Responding to Shai Mitra's posting, I quickly left the house, promising my wife to finish the chores I was involved in (without fail), upon my return. She is quite aware of how serious I am, when the bird in question, would be an addition to my state list, and therefore, stepped aside and wished me good luck !
There were ~ 15 Ibises on the marsh when I arrived, all glossy. For ~ 1/2 hour, some of the them left the marsh, while others replaced them - the max count getting to ~ 30-35 birds (combining both those on the ground and in the air at the same time). The white-faced was not there upon arrival, but just seemed to appear at ~ 1315. I managed to see all the field marks Shai mentioned, with it's red legs and uniformly brown body (without any of the breeding "sheen" of the adult glossy's) the marks that stood out the most, allowing me to re-find the bird, after it went out of sight temporarily. I also learned something today ! When I called Shai to share my joy with him, as well as to thank him for the FOS (the "S" standing for "state", in addition to "season", in this application, I let him know that I never saw the "red ankles', but did notice the red legs. He then, very gently, let me know, that anatomically, the knobby part of the bird's leg is known as the "ankle". Cheers to Ken & Sue for finding the bird (only the 2nd record for Suffolk County) , and to Doug, who along with Shai, re-found it ! I've looked for this species in NYS for quite awhile (the Grace Estate in E.Hampton and JBWR come to mind re: recent attempts) so my getting real excited is something you can probably understand. However, I must confess to going overboard, by becoming so excited I forgot to look for the Stilt Sandpiper...and it in full breeding plumage to boot ! Cheers, Bob -- 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/ --
