Hooded Merganser was the "rescue bird" for an otherwise unproductive walk around Mount Loretto this morning. I thought it was going to be the Fox Sparrow that popped out of a snaggle of tree branches near the new garage, but the Hoodies were at the end of the walk when I was feeling my most discouraged. A very late Gray Catbird was, also near the garage, was a somewhat surprising find. Some catbirds overwinter and I guess this is one of them.
Mount Loretto Unique Area
Number of species: 13
Brant 200
Canada Goose 180
American Black Duck 30
Northern Shoveler 9
Hooded Merganser 4
Ring-billed Gull 15
Herring Gull 15
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Blue Jay 2
Black-capped Chickadee 4 In trees near new garage
Gray Catbird 1 In bushes near new garage
Fox Sparrow 1 In snags near new garage
American Goldfinch 1
After lunch, Shari & I went to Great Kills hoping for some winter waterfowl and, happily, we found some. 6 Horned Grebes floating and diving together was good; I don't know that I've ever seen 6 grebes all in one scope sight. The best find was by Shari, who scoped out a flock of ducks that landed just as we were leaving; they turned out to be Green-winged Teal, a very pretty duck.
As we were going a another birder and his two sons were on the beach looking out at the bay. I casually mentioned to the older boy that there were grebes on the water and he got very excited. So I got them in the scope and let him look. "I've never seen grebes before," he said. I'm always happy to show someone a life bird.
Speaking of life birds: Tomorrow we're going to chase a Fork-tailed Flycatcher that has been hanging around a park in Stamford, CT. We've seen a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Florida, but the Fork-tailed is much more elusive and are, particularly up north. Hope we're lucky!
Great Kills
Number of species: 13
Canada Goose 5
American Black Duck 20
Mallard 10
Green-winged Teal 10
Bufflehead 9
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Horned Grebe 6
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Ring-billed Gull 50
Herring Gull 75
Great Black-backed Gull 15
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
House Sparrow 10
No comments:
Post a Comment