This afternoon I had both Snowy Owl and Black Guillemot at Shinnicock Inlet. I'm sorry for not getting them posted sooner, but I did try by making two calls, both with negative results. The first I had to leave a message, and the second individual could not get it posted. I , myself was out all day, and didn't get back until ~ 10:45 PM.
After dropping my wife off at a relative's house in Bellport (they all were going to a 2 PM production of "The Beauty and the Beast" in Patchogue) I was free (as a bird) until 4:30 PM ! I first checked out the town dock in Bellport, where white-winged gulls have been known to hang out in years past, without success. I then chose trying for the guillemot, over trying for the gyrfalcon, with success ! Arriving at the west side jetty of Shinnicock inlet, I found the snowy right away, resting fairly close to the east side jetty. Unfortunately, this viewing turned out to be somewhat of a "good news-bad news" situation. The good news being, I was able to share it with a father & daughter from the Shinnicock Indian Reservation, who were seeing this specie for the very first time ! The bad news came in the form of a big 4x4 SUV, which caused the owl to make 3 separate flights, the last to almost the end of a spit into the bay, where it couldn't get hounded any more ! While walking out to the end of the jetty to look for alcids, etc., I managed to get soaked from my knees down. The water was very rough outside the inlet, and ~ halfway into the inlet itself...I should have been more cautious ! The only birds found in the inlet, at that time, were Surf and Black Scoter. Walking back to the car, and just before getting off the jetty, I found myself helping another couple see the owl through my scope. This was hen (~ 3:30 PM) that the guillemot flew into the inlet from the bay, fast & low, heading for open water. Not being sure if it landed in the water (which was roiling) near the end of the inlet, or kept on going out to sea, I started back out on the jetty, in hopes of being able to see it in the water - I could not find the bird again. After seeing the illustrations of this specie in Sibley's "desk top" guide to birds, the guillemot I had looked more "Arctic" than "Atlantic", because of the vast amount of white displayed in flight, however improbable this might be. The author does state "there is considerable variation within each population, however, and not all birds can be identified". 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/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/ --
