Redpolls have been daily visitors to our Long Lake (Hamilton Co.) feeders since December 29 (before that date we had intermittent small flocks). I have regularly observed one female Hoary Redpoll, and on Saturday (1/12/13), I observed 2 female Hoary Redpolls among a flock of over 200 Common Redpolls on our back porch. I was in St. Lawrence Co. on Sunday when my husband told me we had huge numbers of redpolls visiting the feeders (which was surprising given the warm-up that occurred yesterday). Even with yet another unusually warm day today, numbers of redpolls remained high (& a lot of seed consumed).
I visited St. Lawrence Co. on Thursday, 1/10/13, ahead of our NYSOA field trip yesterday. I began at dawn in Potsdam and then drove the same route we took yesterday from Canton. Here are a few additional observations (to the field trip post): Bufflehead - Rt. 131 Hopson's Bay in Massena Common Goldeneye - Rt. 131 Hopson's Bay and Hawkins Point in Massena Red-breasted Merganser - 2 among many Common Mergansers at Hawkins Point in Massena Cooper's Hawk - perched at a house on Fairlane Dr. in Canton (see Bohemian Waxwing below) Rough-legged Hawk - 2; one dark morph along Route 11 northeast of Potsdam by the intersection with Regan Rd. (a usual winter location for this species), and one light morph soaring over the intersection of Irish Settlement Rd. and Route 15 in Canton Pileated Woodpecker - Robinson Bay Rd. (Massena) Northern Shrike - 1 along Regan Rd. in Potsdam Horned Lark - 15 to 20 on Route 27 in Lisbon Bohemian Waxwing - >1000! In the morning, I found a flock of over 100 feeding along Route 11 northeast of Potsdam (not far from Stockholm Rd.) in buckthorn - a usual location where I find them in winter each year. Also in the a.m., in Canton, I viewed the Pine Grosbeaks on Route 11 and then turned down Harrison St. where I immediately observed hundreds of Bohemian Waxwings filling the trees for a block from Harrison St. to Church St. along Judson St. It appeared to be a gathering and then the birds broke away in large flocks with some heading north and some heading west (in the direction of SUNY Canton). I found one of the large flocks flying around Fairlane Dr. where I could also hear more Pine Grosbeaks vocalizing (but never saw the grosbeaks). The Bohemian Waxwing flock flew into a tree where a Cooper's Hawk had just landed and perched above the raptor for about half a minute before flying off. At the end of the day (around sunset), in Massena, I was leaving Hawkins Point and driving down Robinson Bay Rd. when I spotted a Bohemian Waxwing flock perched in a tree. I began to count them, when more and more kept flying in - hundreds, and I gave up counting. I observed a behavior I had not seen before - they filled the road (like gritting birds). It was in the high 30s and there was some water forming at the sides of the roads from snowmelt, but it was difficult to see what the birds were actually doing in the road since there were so many. I stood outside my car and the sound of their vocalizations was deafening! (It was reminiscent of all the times I would go into the huge flocks of over 700 behind our house when we lived in Potsdam when they were intent on feeding in the buckthorn and didn't mind my presence.) The birds all flew off (in large groups) to the southeast in the direction of the Wiley Dondero Canal. Snow Bunting - a flock of over 120 on Route 30 in Madrid (same road where we found the 9 Snow Buntings yesterday). They flew across a large field and perched at the top of a deciduous tree - my scope revealed they were preening. Pine Grosbeak - many - in Potsdam, a small flock appeared to be gritting on May Rd.; same locations as yesterday in Canton and Ogdensburg; and a large flock feeding along Rt 131 in Massena just before the intersection with Barnhart Island Rd. Joan Collins Long Lake, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
