I watched Lake Ontario with Dean DiTommaso this morning, scoping from in front of the house for about four hours. There was a nice flight of waterbirds highlighted by a juvenile NORTHERN GANNET, which Dean picked out and got me on. The gannet was not typical, at least from my limited experience of seeing them on Lake Ontario and the Niagara River (perhaps a half-dozen sightings, all juveniles). The head and neck were a rather light brownish, much paler than the wings, and the bill appeared to be orangy or perhaps yellowish, at least at the base. I suppose the bill color perception may have been due to the light but I did not think so when I was viewing it. The rest of the bird seemed typical (shape, pale axillaries and underwing coverts surrounded by dark, white belly, white uppertail coverts, white spotting on wings, pointed tail, etc.).
After having written the above, I just read in the old Audubon "Master Guide to Birding" (Ron Naveen did the species account) that the head and underparts are usually the first areas to lighten, so I guess it was not unusual. The perceived bill color, however, is difficult to understand. Other birds with estimated numbers (unfortunately, no swallows): Canada Goose 125 Mute Swan 2 TUNDRA SWAN 15 WOOD DUCK 1 Mallard 200 Am. Black Duck 30 Northern Pintail 80 Am. Wigeon 6 GADWALL 1 Green-winged Teal 7 Lesser Scaup 20 Greater Scaup 150 Bufflehead 150 Common Goldeneye 80 Long-tailed Duck 200 White-winged Scoter 50 SURF SCOTER 16 BLACK SCOTER 12 Red-breasted Merganser 2000 Common Merganser 1 Hooded Merganser 1 Red-throated Loon 35 Common Loon 90 RED-NECKED GREBE 13 Horned Grebe 2 NORTHERN HARRIER - one flying east to west well out but eventually turned and slowly came inland directly overhead DUNLIN 10 Good birding! Willie ---------- Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com http://www.betsypottersart.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
