First-of-the-season (*)
4/11/16 Long Lake (Hamilton Co.) Bufflehead - pair on Little Tupper Lake (with a male Hooded Merganser) Hooded Merganser - male with the Bufflehead pair Great Blue Heron - flying over Tarbell Hill Lane in Long Lake Gray Jay - 2 at Sabattis Bog Boreal Chickadee - 2 at Sabattis Bog Winter Wren - 1 at Sabattis Bog The Pine Siskin invasion continues at our home. I hope things will slow down with the warm-up coming mid-week. There were over 20 Blue Jays that flew in when I brought food for the Gray Jays at Sabattis Bog - I agreed with the 2 Gray Jays that it was overwhelming (and very loud!), so I drove down the road a bit. I heard Boreal Chickadees giving really interesting vocalizations right outside my car window, so I stopped. I was standing under a tree listening to the Boreal Chickadee when one of the Gray Jays silently flew to a branch a few inches over my head! The communication was, "If you feed me here, those Blue Jays won't know!" So I walked to the car and brought back some raisins and the Gray Jay very quietly cached them - the Blue Jays never noticed! 4/10/16 Newcomb, Minerva (Essex Co.), Long Lake (Hamilton Co.) and Tupper Lake (Franklin Co.) On a tour with 4 birders (2 from eastern Long Island and 2 from the Albany area) we spent most of the day in boreal habitat. It was a lovely day! Here are some of the species found: Amer. Black Duck Ring-necked Duck Hooded Merganser - several Common Merganser Ruffed Grouse - 1 displaying along Sabattis Circle Road Wild Turkey Turkey Vulture Bald Eagle - 2 Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2 Red-tailed Hawk - 1 *Sandhill Crane - I heard that the Sandhill Crane pair had returned to Tupper Lake last week. At the end of the day, we ventured to Tupper Lake and spotted the pair from Raquette River Road. We stopped to look at waterfowl and I noticed a "rock" way out in the marshes. One of the Long Island birders did too, but as we were driving away, he said we should back up - and sure enough, the "rock" lifted its head from the vegetation and moved! We didn't see its mate, but after a while, it took flight and joined the second bird farther away in the marsh. They gave their trumpeting call together several times - beautiful! Black-backed Woodpecker - 4 (1 male working on its nest cavity in Newcomb, a male and female observed in Minerva, and 1 heard giving the rattle call along the Roosevelt Truck Trail in Minerva) Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Gray Jay - 3 (1 along Route 30 in Long Lake and 2 at Sabattis Bog in Long Lake) Common Raven Boreal Chickadee - 2 in Newcomb Red-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper - several with a few singing Winter Wren - several (including 2 singing) Golden-crowned Kinglet Amer. Robin Waxwing species - flying flock of ~40 birds too far away to tell Cedar from Bohemian Amer. Tree Sparrow Song Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Purple Finch - many singing! Red Crossbill - 9 (2 flyover calling birds along Route 28N in Newcomb, 1 female observed with 2 Pine Siskins gritting in the road on Route 28N in Minerva, and 6 found along Route 30 in Long Lake - including a couple of fledglings!) Pine Siskin - many! Amer. Goldfinch Evening Grosbeak - several, including a nice observation of a male in Newcomb 4/9/16 Long Lake Sadly, I found a dead Hermit Thrush in the road on Route 28N in Long Lake. Hermit Thrushes and Amer. Robins spend a lot of time in the plowed roadways when we have snowy conditions in April. 4/8/16 Tupper Lake (Franklin Co.) Ring-necked Duck - many continue to be observed on Tupper Lake Common Loon - on Simon Pond 4/7/16 Long Lake *Northern Shoveler - pair observed on Long Lake! This may be the first record of this species in Hamilton Co. since it is not listed in Mike Peterson's "Birds of Hamilton County, New York". A photo is posted to my Facebook page below. Gray Jay - one at Sabattis Bog 4/6/16 Long Lake *Common Loon - one observed on Little Tupper Lake Amer. Kestrel - 1 along Route 30 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - a male that spent a long time eating sunflower seed hearts at one of our feeders! This is the first time I've observed this species at a feeder. I took photos and posted them to my Facebook page below. Gray Jay - 1 at the Round Lake Trailhead Boreal Chickadee - 2 along Route 30 Joan Collins President, NYS Ornithological Association Editor, New York Birders Long Lake, NY (315) 244-7127 cell (518) 624-5528 home http://www.adirondackavianexpeditions.com/ http://www.facebook.com/AdirondackAvian -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
