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Osprey or Fish Hawk - Migratory Visitor to the Swamp

Ospreys are among the most amazing visitors to the Swamp. We see them most frequently on Ice Pond during spring and fall migration. A few stay longer, traveling back and forth between ponds and lakes in the Swamp corridor. Watching a hovering osprey suddenly fold its wings to drop feet first, hitting the water and rising with a large mouth bass locked in its talons is really a thrilling sight.

Ospreys are large raptors with a white crest and belly and a dark back. They are often mistaken for Bald Eagles since both have white on their heads and can be found near water. This hawk does not fly with its long wings extended out from its body like the eagle but slightly bent back at the wrist or elbow. Dark patches at each elbow stand out when the osprey flies overhead. It also has a distinct dark band that sweeps like a mask from the back of its head to its strongly hooked beak. The lack of a completely white head and a banded tail instead of a pure white one are field marks that will help distinguish an adult osprey from an adult eagle. The profile of an osprey with the wind ruffling its crest rivals the majesty of the eagle.

Ospreys will hover high above the water searching for the shadow or flash of a fish below and then drop like a bullet from the sky, hitting the water with their powerful talons outstretched. Their legs are long and covered with very short feathers that won't drag in the water. According to The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds the bottoms of an osprey's feet are equipped with sharp spines to help grip their slippery prey. Osprey must have the grasp and muscle needed to pull a struggling fish out of the water and carry it to a roost in a nearby tree before it can dine on its meal. Some fish are so large the osprey can barely get airborne again even with the lift from their 2 to 3 foot wings.

Osprey nests look like bathtub sized bundles of sticks in the tops of dead trees, on rocky ledges or even the tops of telephone poles. Coastal communities often build platforms on tall poles to create nesting spots for these handsome birds. Watch for the "fish hawk" this fall around lakes, ponds, and reservoirs in the Croton and Swamp River watersheds as they work their way south along the Atlantic Flyway.

Owls

The Great Swamp is a haunt for owls. They are nocturnal hunters but need cover, deep cover, to roost and sleep during the day away from their enemies. The deep recesses of the Swamp, with many roosting places among the cavities of the tall silent silver maples or the hemlocks of Pine Island, make excellent shelter for both Barred and Great Horned Owls. The cavities found in the dead trees or the snags of the large white oak make good hidden nesting spots too. We have seen the fledglings of both these owls in the Swamp in the spring. Owls Are important predators that eat rodents, small mammals, birds, and insects like caterpillars and crickets. Most important, because they eat so many mice, voles and other rodents, they keep the populations of these animals in check.

Barred Owl	Great Horned Owl	Screech Owl

Owls hunt by night and have developed many special adaptations for nocturnal hunting. They will hunt in wet meadows, fields or shrub swamp areas near their daytime hiding areas. Our Great Swamp affords them many nearby feeding locations as well as daytime cover. Owls are generally solitary except when seeking a mate and nesting. In January or early February owls begin to alter their calls to attract females. It is a good time to listen for them. Listening to their nighttime calls is a great way to know that owls are nearby.

Large trees with nesting cavities, located in hidden areas deep within a wooded swamp are necessary for these cavity nesting birds. Owls need cavities to nest, or sometimes choose old stick nests abandoned by hawks if they are hidden enough. Habitat loss, as we cut "dead" trees for wood or encroach upon our wooded swamps by filling and building in them, has resulted in a decline in Barred and Great Horned Owl populations in the Northeast. The Great Swamp and its nearby wooded uplands are haven for this "mysterious" but wonderful bird.

Owls use a combination of sight and sound to locate prey but can often find their dinner by sound alone. The small bones in their ears are far more sensitive to the sound of the tiniest movement in the open areas below their perch. But their special advantage is that their ears are not symmetrical. One ear is set lower on their head than the other. This allows the sound of a mouse running through the meadow to be heard at slightly, "split second" different timing in one ear than in the other. The different timing of the sounds reaching its ears along with the owls ability to memorize noises allows it to calculate the exact location of its prey.

Owls feathers are soft. Their comb-like edges are fuzzy on the upper surface. These special feathers muffle sound as the feathers move, allowing an owl to swoop in on their prey without a sound. When owls hunt, they strike their prey with their sharp talons, then lift the dead mouse, frog or squirrel toward their perch, and if the prey is small enough, eat it whole, bones and all. The undigested parts; the bones, skull, feathers and fur are compressed into a pellet and regurgitated. Finding owl pellets beneath a tree, is a good clue to an owl roosting place.

Large trees with nesting cavities, located in hidden areas deep within a wooded swamp are necessary for these cavity nesting birds. Owls need cavities to nest, or sometimes choose old stick nests abandoned by hawks if they are hidden enough. Habitat loss as we cut "dead" trees for wood or encroach upon our wooded swamps by filling and building in them has resulted in a decline in Barred and Great Horned Owl populations in the Northeast. The Great Swamp and it nearby wooded uplands are haven for this "mysterious" but wonderful bird.

The Swamp in Spring

From the first days of March, when the red-winged blackbirds return and remind us of Spring as they stake out their territories with their song, we can count can a new arrival each week. The next "blackbird" to look for in March is harder to spot - The Rusty Blackbird - black in breeding plumage with a pale eye and no red wing, but grey with rust mixed on the head for the females and males not in full plumage. The Rusty Blackbird favors the wooded swamp, and does not breed here but is passing through on their way to nesting in Canada. Rusty Blackbirds can be found in the wooded sections Rusty Blackbirds can be found in the wooded sections of the Swamp from Rte. 22 north to the Patterson Environmental Park. Their numbers have declined so much in the last decade that they are listed as a "species of special concern'

Exhausted with torn and battered feathers, this Black-throated Green Warbler looks to the Swamp to dine on insects and rest for the next leg of his journey

Migration is critical to the life-cycle of our songbirds and many species of shorebirds and waterfowl as well. They depart in the fall when colder temperatures kill their source of food, mostly insects. Their journeys take them to Mexico, Central and even South America. The distances flown by these migrants - warblers are tiny, barely 3 or 4 itches longs and weighing a few ounces - total from 3,000 to 5,000 miles. The longest and most dangerous leap is across the Gulf of Mexico. Because of their tremendous energy needs, they eat and load up with fuel for the journey. They fly generally at night and rest and refuel during the day.

