This morning at Goat Island, I saw six HARLEQUIN DUCKS out at the usual rock in mid river. One to five individuals have been reported here all winter and that number grew to seven a couple of days ago. I saw four males and two females today. Surprisingly, seven Harlequin Ducks only ties the record for our region, set in Buffalo on Feb 28, 1997, reported by the late Robert Brock.
Migrants at Goat Island today included four HERMIT THRUSHES, a dozen WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS, two BLUE-HEADED VIREOS, five YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, two RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS, and a couple hundred swallows flying out over the river. Most of the swallows were TREES and ROUGH-WINGEDS, with a handful of BARNS, and a CLIFF. It looks like the population of Double-crested Cormorants nesting on the islands above the falls has exploded, which could have a detrimental effect upon the Black-crowned Night-Herons that have been nesting there for decades. Betsy and I recently returned from a week of birding on and around Sanibel Island in Florida, where the birds were awesome and cooperative as always. I have made an album of photos on my Flickr site, mostly birds of course, but with lots of other wildlife that happened to cross my lens. Direct link to Florida photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/107683885@N07/albums/72157667541330745 Good birding! Willie ------------------ Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com Betsy's website: http://www.betsypottersart.com/ Willie's photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/107683885@N07/ -- 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/ --
