A "bomb cyclone" (there's a new one) which brought a foot of snow to us on Thursday, coupled with bone-chilling temperatures since Day One of the New Year, has really put a crimp in my year list.I've tried. After two house-bound days, I went to Forked River on an errand and tried to look at the bay from Sands Point Reserve, but I could only stand the 12 degree temperature and -4 wind chill for 7 minutes. I managed to add Red-breasted Merganser to the year list.
Driving up Rt 9, a small flock of American Robins flew across the highway. It took six days to see a robin? I made a few other stops where I thought I might see some birds from the relative warmth of the car, but most of the water is frozen and the snow drifts don't allow you to pull over to the side--nothing like being stopped in the middle of a slippery road, hoping a car doesn't come up behind you to keep you from a long search for birds.
I gave up, came home, thawed out, and looked out the windows off and on. Not many birds at the feeders and then I saw why--an immature Cooper's Hawk was making the rounds from limb to limb. I took about 25 pictures, most of which turned out to be very nicely focused photos of tree branches. The picture above is about as good as I could get. The hawk was bird number 50 for the year.
Tomorrow's weather sounds no better than today's. The thaw, meaning temperatures in the bearable 30's, comes Monday.
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