Making the hop across the Gulf leaves rnany down to weights of as little as a half ounce. They must find refueling habitats or will not complete their journeys. Scientists are beginning to recognize the importance of key refueling areas hugging the Eastern side of the Appalachians and along the coast to the survival of these birds - both those that stay and breed here in Putnam and those that go on further north. After the Gulf Coast and the eastern shore of Virginia - habitat is broken up by the intense urbanization of the Middle Atlantic States. The Great Swamp is the next stop on this important leg of the journey. The large unbroken wooded swamp ringed by ridges that funnel the birds toward the lowland where insects are just hatching is essential to thousands of birds, particularly to warblers and other songbirds on their way north. Shrub swamp area bordering the wooded sections and small ponds in the drainage of the Swamp provide more excellent "refueling habitat".

The Ring-Necked Duck and others that breed in the north of Canada can be found from late March into the middle of April on Mendel Pond in Patterson. Ring-Necked Ducks are also a species of concern. Black Ducks, Ruddies, and Common Mergansers are seen regularly stopping in the Swamp or on Ice Pond or Putnam Lake. Wood Ducks gather and breed in the Wooded sections of the Swamp in large numbers.

The Palm Warbler, a bright yellow warbler with a rust spot on its head is an early visitor the the Swamp. The Palm warbler prefers the shrubby areas of the Swamp and can be seen at the Clough preserve and the Putnam County Land Trust's Twin Hills Preserve. The Pine Warbler, another bright yellow warbler with greyish wings, also seeks he shrub swamp early for food, then nests in the upland areas bordering the Swamp. The Pine warbler, and another species in danger, the blue Cerulean breeds in the upland woodlands bordering the Swamp. Caiola (Merritt) Park in Patterson is a good place to look for them.

Over 90 species of birds migrate though the Swamp on their way to the Adirondacks, Maine and further north into Canada. Another 90 have been documented to breed in the Swamp.

The Swamp in Winter

The Great Swamp in Winter is a quiet place. Much of the life we look for in the Spring and Summer is hibernating beneath the ice and snow. There are no huge feathery ferns, no leafed trees and mosses or wildflowers or chatter of birds. Winter is still a perfect time to view the Swamp.

Stripped of their foliage the Silver Maples stand assilent grouped sentinels overlooking the frozen River. The frozen surface allows us, the hiker to walk deep within the Swamp not just skirt around its edges. We do not walk far before we spot a beaver lodge at the edge of a ponded area. Beaver are both famous and infamous for building their dams and lodges. Their dams have created ponds where there were running streams and altered our landscape. The pond provides protection for the lodge the beaver needs to house his young and to hide from predators. A beaver lodge is built by piling up a mound of sticks and mud. The Beaver then gnaws out a chamber inside and packs mud around the outside. If there is fresh mud, it is probably an active lodge. Once inside with his stored food, the Beaver seldom needs to leave all winter.

a beaver lodge	section of Muddy Brook in the Swamp	rabbit tracks

Stepping out on the trail through the wet meadow you can not walk far without encountering the first signs of life. A set of rabbit tracks cross the trail. Rabbits are active in this area all winter. If you follow the track for a few feet you may discover a group of twigs cut off from the ground about 1 foot high. The twigs of small shrubs at the edge of a wet meadow make an excellent meal for our rabbit.

A larger and more familiar track crosses our path. We easily recognize the hoof-print of the the white-tailed deer. Deer are found everywhere in our woods but find the grasses of the wet meadow and the young shrubs of the shrub swamp and excellent palce to brouse in winter. The wooded sections of the Swamp are also places to hide during the day.

White-Tailed Deer and hoof prints		Birdnest in Red Osier Dogwood

At the start of a walk in the Swamp a hiker may not see or hear many birds. They don't expect you to wander into their refuge so they fall silent waiting for your next move. If you stop and listen, they will soon resume their activity.

Woodpeckers abound in the wooded sections of the Swamp in both winter and summer. All six of our local woodpeckers can be found in abundance. Not only do they find great meals from the insects hidden in the bark of the many trees in the wooded sections of the Swamp, but the red maples and silver maples and the dead trees make the best nest sites for these cavity nesters. The largest of our local woodpeckers, the Pileated Woodpecker, finds both excellent nest sites and the solitude this bird needs to breed successfully.

Many of the songbirds that stay north in the winter congregate in the Swamp. In the wet meadows and the shrub swamp areas they can find many plants with winter seeds as well as shrubs with berries that remain most of the winter. Wetland shrubs like Black Alder provide seeds. Vines of wild grape and bittersweet provide berries, although the grapes are all usually eaten early in the season. A plant that humans scorn because of the itcy rash it may give us when we unintentionally brush against its leaves, provides an excellent source of berries for wintering birds. The poison ivy is one of the best berry providers.

In sheltered areas in shrub swamp sections of the Swamp as well as along the road through the Patterson Environmental Park, one can easily spot Robins and Bluebirds that have stayed the winter as well as song sparrows, swamp sparrows and golden-crowned kinglets. The kinglets are insect eaters too. Bird nests, long abandoned by their builders and owners are also a find on a Winter hike. Try to identify the former owner!