only native mammal on the island.
At the bottom of the trail is a Salt Pond…
and a nice beach area.
If you bring a bathing suit, you can swim at the nice beach.
The boat that takes you back to the Park Visitor’s Center.