At mostly frozen Belmont Lake at first light this morning, the Barnacle Goose was at the back of a flock of about 500 Canada Geese. The lake also held small flocks of American Coots, Ring-necked Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, Gadwall and Mallards and a pair of Hooded Mergansers. When I left at 8:15am most of the geese still had heads tucked as they hunkered down on the ice, so I could not pick out the pair of Cackling Geese that I saw last weekend.
A stop at Connetquot River State Park yielded a single flyby Crossbill sp. (probably white-winged but it disappeared rapidly and permanently into a stand of pines near the entrance road and I couldn't relocate it). Other birds included Belted Kingfisher, Great Blue Heron, Ring-necked Ducks and Gadwall and the previously reported flock of at least 8 Northern Bobwhite that frequents the area under the feeders behind the main house. The Bobwhite appeared to retreat under the house when frightened. In the early afternoon at the Jones Beach Coast Guard Station there was a third Lapland Longspur in the midst of a skittish flock of 19 Snow Buntings, in addition to the two Longspurs associating with a small flock of Horned Larks. There were a pair of Black-bellied Plover on the sandspit in the Bay beyond the gazebo, with a nearby flock of Red-breasted Mergansers. The bay otherwise held very few birds, due at least in part to the boat of duck hunters blasting away at the few unfortunate Long-tailed Ducks that were fooled by the raft of decoy the boat was towing. The non-snow covered bits of Ocean Parkway roadside held many Yellow-rumped Warblers and numerous Sparrows (including Savannah, "Ipswich" Savannah, American Tree, Song and White-throated), along with the many small groups of American Pipits previously reported by David Klauber. A Northern Harrier stood in for the Rough-legged Hawks that David reported in the morning. In the heavy surf off Point Lookout in the late afternoon there was a raft of 80 Common Eider near the jetties along with a single Horned Grebe. I could not find the Harlequin Ducks that were seen earlier in the day, but there were a pair of Purple Sandpipers mixed in with Dunlin and Sanderling on the 2nd jetty to the west of the inlet. Richard Fried New York City -- 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/ --
