Today, from ~ 1245 to 1600, Tom Moran and I hit the beach ! Visibility on the ocean was close to none, with the water on the bay side being almost up to the road. Due to the explosive atmosphere, surrounding the current philosophical discussion being waged on this list-serve, I will not list our FOS birds, or even our"better" common sightings. We had no rarities, low #'s of lingering migrants, with the same being true of our breeding species, except for Willet, which seemed to be everywhere- including the one that caused us to jump "sky high". On the n/s of Dune Rd., Quogue, Suffolk Co., a short distance e/o "Dockers Restaurant", we spied an adult Black-crowned Night Heron standing on a patch of matted grass, near the road. Wanting a picture of this handsome bird, we parked, left the car and stealthily approached the BCNH, and after getting a few photos, decided to advance our position for some "National Geographic" like shots... and this is where we came within about a foot of a "sitting" Willet ! It literally exploded off the nest, and figuratively "blew our minds" ! It recovered before we did, as it flew a short distance, landed and started to give us the "broken wing" routine, except she dragged both of her's trying to get us to follow. We found 4 eggs in the nest, which is normal according to The Peterson Field Guide Series' A FIELD GUIDE to BIRD"S NESTS, Hal H.Harrison, while also describing their shape as oval to pyriform (pear shaped) and their color either grayish, greenish, or olive-buff, boldly marked with an overlay of small to large spots and blotches of brown shades. We found the eggs to be more oval shaped, olive-buff in color, with the overlay of spots/blotches as previously stated. We took a few pictures, and because of the cool, damp weather, left the scene quickly. Finding a Willet's nest is a first for both Tom and I, and was certainly the highlight of our day ! Cheers, Bob --
NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
