At 4pm there were two american tree sparrows to the west of the beginning of the main trail at Gardiner County Park. At Lake Capri in West Islip there was a large congregation of ducks, as there has been over the past several months. There were several hundred lesser scaup, two dozen redheads, shovelers, mallards, black ducks, wigeon, rudy ducks, gadwall, green-winged teal, and american coots. The gadwalls were diving and spreading their wings as they curved down for penetration into the water as if they were using their wings to propel themselves under water. I just read that they dive more often than most other dabblers. The ruddy ducks looked rudduckulous, with several of them sporting blue bills and reddish brown breeding feathers. The one wigeon was closely following and poking its bill right along with a coot. I think this inter-species behavior was previously noted on the list.
-- *Chase Cammarota* *Babylon, NY* -- 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
