Pat duly found a Cattle Egret this morning in the Lapwing field east of Mecox Bay. Meanwhile, I checked the inlet, pursuant to Doug Futuyma's tip about the Kittiwake flight, and I counted 13 Kittiwakes moving west in just 20 minutes. Twenty minutes later, the two of us tallied 11 more Kittiwakes heading west past Sagaponack Pond in just 15 minutes.
The light wasn't great, however, so we kept moving toward the point, anticipating better views. The Richardson's Goose continues at the horse farm on the south side of Deep Hollow. Highlights at Montauk Point were at least five more Kittiwakes, a Yellow-breasted Chat, and a Gray Seal. A solitary swallow lingering around the Point gave great views, leaving no uncertainty about its identity--Tree Swallow. Otherwise, Montauk featured lots of sea ducks and Gannets, a smattering of Laughing Gulls, quite a few Bonaparte's Gulls (especially in Fort Pond Bay), a juv Iceland Gull (also in Fort Pond Bay), and three Fox Sparrows (Deep Hollow). Numbers of Common Loons have increased greatly, into the multi-hundreds. Huntington Audubon's youth bird club and Joe Giunta and Betsy McCully also saw many of these birds. Shai Mitra Bay Shore -- 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/ --
