Aiming to see a continuing Yellow-breasted Chat, Patrice Domeischel and I met Bob Proniewych at Mill Pond Park, Bellmore, shortly after 8:00 today. As we entered the park's west side, I saw a large accipiter, carrying prey, flash past a gap between a building and a dense tree, I didn't see the head, and thought it was an unusually large Cooper's Hawk. A minute later, entering the park, we met Bob, who said he had just seen an immature Northern Goshawk, which was near the ground when he came on it. He said he had had a clear view of a strong white supercilium.
We set out in fruitless search for the bird, noting as we did so an odd sound, coming from the pond, that we couldn't identify: a single, slightly upslurred "eek," repeated at rather short intervals. About an hour later, walking back to this area from further north, Patrice observed that one of two large birds standing in shallow water was a Sandhill Crane, very near a Great Blue Heron. It was an immature bird, and proved to be the source of the unidentified call. After 10-15 minutes, it flew up and out, following a Great Blue Heron that had flown over. Bob noted that he had seen it cock its head to view the heron, before taking flight. Observers might watch for both of these birds: the Goshawk in the park and the Crane in ponds, marshes, or fields to the west. The Yellow-breasted Chat was active and fairly conspicuous, seen both on our northward walk and return, shortly north of a narrow footpath between the park and the parking lot of Stella's Restaurant at the southwest corner of the park. Doug Futuyma -- 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/ --
