Dear NY Birders, With regards to the EARED GREBES recently found on Eastern Long Island, I have little doubt that there are actually two different individuals: the one at Ditch Plains, Montauk and the other at Amagansett. The location where Carl Starace found the Amagansett bird was the same place I found an apparent Eared Grebe on the waterfowl count in January. This bird dived within about 3 seconds of me finding it and I was unable to locate it again, but at the time I felt certain it was an Eared Grebe. (I did not put it on my waterfowl count list, however, b/c of the quick view.) Further, this location is only a few miles from where my party found an Eared Grebe on the CBC in December, so I suspect that there has been a single wandering individual that has wintered off East Hampton and Amagansett. I wonder if someone got a photo of the Montauk bird that could be compared by those of us who have seen the Amagansett bird so that we may evaluate the two-bird hypothesis.
Hugh On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 5:53 AM, ken feustel <feus...@optonline.net> wrote: > An *Eared Grebe *was observed Thursday afternoon with three Horned Grebes > from the end of Indian Wells Plain Highway in Amagansett. This individual is > perhaps the same bird seen by birders further east off Atlantic Avenue the > day before. This particular bird is not a well-marked individual, lacking > dark auriculars and a prominent bump over the forehead (perhaps a function > of posture). However, the bird was clearly smaller in direct comparison to > Horned Grebes, with a thinner neck and bill. We reviewed a series of photos > of Eared Grebe from Cornell University and noted photos of a number of > individuals with similar features to the bird observed yesterday afternoon. > > Ken & Sue Feustel > -- Hugh McGuinness The Ross School 18 Goodfriend Drive East Hampton, NY 11937 -- 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/ --
