Month-end Summary

Because I won't go on pelagic trips, particularly in the winter (I have this irrational prejudice against being seasick and frozen), there are a number of birds that I am probably precluded from seeing (petrels, shearwaters, jaegers, some gulls). That's why Shari's life list is longer than mine--a mid-winter trip on a stinky old tub far out on the Hudson Canyon? She's there!

However, every once in a while, one of these open oceans birds inexplicably ends up close to shore. There was the Red Phalarope in Shinnecock Inlet. There was the Thick-billed Murre in Brooklyn by the Gil Hodges Bridge, so close to shore you didn't need binoculars, and so co-operative he did everything but sign autographs.

And this week there was Dovekie out on Long Island, paddling around a marina. This is really a cute little bird, like a wind up toy. I'd show you a picture of it, but I don't have one because after hanging around for a week and giving every other birder in the tri-state area perfect looks, it wasn't there today when we went. I wanted to go yesterday but the temperature was 14 degrees with a stiff wind and that just seemed too cold to go   looking for a bird--even if it was a bird I really wanted to see. Shari, of course, has seen "hundreds" of them in mid-ocean. So today, even though the weather wasn't a lot warmer, the wind had died down and we made the trip out to Great River. (On a side note: what Great River is on Long Island?) We found the marina at the back of a golf course without any problem, but the water had started to ice over and the bird was not around. Disappointed and frustrated.

The lesson: Carpe Diem (although what eating a goldfish everyday has to do with any of this I don't know).

We went to Heckscher State Park which was nearby and saw a really splendid looking Northern Flicker, a Brown Creeper, lots of Buffleheads and some goldeneyes, then returned to the marina but still no luck. The consolation prize for the day was at Jones Beach: a Lapland Longspur that was very tame, affording excellent views.

For the month I recorded 76 species. We started & ended the month on Long Island and probably saw the best birds there:
Harlequin Duck
Common Eider
Lapland Longspur.

Well, except for the Mew Gull in Brooklyn (technically Long Island). And of course, there were the 2 Rusty Blackbirds in Prospect Park. And the American Pipit, it took me three or four tries to find that little dandy, can't forget the American Pipit.

But no Dovekie. Shari says I'll just have to go out on a pelagic sometime. Large porcine mammals will be flying out of one of my nether orifices before that happens.