Duck No Luck

This morning we drove out to Cold Spring Harbor, hoping to find the Tufted Duck that was first reported there on Tuesday and was last reported yesterday. No luck. We tried both sides of the harbor, east in Suffolk County, and west in Nassau, and while we saw lots of other ducks, the TUDU was not seen by us, or apparently anyone else, as there were quite a few hopeful birders shivering along with us.

Not every quest can be successful and I don't mind, really, striking out on a bird if we haven't put too much effort into seeing it (this was a relatively quick drive); what sours me is that because I'm looking for a specific bird, I don't really enjoy the other birds I see.

If we had just gone there to check out the harbor, I would have been happy to see the Long-tailed Ducks, glad to add to both scaups to the year list, as well as the Killdeers and Belted Kingfisher. Today, I just didn't get that frisson, maybe because I was freezing.

Our list for the aptly named
Cold Spring Harbor
Number of species: 20
Canada Goose 40
Gadwall 10
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 20
Greater Scaup 25
Lesser Scaup 5
Long-tailed Duck 5
Bufflehead 10
Red-breasted Merganser 3
Killdeer 2
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 3
Rock Pigeon 5
Belted Kingfisher 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 4
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 5 

Northern Cardinal 1