Shane Blodgett, Eric Miller and I made the pilgrimage to Tupper Lake yesterday and were not disappointed. The Ross's Gull was present and active from the time of our arrival at 7:30am until we left the boat launch roughly 90 minutes later in search of other regional specialties (and blood flow). The bird actively bathed and preened in a small channel of open water in between feeding forays to various frozen chunks of fish near the houses north of the town boat launch. It's only company were an occasional flyover Raven or Bald Eagle and two otters. We stopped at a number of locations in the area and were able to spend time with other good birds including Barred Owl, Evening Grosbeak, Northern Shrike and Gray Jay. Links to Ebird checklists with location info and photos are listed below.
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34087482 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34087713 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34106822 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34106717 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34106927 It is always great to be in the north country and our day was a pleasant one, but I do find it necessary to mention this. While scoping the bird from the roadside near the houses north of the boat launch it was easy to see which property people trespassed on last weekend. The homeowner has gone to great lengths to mark his property and hang rope with "No Trespassing" signs across access to the lake. When a man emerged from the house our "good morning" was met with silence. From our conversations with locals at lunch it seemed pretty clear that this homeowner will likely not be a friend of the birding community anytime soon. Please be respectful out there. We also learned there is an ice fishing festival there this weekend and they are expecting a huge influx of fisherman (estimate of hundreds people on the lake). This could possibly mean more disturbance for the bird, but it is unclear if the bird finds human activity disturbing or not. What seems certain is it will have more food options spread over a wider area. For people planning on staying in the area overnight a reservation in advance is probably necessary. Good birding, Sean Sime Brooklyn, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
