1/1/11

First bird of the New Year: Northern Flicker, seen flying into a pine tree behind our friends' house in Malverne, where we spent New Year's Eve.

Our original plan was to go to Point Lookout to see what was in the ocean, but we thought that the parking lots might not be cleared of all the snow, so we went to Jones Beach instead, figuring the Coast Guard Station might yield some interesting birds. Not really. Aside from a lone Long-tailed Duck, there was nothing exceptional there--gulls, Brant, a couple of Mallards. The Roosevelt Nature Center had a couple of Northern Harriers swooping over the dunes.

Over at West End 2, a birder doing a Christmas Count was kind enough to show us a Peregrine Falcon sitting on a pole way out on the beach. She said that the counters weren't encountering much bird activity today, so we at least knew it wasn't just us. I was hoping to find Snow Buntings or Horned Larks; she said there had been quite a flock of Buntings out on the beach, so we trudged through snow and sand all the way out to the ocean, which, though it was placid, was devoid of any waterfowl. And no buntings. However, on the march back to the backing lot we were lucky enough to find at least 4 Horned Larks running around the scrub on the dunes.

Our first list of the year:
Jones Beach SP
Observation date:    1/1/11
Number of species:    18
Brant    100    Coast Guard Station
Canada Goose    75
Mallard    4    Coast Guard Station
Long-tailed Duck    1    Coast Guard Station
Common Loon    1    Coast Guard Station
Northern Harrier    2    Roosevelt Nature Ctr
Cooper's Hawk    1    WE2
Merlin    2    Coast Guard Station
Peregrine Falcon    1    WE2
Ring-billed Gull    100
Herring Gull    100
Great Black-backed Gull    4    Coast Guard Station
Rock Pigeon    50    Coast Guard Station
American Crow    2    Coast Guard Station
Horned Lark    4    WE2
Northern Mockingbird    5    Coast Guard Station
European Starling    25
House Finch    11    Coast Guard Station

So, not the most productive start for the birding year, but the sun was out, the weather was warm, the wind was nil, we were with our friends--I'll start a New Year like that any year.