February 2025 Bird Walks in & around the Hudson Valley
Join bird walks near you! Columbia, Dutchess, Ulster County NY & Berkshire MA.
Columbia County - Alan Devoe Bird Club
For more details & to register, please visit:
https://www.alandevoebirdclub.org/AboutCalendar.htm
SAT, FEB 15
GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT with Columbia Land Conservancy
Coordinator: Will Yandik 518-821-3131
Meet 8:00 am-10:00 am at Ooms Conservation Area (480 Rock City Road, Chatham). CLC will lead this local count established by National Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 1998 as the first online citizen-science bird project.
SAT, FEB 22
EICHYBUSH –SHRIKE SEARCH
Coordinator: Coordinator: Drew Hopkins, 518-653-4387
Meet 9:00 am at Lindenwald parking lot on Route 9H. We will look for Northern Shrike on Eichybush Road in Kinderhook. Northern Harrier and Rough-Legged Hawk are more likely than Northern Shrike. A juvenile shrike was sighted on Eichybush during 2020’s Christmas Bird Count.
Dutchess County - Waterman Bird Club
For more details & to register, please visit:
https://watermanbirdclub.org/about-us/field-trips-2/
Wednesday, February 5
Mills Mansion
Leaders: Ken & Carol Fredericks (845-452-7619).
Meet at 138 Mansion Road parking lot, Staatsburg at 9:00am.
Saturday, February 8
Rye Playland
Leader: Ernie Welch (razor06bill@gmail.com). Please contact him for time and meeting place.
Wednesday, February 12
Dutchess Rail Trail/Hopewell Jct.
Leader: Barbara Michelin (845-242-2301). Meet at the depot parking lot at 9am.
Wednesday, February 19
Tymor Forest
Leader: Barbara Butler. Meet at the barns (249 Duncan Rd.) at 9:00am.
Saturday, February 22
Croton Point Park
Leader: Russ O’Malley (845-464-1147). Please call for time and meeting place.
Wednesday, February 26
Vassar Farm
Leader: Ernie Welch (razor06bill@gmail.com). Meet at the barns parking lot, new circle at Raymond Ave. & Rt. 376, Poughkeepsie at 9:00am.
Ulster County - John Burroughs Natural History Society
For more details & to register, please visit: https://jbnhs.org/events/list/
February 14 - February 17
GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT ULSTER COUNTY STYLE
JBNHSers will be out and about county wide all four days with a focus on an introduction to birding, winter bird IDing, choosing the right optics, and “patch” birding. Visit www.birdcount.org to learn more about this global event and email JBNHSInfo@jbnhs.org for a local schedule of events.
Saturday, February 22
WINTER WOODY PLANT WALK AT FALLING WATERS PRESERVE
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm. Enjoy a brisk, afternoon, late winter walk identifying woody plant by bark, structure, and bud. This Scenic Hudson preserve has an easily used trail system that offers scenic overlooks of the Hudson River and two waterfalls. Directions: On Rt. 32 in Glasco turn east on Glasco Tpk./Main St. continuing east on Delaware St. the north on York St. and then turning east on Dominican Ln. to parking for the preserve. Contact trip leader Tom O’Dowd (tkodowd@gmail.com or 914 213-7079) to register for this outing.
Berkshire County, MA - Hoffman Bird Club
For more details & to register, please visit: https://hoffmannbirdclub.org/events/
Sunday, February 2
Hinsdale Breakfast and Winter Birds
We will start at Ozzie’s Restaurant at 8:00 AM for breakfast. We will then look for wintering birds around Hinsdale and nearby towns. Mostly roadside birding.
Meet at Ozzie’s Restaurant, 26 Maple Street, Hinsdale, at 8:00 AM for breakfast.
Limited to 10 participants. Please use the RSVP button below to register.
Saturday, February 8
Shawangunk Grasslands for Short-eared Owls
12:00 pm. Take a day trip with the Hoffmann Bird Club to the stunning Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge in Ulster County, NY, to search for Short-eared Owls, Rough-legged Hawks, and more! Shawangunk Grasslands is a massive expanse of managed grassland that often hosts many Short-eared Owls in the winter. You can sometimes get close views of them dancing and even calling!
Registration is required.
This trip will require carpooling from the Big Y in Great Barrington due to minimal parking and many visitors at the site. Participants will meet at noon and then travel 2 hours to the NWR with a bathroom stop (and probably birding) along the way. There will be a stop for dinner after the owls are no longer visible.
This trip involves sitting or standing outdoors for an hour or more to wait patiently for the owls.
What to bring: birding optics and/or camera, a chair, warm clothes for extended time outdoors, hand warmers, and water.
Meeting Location: Big Y parking lot, 740 S Main St, Great Barrington, MA 01230
Monday, February 10
February Meeting: Christian Cooper, “Extraordinary Birder”: “Better Living Through Birding; Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World”
7:00 PM. HBC Monthly Meeting.
Contact for Virtual Meeting link.
New York City’s chapter of the Audubon Society has officially changed its name to the New York City Bird Alliance as part of an effort to distance itself from its former namesake John James Audubon, who is still called a founding father of American birding. The 19th century naturalist enslaved at least nine people and espoused racist views. Christian Cooper is a Black birder and a longtime board member of the newly minted New York City Bird Alliance. In 2020, he made headlines after a white woman in Central Park called 911 and falsely claimed Cooper was threatening her life. He will discuss Audubon’s legacy, which “put North American birds on the map” yet “was funded by the trafficking [of] other human beings,” and the significance of the birdwatching community’s efforts to detach Audubon’s association with the pastime. “We’re trying to diversify birding, which traditionally has been a very, very white activity,” says Cooper, who also discusses the 2020 park incident, which occurred on the same day that George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis.
Christian is also the star of National Geographic’s “Extraordinary Birder” TV Series, which has garnered an Emmy Award.
Berkshire County, MA - Berkshire Bird Observatory
Every Saturday from January 1st through March 31st 2025
WINTER BIRD WALKS
Berkshire Food Co-op
10am. Ben leads a weekly bird walk right in the town of Great Barrington, in collaboration with The Great Barrington Land Conservancy.
Learn to find, identify and more fully appreciate our winter resident birds on these community birds walks. Bring binoculars if you have them--if not, we can share. Beginners are welcome!
Bird walks last about an hour. We cover ~1.5 miles of ground along the GB Riverfront Trail. The trail is flat, fine gravel, and handicap accessible.
Please register for this free program HERE.
Local birdy things wanted!
If you have any bird walks that is not listed here, or bird related event, bird-themed art shows etc in & around the Hudson Valley, I’d love to introduce them here on Beakuency Substack and/or radio show on WGXC. Please feel free to get in touch!