At Connetquot River State Park this morning there were 202 Common Mergansers on the lower river. The trail east of the river was very quiet; our only bird on this portion of the hike was a single Golden-crowned Kinglet. At the feeders just west of the fish hatchery we found a young male White-winged Crossbill. The bird abandoned the sunflower seed feeder and went to the top of some adjacent Norway Spruce (cones hanging down) to feed.
At nearby Bayard Cutting Arboretum there were few birds, but the highlight were some scolding Blue Jays in some mixed conifers that were bothering a sleeping Eastern Screech Owl. It should be noted that the trails at both parks were extremely icy - walking off the trails through the snow often gave better traction. Ken & Sue Feustel -- 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/ --
