Hi all, Although I came south from New England via the wrong Fork of eastern Long Island to witness yesterday's excitement at Montauk, I was pleased to find a young male King Eider at Iron Pier, Northville, Suffolk County.
On Wednesday, on my way up to the ferry in Orient, I saw the male Barrow's Goldeneye at Orient Harbor, as viewed from the causeway between East Marion and Orient. Photos of both can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/tixbirdz/LongIslandMiscellany2010# In addition to the many notable birds that Angus summarized for the Montauk area yesterday was a Red-necked Grebe in Fort Pond Bay, found by Patricia Lindsay with Doug Futuyma and Andrew Baksh. Similarly, in addition to Ken Feustel's Montauk summary from last Saturday were no fewer than EIGHT Richardson's Geese at Further Lane, East Hampton--seven in a discrete sub-flock, as noted on other dates by Angus and others, and another in a different part of the large Canada Goose flock. This subspecies is evidently approaching weed status from one tip of NYS to the other! It was good that some of the birding authorities who expressed doubt over last Saturday's outlandish Razorbill count (1,200) at Montauk Point were able to witness an even bigger spectacle yesterday (4,000). Patricia Lindsay, the only witness to both events, offered her insights as to the comparative degrees to which the two mega-flights were piously under-counted by their respective observers. Her judgment is that there were easily twice, and quite possibly three times, as many Razorbills yesterday than last Saturday. This accords fairly well with the two estimates, the discrepancy perhaps attributable to the utter amazement, bordering on disbelief ( = bird-counting virtue?), of those confronted by the first flight without any comparable precedent whatsoever. Shai Mitra Bay Shore Think green before you print this email. -- 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 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
