This morning David Wheeler found a juvenile BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE on Lake Ontario off of Firt Niagara. Shortly after I arrived to see it, he found another. We also had a juvenile PARASITIC JAEGER, which was chasing Ring-billed Gulls. A few small groups of WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS were flying by, heading west. With one group were two early SURF SCOTERS. A BLACK TERN was seen briefly with a distant flock of feeding Common Terns. Other fly-bys were Mallard, COMMON LOON, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, and two AMERICAN WIGEON. Few passerines of note in the park - SWAINSON'S THRUSH, Black-and-white Warbler, and Magnolia Warbler.
DIRECTIONS: The Kittiwakes were still there when we stopped watching the lake after 11:00. They were consistently in the "rip" where the Niagara River empties into Lake Ontario. Enter the park (fee possible after 9:00 a.m.) from the Robert Moses Parkway and stay to your right. Watch the lake from the top of the slope just off the northeast corner of the large parking lot. The rip is well to the left, identified by a rougher swath of water. The Kittiwakes were a quarter-mile or so away, identifiable with a scope. Good birding! Willie ---------- Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com http://www.betsypottersart.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Temporary archive: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
