I managed to bookend two bird trips today in-between home repairs: an early morning trip to Southard's Pond and a late afternoon trip to Timber Pt. Marina and golf course. The trip to Southard's was fairly quiet, with modest numbers of Yellow-rumped and Pine Warblers present. A few Blue-headed Vireos were heard and a declining number of Ruby-crowned Kinglets were observed. I had my FOS Prairie Warbler, a handsome male, at the southwest corner of the pond. A singing Gray Catbird was either an early migrant or an overwintering bird.
At Timber Pt. Marina I had completed a fruitless scan of the salt marsh from the dock and was headed out to the marsh north of the parking lot when I ran into Derek Rogers , who told me that the Black Brant was in the brant flock that was around the green of the first hole of the Blue Course (the hole on the south side of the road as you drive east to the marina). We quickly found the Black Brant with some two hundred Atlantic Brant. After the birds moved on we headed out to the marsh to look for the Ruffs. Derek shortly observed the two Ruffs together in the tall marsh grass. We watched them for awhile until they suddenly flew south towards the golf course. Luckily there were few golfers around and we were able to look into the water hazard that lies south of the 1st hole. I have bad memories of this particular waterbody, having splashed many golf balls into this hazard on numerous Sundays. A good walk spoiled, indeed. Nevertheless, we were rewarded by close observations of the Ruffs, who were observed taking drinks from the water. Once they had their fill they flew off back to the salt marsh. Photos of the Ruffs, Black Brant, and a few migrants can be found on my flickr site. Yesterday at Hempstead Lake State Park there was a Worm-eating Warbler in the woods between the parking lot and the South Pond, in addition to good numbers of Pine and Palm Warblers - this year being one of the more protracted migrations for these two species that I can remember. Good Birding, Ken Feustel http://www.flickr.com/photos/kfeustel/ -- 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/ --
