This small (less than 600 acres) grassland is an oasis in our grassland-depauperate NYS, and always rewards visitors with some cool birds. Having been reminded in a recent post of this being a magnet for short-eared owls for a few weeks during their migration, we stopped there Saturday afternoon enroute to see friends and family in the Albany area.
Arriving late afternoon, we watched the dozen or so harriers that frequent this spot. I was struck by the roughly 50:50 male:female ratio encountered, because it seems to me that on LI females typically far outnumber the males. No rough-legs, but several red-tails and 2 bald eagles. A small flock of 5 or 6 bluebird showed, and close to 2 dozen meadowlark. At dusk, on cue, the owls started appearing, hunting, interacting with one another and occasionally with a harrier. Beautiful to watch. According to a Park Ranger, he thought that they might not be around much longer, especially with the warmer temperatures. In fact, I saw 3 leave the reserve, climbing fairly high before I lost sight of them, whether migrating or just seeking neighboring grasslands to forage, I don't know. *Bruce Horwith* *16 Salt Marsh Path* *East Hampton, NY 11937* *(631) 599-0040 cell phone* -- 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/ --
