Today, Betsy Potter and I led the B.O.S. Lake Ontario Plain field trip to eastern Niagara and western Orleans Counties. We had some really nice birds, highlighted by the BARNACLE GOOSE in the Town of Hartland (see my other post about this bird). We had great views of alternate plumaged RED-NECKED AND HORNED GREBES, with hundreds of the former and probably close to 100 of the latter. Other waterfowl on the lake included RED-THROATED LOONS, WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, LONG-TAILED DUCKS, GOLDENEYES, GREATER SCAUP, RED-BREASTED MERGS (the most abundant duck), NORTHERN PINTAILS, AMERICAN WIGEONS, MALLARDS, BLACK DUCKS. In various fields, we found RING-NECKED DUCKS, PINTAILS, WIGEONS, GREEN-WINGED TEALS, BLACK DUCKS, and MALLARDS. There was also a slow stream of raptors migrating along the lake, with RED-SHOULDERED, RED-TAILED, ROUGH-LEGGED, COOPER'S, SHARP-SHINNED, NORTHERN HARRIER, AMERICAN KESTREL, and TURKEY VULTURE all tallied. In addition on Rt 18, one mile east of Countyline Road, we had an immature PEREGRINE FALCON. The Peregrine perched atop the same tree that we found a Gyrfalcon on many years ago! At this latter spot, we also had two blue-morph SNOW GEESE and one CACKLING GOOSE.
Our one gull highlight was provided by David Gordon, who refused to let my call of Great Black-backed Gull go without a better look. He got that look, as did the rest of us, and it was a nice alternate-plumaged adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. Way to go, Dave! A BELTED KINGFISHER, a couple of GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, and an EASTERN MEADOWLARK were new for the spring for most people in the group. 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 ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
