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| Horned Grebe, Great Bay Blvd |
It shouldn't have taken until February 13th to find a
Horned Grebe, but that's what happens when the bays freeze over and only polar explorers are willing to scan the ocean. I finally came across one this morning down on Great Bay Blvd, not in the cove at the head of the road where I often see them--it was of course solid ice, but farther down the road at the boat launch before the second wooden bridge. I walked onto the little beach, chasing away
Canada Geese and
Brants, and scanned the creek--mostly
Buffleheads and black ducks, but there, riding high in the water, was my first Horned Grebe of the year. "Finally," I said to myself and was quite pleased because it was second year bird of the day.
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| Redheads with Mallards and Canada Geese |
The first one was a good surprise at Holly Lake, where I always stop to take a look. I expected the water to be frozen like everywhere else, but the back of the lake had open water and lots of waterfowl. I set up the scope and immediately saw
American Wigeons,
Ring-necked Ducks and the usual
Mallards and black ducks. But then I saw a duck with a very red head--which is why that species is called
Redhead. I'd pretty much given up on Redhead for the winter when I didn't find one at Lake of the Lilies and I had no appetite for scanning the waters off of Brick (if the water was even open) where large flocks sometimes congregate. The Redhead was so far in the back that I didn't expect that my camera lens was good enough to get anything, but luckily the light was strong, and you can easily see the duck. There were at least two drakes and a couple of hens. And then I noticed really big ducks with white bodies and green heads--
Common Mergansers, very unusual for this spot, as are the Redheads, but then, with most of the water in the county solid, these ducks are plunking down wherever they can.
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| American Oystercatcher, Great Bay |
Back at Great Bay Blvd I made my way to the inlet and scoping east found Shari's favorite bird,
American Oystercatcher. While the bay here was open, there weren't many birds on the water--just a couple of loons and more Buffleheads. I took a walk up the road, hoping for some land birds, but the edges were fairly quiet except for the omnipresent robins until I got almost to the bridge where I saw a non-robin-like bird scratching in a patch of snow--my year
Fox Sparrow and a very handsome example.
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| Fox Sparrow |
While I didn't record a lot of species, I was fairly satisfied with day's "work." Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to drive up to West Creek and try, for the third time, to find the Rough-legged Hawk that has been hunting the marshes there. It's a 2 1/2 mile drive from Route 9 to the bay, and the bird could be anywhere, but other people seem to have no problem finding it, why can't I? About a mile into the drive, I saw a hawk sitting on a wire. I didn't think it was the rough-leg--they're kind of big for sitting on wires--but I scoped it and took pictures and was fairly confident, despite the glare and mediocre pictures that it was a
Red-shouldered Hawk. Not a bad bird, just not the bird I wanted. Nor was the
Northern Harrier that flew across the road.
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| Red-Shouldered Hawk, West Creek |
Just for laughs, when I got home, I put the picture into one of the AI apps and asked for an identification. It came back as Red-tailed Hawk. "Are you sure?" I asked, it doesn't have a belly band, it has red striping on the breast and doesn't really look like a red-tail. "Oh no," the AI responded, it's a red-tail for this reason and that reason and red-shoulders don't sit on wires, and I can see why you'd think it was a red-shoulder, but really, it's a red-tail.
Okay, that makes a certain amount of sense (if you were to read the long explanation you might agree with me) so I changed it on my list, posted it to eBird and dragged in the photos I had taken. Immediately, eBird's Merlin app kicks in and tells me that the pictures I've put under Red-tail Hawk are actually Red-shouldered Hawk. Which why every AI app has the disclaimer that it "may make mistakes."
Two lists:
Holly Lake
14 species
Canada Goose 25
Mute Swan 5
American Wigeon 8
Mallard 20
American Black Duck 10
Redhead 4
Ring-necked Duck 15
Common Merganser 3
Ring-billed Gull 40
American Herring Gull 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 5
American Robin 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Great Bay Blvd
22 species
Brant 35
Canada Goose 45
American Black Duck 50
Greater Scaup 8
Bufflehead 55
Hooded Merganser 10
Red-breasted Merganser 21
American Oystercatcher 4
Ring-billed Gull 1
American Herring Gull 30
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Horned Grebe 1
Common Loon 2
Great Blue Heron 2
Turkey Vulture 1
Common Raven 1 Large croaking corvid
American Robin 125
Fox Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 4
Red-winged Blackbird 25
Boat-tailed Grackle 50
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4
