2/10/14 Afternoon in the St. Lawrence Valley
I only had the afternoon hours to bird in the St. Lawrence Valley after morning appointments in the Potsdam area. I snaked my way down through southern St. Lawrence Co. into northern Jefferson Co. to the Cape Vincent area. Point Peninsula has become one of my favorite places to go, and I always find it hard to leave this scenic spot. The Oswegatchie River had open water at the bridge location along Eel Weir Rd. (which always seems to be the case at this spot) - and lots of waterfowl. There was a male Common Merganser that I noticed with its head underwater flailing about - it appeared it might be in trouble. I scoped the bird and it had a HUGE fish - as long as the merganser in size! It would not let go of the fish, and I have no idea how it could even hang on to it. The fish was pulling the merganser underwater. It appeared to be way too thick for the merganser to consume and the situation seemed futile. It would have been an interesting behavior to capture as a video on my iPhone, but my scope was loose so I was unable to photograph yesterday. Here are some of the species found: Amer. Black Duck Common Goldeneye Common Merganser Bald Eagle Sharp-shinned Hawk Red-tailed Hawk - 7 Rough-legged Hawk - 11 (9 light, 2 dark) Snowy Owl - 4 (all in northern Jefferson Co. with 3 in one location); I observed a man and his Golden Retriever walk out of his house to get the mail. He never looked up at the beautiful Snowy Owl perched at the top of a tree over his home! Either he didn't notice it, or maybe it is so commonplace now that he wasn't interested! I ran into a man from Watertown who came out to photograph one of the 3 birds found. He came up to my car and said he was trying to get the bird with the rising moon behind - I also would have loved that shot, but my scope was too loose to focus the iPhone! The sky was clear and the owls were perched with the huge rising moon right behind them. A skilled photographer could have taken fantastic photos yesterday evening! Northern Shrike - 2 (1 adult along Route 68 Town of Lisbon, 1 juvenile along Route 6 in Morristown/Hammond) Horned Lark - Route 6 in Morristown Snow Bunting - 2 flocks (1 along Route 6 in Morristown and 1 huge flock along Route 6 at the Cape Vincent/Lyme town line) The large flock was beautiful - flying with a setting sun behind. American Tree Sparrow - large flock foraging near the large flock of Snow Buntings 2/7/14 Bloomingdale area (Franklin Co.), Waterbury, VT, and Sabattis Circle Road in Long Lake (Hamilton Co.) I was out with a couple from southern New Jersey this past Friday. The weather was nice at dawn, but the snow got heavier and heavier and was accompanied by snow squalls as the morning progressed. So we changed plans for the afternoon and traveled to Waterbury, VT to see the Northern Hawk Owl - the weather was much nicer in Vermont on Friday! Here are some of the species found: Amer. Black Duck Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser - a solo female on a very small area of open water on the Round Lake outlet into Little Tupper Lake! Common Merganser Bald Eagle Northern Hawk Owl - we arrived in late afternoon and the owl was not in any of its usual locations. There were quite a few people waiting for it to show up - including a couple of photographers. We walked around the area and drove up Gregg Hill Road a short distance but did not find the bird. As the light faded with sunset, most of the birders and all the photographers left without a sighting. We decided to drive up Gregg Hill Road one more time before leaving. We drove in about 1/3 of a mile and I was looking for a driveway to turn around when I spotted a fast flying bird coming in from the left that landed right at the top of the tree in front of us! Hawk Owls have such a distinctive way of landing! So our patience paid off and the bird stayed perched for a while and we all had scope views and took photographs. A couple birders from Pennsylvania drove up after us and I waved them over, so their patience paid off also! I didn't get very good photos since the bird was perched so high, but I did post one to my Facebook page below. Black-backed Woodpecker - 1 female along Sabattis Circle Road. The bird was foraging for a while, but began to fly from tree to tree - a couple Gray Jays were silently skulking around and the woodpecker chased them. I've observed aggressive behavior by Black-backed Woodpeckers toward Gray Jays in nesting season, but not during winter. Gray Jay - 2 in the Bloomingdale area Boreal Chickadee - 3 in the Bloomingdale area - one very nice view. Boreal Chickadee plumage looks lovely in winter, but they look disheveled in nesting season. (One birder I know calls them "dirty-looking" in June!) Brown Creeper Golden-crowned Kinglet Joan Collins Long Lake, NY (315) 244-7127 cell (518) 624-5528 home http://www.adirondackavianexpeditions.com/ http://www.facebook.com/AdirondackAvian -- 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/ --
