This morning, while driving in downtown Riverhead, Suffolk Co., I observed 3 T.V's. circling overhead, as they drifted toward the east. This afternoon, I drove to the Quogue Wildlife Refuge in Quogue, in order to set up & check out the "dvd" we were going to show tonight at our monthly Audubon meeting. It's title is GASLAND, and it's about obtaining natural gas from shale deposits in the ground. It tells of the history of this process, how it works, and goes on to explain the consequences of this type of extraction, called Hydronic Fracturing. As I watched and listened to this alarming documentary unfold (with my eyes picking up the movements of birds in, and over Ice Pond, through an entire wall, approx,30x15, made up of floor to ceiling windows) I saw a pair of stunning Wood Ducks land. Already in the pond were Mallards, Canadas, and Herring Gulls. Overhead Redwings, Robins and Blue Jays flew about. All of a sudden I realized what I was watching on the screen, was a threat to what i was marveling at outside...the comparison was unsettling ! While there, I also witnessed a behavior in 1 of the 4 Canada Geese in the water, that I've never seen before. They were all "taking baths", 3 of them doing the usual head dunking ,wing splashing, etc., but the 1, besides doing a little of the that, also did what has to be called a "summer-sault" . After putting it's head in the water, it continued going under "front to back" until it had reversed itself with belly showing, whereupon it went first to it's side, and then righted itself completely...and it did this 3 more times in about 10 minutes ! Cheers, Bob --
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/ --
