12/3/14 Long Lake (Hamilton Co.) & Tupper Lake (Franklin Co.) & Colton (St. Lawrence Co.)
I found two Gray Jays at Sabattis Bog today and heard a calling Black-backed Woodpecker. I hiked the Leonard Pond Trail (in the rain) to check for Red Crossbills. I did not hear any, but I saw cones on the Red Pines, so I'll keep my eye on this area. There were two Bald Eagles standing in water covered ice along the causeway in Tupper Lake. I posted photos to my Facebook page. 11/28/14 Long Lake It appears that an Ermine is living under our back porch. I took a photo of it with prey heading toward our porch (Susan Willson identified the prey as a Short-tailed Shrew). I spotted it bounding down the hill behind our home - you could see the dark prey in its mouth and the dark tipped tail at the other end of the animal against a snowy background! I posted the photo (taken through our window) to Facebook. 11/27/14 Long Lake On Thanksgiving morning, I found two River Otters fishing in Little Tupper Lake. Their heads kept popping up in different holes in the ice - like the whack-a-mole game! They were eating large fish that it took them several minutes to get down. You could see their teeth as they chewed the fish. I posted 4 photos to Facebook. I also found two Gray Jays at Sabattis Bog. 11/26/14 Potsdam & Massena (St. Lawrence Co.) Late afternoon, I found a small flock of 8 redpolls at Hawkins Point in Massena (first of the season for me). There were 7 Common Redpolls and 1 Hoary Redpoll! They were feeding on birch catkins. I photographed them with my scope and iPhone adapter since they were fairly far from me. I posted photos to Facebook. In Potsdam, I found a flock of 22 Cedar Waxwings on Route 345. (No Bohemians spotted that day.) Along Brookview Dr. in Waddington, there was a flock of House Finches - about the only location I find them in Northern NY. My hike of the newly opened Chain Lakes Road (S) blog was recently published at: http://www.adirondackexperience.com/blog/2014/11/chain-lakes-road-south-open s-to-public . I spent Halloween at Larry Master's Intervale Lowlands Preserve during a Northern Saw-whet Owl banding night. My blog of the experience was published at: http://www.lakeplacid.com/blog/2014/11/banding-northern-saw-whet-owl . I wrote up 5 great birding destinations near Tupper Lake. The blog was published at: http://www.tupperlake.com/blog/2014/11/birding-5-great-destinations . Joan Collins Long Lake, NY (315) 244-7127 cell (518) 624-5528 home http://www.adirondackavianexpeditions.com/ http://www.facebook.com/AdirondackAvian -- 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/ --