I and my son Travis, home on a Thanksgiving Break from college, decided to see what was happening around Shinnecock Inlet on this windy day. Both in the inlet and to the west were Hundreds of Common Eiders, both juveniles and adults were found in the inlet and to the west. I scanned carefully in search of their royal cousin but didn't find any King Eiders mixed in. Surprisingly, not a single scoter species was seen, although we had a few Long-tailed Ducks. Several dozen few Gannets were hitting the surface out among the farthest buoy off the inlet. Numerous Great Cormorants, both adult and immature, were around the inlet. Also had a lone adult male Common Eider beneath the Ponquogue Bridge.
We then drove along Dune Road and about a mile west of the bridge watched an interesting interaction between a short-eared owl and two juvenile Northern Harriers, as the hawks appeared in tandem to harass the owl for 5-10 seconds. The harriers broke west and continued hunting while the owl flew about 50 yards to the east, cartwheeled and abruptly plunged to the ground, presumably on prey. We waited to see if it would rise but it didn't suggesting it made a successful kill. Heading inland we saw four Hooded Mergansers (two males, two females) on Quantuck Bay. We ended the day at the Calverton Grasslands and had one male Kestrel on the western runway. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
