Brigantine 11/12--Snow Buntings

It is a recurring theme of these posts: Wind and How Much I Hate It. While it was a relatively warm day at Brigantine and the sun was bright, making the birds look sharp, it was really too windy to use the scope for any length of time, so probably a few species of ducks were missed. I know that a large flock of shorebirds had to go unidentified because no matter how heavily I leaned on the scope to steady it, I couldn't get a good enough look at the birds in the middle of the pool to tell what kind of shorebirds they were, especially since they all had their beaks tucked in against (what else) the wind.

However, that isn't to say it wasn't a "productive" day. We saw Tundra Swans at the Gull Pond Tower, so that was a good start and coots were swimming around as well as pintails. A couple of Bald Eagles were swooping over the impoundments stirring up the ducks and further on up the road, a Peregrine Falcon was scaring up flocks of Dunlin. But the best birds came one two on the northeast side of the Danzenbacker Pool--first an Eastern Meadowlark which flew from one side of the road then dove into the tall grass and then 3 FOY Snow Buntings sitting in the middle of the road until a vehicle came along and up into the sky they went. So nothing to complain about today, other than the *&%$* wind which always leaves me feeling that I could have seen more if it wasn't in my face all day. (Interesting that no matter where you stand at Brig, the wind is always coming at you.)

We thought we'd check out Batsto Village, hoping it would be less windy (and it was) but aside from a couple of Buffleheads and a Pied-billed Grebe, nothing was there. However, we were delighted to run into Brooklyn birders Peter and Mary. Had we seen them at Brig I wouldn't have been amazed, but Batsto is not heavily birded. (Insert music: Small World, Isn't  It?)

29 species at Brig:
Snow Goose  210
Brant  18
Canada Goose  250
Tundra Swan  20
American Black Duck  500
Mallard  400
Northern Shoveler  20
Northern Pintail  200
Hooded Merganser  8
Red-breasted Merganser  10
Double-crested Cormorant  100
Great Blue Heron  5
Great Egret  6
Bald Eagle  2
Northern Harrier  3
Peregrine Falcon  1
American Coot  20
Greater Yellowlegs  3
Dunlin  400
shorebird sp.  100
Ring-billed Gull  X
Herring Gull  X
Blue Jay  3
American Crow  2
Carolina Chickadee  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
American Robin  50
Snow Bunting  3
Red-winged Blackbird  100
Eastern Meadowlark  1