The Tundra Swan is still on Jamaica Bay's East Pond. It was visible looking north from the overlook (although it took some waiting until it lifted its head from its slumber). Yea, it's been around for a while. I finally tried today, having put off a Jamaica Bay trip until the West Pond opened up. The point there was to see if goldeneyes would return to using that as an overnight roost. And they have. I got there at what should have been an early enough time at 7:00, but some were already flying out. An even with still 60+ goldeneyes to look through, I did not see the Barrow's. And once all were out on the bay, only about a dozen were visible from the refuge. But I would think that Barrow's is out there somewhere. By the way, for the first time in years, I can say that there's better water bird variety on the West Pond than the East.
I stopped off at Alley Pond on the way home. The Red-necked Grebe was still there. At nearby Oakland, Sue Stowers found a Red-throated Loon. It's not locally rare and it's not unprecedented on the lake, but still cool to get a loon on a small lake. It's also another sign of water birds starting to move, as are the now 5 Redheads on Alley Pond and a flyby Common Merganser at Jamaica Bay. Best sighting of the day? If you ask me, I got a moth at Jamaica Bay - a Morrison's Sallow. Forget anything a ground hog might say. That says spring is coming. Steve Walter Bayside, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
