Four birders met at Point Breeze on Lake Ontario in central Orleans County for a morning of birding. We hit various spots along the lake from there to Olcott Beach in Niagara County. Lake-watching highlights included a good flight of RED-THROATED LOONS, many Horned and six RED-NECKED GREBES (off of Shadigee), all three scoters, and a surprising 14 KING EIDERS on the water off of Olcott Beach. The eiders soon took flight and headed west. This is the largest flock of this species that I have ever seen in New York, though I have seen more in the western part of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Canada. Eight other KING EIDERS were seen by Andy Guthrie at Hamlin Beach SP today and Greg Lawrence found an adult male at the east spit of Braddock Bay. So, it was quite the day for this species in Western NY.
Our other big highlight was a SNOWY OWL at the Circle R Fruit Farm in the Town of Carlton, Orleans County. This owl was on telephone poles right next to the road and also in the nearby orchards. The local Red-tails were not too pleased. At the Yates grasslands on Lakeshore Road in the Town of Yates, there was one ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, two NORTHERN HARRIERS, and a NORTHERN SHRIKE. The shrike was in the same hedge row where we saw one back on October 28. Good birding! Willie, Celeste Morien, Brian Morse, and Corey Callaghan (back briefly from Australia) ------------------ Willie D'Anna Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --