This morning, Lila Fried, Jacob Drucker, Ben Goloff and I decided to take our chances with the weather and make a run out to eastern Suffolk County. Our first stop was the Hook Pond area of East Hampton where we encountered a single Greater White-fronted Goose in a flock of 150 Canada Geese on the lawn of the Maidstone Club east of the Hwy Behind the Pond and west of Old Beach Lane.
>From there we headed over to Lazy Point in Amagansett were we found the >continuing Lesser Black-backed Gull defending it's regular territory on the >beach to the west of the boat launch ramp. We also found a pair of Northern >Harriers hunting over the island across from the boat launch, but we did not >find the previously reported Snowy Owl, nor could we locate the Northern >Shrike despite extensive searching on Lazy Point/Shore Road and Napeague >Meadow Road. Napeague Harbor held a large number of Long-tailed Ducks, Common >Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Common Loon and Red-breasted Mergansers. A Great Blue >Heron fished in Napeague Pond along Lazy Point Road along with several dozen >more Mergs and American Black Duck. >From the beach adjacent to the jetty on the east side of Montauk Inlet we >spotted the Great Cormorants on each of the bell buoys north of the inlet, as >well as over 200 Common Loons congregating just east of the eastern buoy. All >three Scoter species were found in large numbers near the inlet, (although not >remotely close to the usual but still astounding scoter numbers at Montauk >Point). We also found a 2nd cycle Iceland Gull just off the beach to the west >of the west jetty. We spent ninety minutes seawatching from the restaurant deck at Montauk Point State Park bearing witness to the Scoter Show. Several hundred thousand scoters in what seemed to be roughly equal numbers of the three species went by us in that time, along with a single Razorbill, a dozen Brant, a handfull of Long-tailed Ducks, Red-breasted Mergansers and Common Loon and a few hundred Common Eider. We could not pick out any King Eider and did not spot any Kittiwakes. Rain finally forced us to abandon Camp Hero, so we drove to our final stop at the intersection of Big Reed Path and Deer Way on the east side of Lake Montauk. We located the Western Tanager sheltering under the pitched roof of one of the feeders behind the last house on the right side of Big Reed Path where it meets Deer Way. As others have previously posted, the feeders are largely obscured by branches. A spotting scope helped. Ben spotted a flock of Wild Turkeys in the woods on the north side of the parkway near Oyster Pond as we headed home. We drove back to Manhattan as fog and rain descended on the island, fairly satisfied with our day of birding while trying not to think of our carbon footprint. Rich 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/ --
