As I started out for Dune Rd. (Quogue to H. Bays) a Turkey Vulture flew over before I even left our Condo area - this caused expectations to rise above final results !
Dune Rd. was not an easy drive this afternoon, due to flooding, as well as high snow ruts, which should be navigated by a higher vehicle than my sedan. Today's target bird was a Snowy Owl - I haven't seen one yet this winter, and was hoping the recent weather might help. If the owl was there, I didn't see it, along with many other expected species, before reaching Shinnicock Inlet. Once there, On the ocean side, just w/o the west jetty, were ~ 100 C.Eider, along with a handful of Surf & Black Scoters. On the bay side, looking out from the n/s of the lower parking lot, there were ~ 200 C.Eiders, plus the remaining, drake K.Eider. Both times I've seen this bird, it has favored the left (west) end of the strung out line of commons. I then stopped at the Calverton Grasslands on the way home, with ~ 15 minutes to look for the Short-eared Owls, before running out of light. Again, if they were there, I didn't see them ! 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/ --
