I stopped in at Manorhaven Park (Nassau) early this evening at dead low tide. There was a nice collection of Black-crowned Night Herons feeding along the creek that enter the small salt marsh. I counted 11, including 5 adults, before I began scrutinizing one individual that turned out to be an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron. It was very obviously different, especially alongside imm BCNH, and displayed all the field marks of a young YCNH. I took some rotten pics through the binoculars, which I'll post to eBird later. Later, around 8:15, I was on the dock at the adjacent MICA location. There were a collection of birds making a noise that was not one of the usual Manhasset Bay bird noises (Osprey, Common Tern, etc). They were a bit out there so I ran up to my house and grabbed my binoculars and, as I had anticipated by the sound, they turned out to be a flock of roughly 16 Purple Martin. They actively flew from one boat mast to another, frequently landing, and never stopped vocalizing. Likely migrating birds form a nearby (?) colony. I don't know of any in northern Nassau. Westchester? A very very unusual sighting for Manhasset Bay. Back to the earlier herons.......I had been taking pictures thru the binos, a difficult task, when a man on the other side of the creek came out on his balcony (on the other side of the creek) and absolutely lost his you know what. He screamed expletives at the top of his lungs and violently told me he was going to perform an anatomical impossibility with my binoculars.So, if you should decide to try for the YCNH, please by all means point your glass directly at the houses across the way.....just kidding, use some caution, this guy was particularly violent. Glenn QuinnHauppauge, NY PS: I was just getting on a possible 2nd imm YCNH when the altercation occurred. --
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/ --
