Jerry Lazarczyk came down from Grand Island, New York to see some of the birds we've been getting in Sullivan County. The morning started with a deep freeze @ 7 degrees. Birds were scarce at first, but as the sun warmed things up, things started jumping. Common Redpolls continue to invade the northern portions of the county with my highest count so far this month. Feeders at both ends of Woodard Road hosted between 25-30 redpolls each. A feeder at the end of Hanofee Road had between 35-40 redpolls. This was all good, but when we reached Sue Rayano's house we were very surprised. I first counted 75 redpolls under the feeders. As Jerry and I watched a flock of 30+ joined the first group. Shortly thereafter another flock of 40+ flew in. I was able to count 96 redpolls on the ground and we had nearly another 40 birds on feeders and in trees! We had now seen nearly 250 Redpolls! Other highlights of the day were 14 Evening Grosbeaks in a treetop not far from Sue's. A couple of Common Ravens were a nice add. The dozens of Snow Buntings I had just two days ago were down to just two birds today. We had a total of three Red-shouldered Hawks and a couple Red-tails, but no Rough-legs were seen today. I couldn't find the Northern Shrike I found Tuesday, but it is very likely still in the area. We had about a dozen Bald Eagles at the Rio Reservoir* we had a great day with 37 species seen. John Haas
*during yesterdays Christmas Count, Lance Verderame and I had 33 Bald Eagles come off the Rio Roost at dawn, 6 more at the Mongaup Blind and one on Sacket Lake Road for a total of 40 Bald Eagles for our area. This was the highest count for my area I have ever had. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
