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| Bald (not Golden) Eagles, watching the ducks go by. Photo: Shari Zirlin |
Brigantine this time of year is great for waterfowl and raptors and that's the bulk of our list. The standout in the duckage category was the continuing Eurasian Wigeon that Scott managed to tease out of a distant American Wigeon flock. Fortunately, there was a good landmark--a road sign on the northern dike--that we could use to locate the bird, though it did take a long time to get on the bird as it wove in and out of its brown-flanked cousins, but once it came out in the open, the reddish head and gray flanks were obvious and diagnostic. I don't know why Sibley says these ducks are "nearly identical." Maybe the juveniles and the hens are, but the drakes seem pretty distinct to me when they're next to one another. As to getting to photos, well, they were way far away.
And speaking of distance--the bird of the day in both the raptor and overall categories was Golden Eagle, two of them in flight over Leeds Point, seen from the north dike. "Eagle-eyed" Scott was able, amazingly to me, to spot these two birds. Oh, to have eye sight like that!
At first, viewing them in the scope, even at high power, they were just distant specks to me and I wasn't going to count them because, even though I was sure Scott and Linda were correct, I couldn't see any field marks that would allow me to say I'd seen a Golden Eagle as opposed to any other distant raptor. But luckily the birds hung around and banked a few times allowing me to see both the white base at the tail and white patches under the wings, distinct field marks not found on other hawks, so I could confidently say I'd seen a couple of juvenile birds. Not that I wouldn't like to see them at a lot closer range, but I'll take the sighting with no guilt.
One trip around the dikes and a walk along the Leeds Eco-trail yielded up 55 species. Afterwards we drove about 10 minutes over to Leeds Point to look for more raptors and perhaps see the Golden Eagles better. There wasn't much new over there as it was clouding up and getting colder and windier but we did manage to add two birds to bring us up to ketchup--Boat-tailed Grackle and Belted Kingfisher.
Our day list:
Snow Goose 500
Brant 10
Canada Goose 100
Mute Swan 5
Tundra Swan 20
Wood Duck 2 Gull Pond
Gadwall 10
Eurasian Wigeon 1 In the eastern pool
American Wigeon 20
American Black Duck 25
Mallard 100
Northern Shoveler 10
Northern Pintail 20
Green-winged Teal 500
Ring-necked Duck 5
Greater Scaup 1
Bufflehead 50
Hooded Merganser 10
Ruddy Duck 25
Horned Grebe 2
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 3
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2 Eastern Pool
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 3
Golden Eagle 2
Northern Harrier 5
Bald Eagle 4
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Coot 5
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Dunlin 10000
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 20
Great Black-backed Gull 5
Mourning Dove 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Entrance Pond
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1 Leeds Eco-trail
Northern Flicker 1 Leeds Eco-trail
Peregrine Falcon 3
Blue Jay 1 Heard
Carolina Chickadee 2 Heard
Carolina Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 50
Northern Mockingbird 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 30
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1 Heard, Gull Pond
White-throated Sparrow 2 Heard, Leeds Eco-trail
Northern Cardinal 1 Entrance Pond
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Boat-tailed Grackle 6
House Finch 2 Entrance Pond
American Goldfinch 2
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