Hamlin Beach (on the south shore of Lake Ontario in Monroe County) has produced some interesting birds over the past few days. The standout highlight for me was a flock of SIX (6) juvenile SABINE'S GULLS that flew east together with three Common Terns. I first noticed a group of birds milling about over the water to the west. When I put the scope on them I could immediately see there were a couple of Sabine's Gulls, and as I worked through the small flock I was surprised to see that most of them were. The entire group slowly moved past me going east, providing excellent scope views as the gulls periodically wheeled and dipped down to the water as they flew by. These were all juveniles with brown backs and inner wings offset by deep black outer primaries and bright white inner primaries and secondaries and black visible on the tail. Even when they had gone past me to the east, so I was looking at them into the morning sun, they were easy to pick out by virtue of light shining through the transluscent white triangle on the wings. There have been numbers of Sabine's Gulls in Ontario at the west end of the lake (up to 18 yesterday) but I was still pleasantly surprised to see these birds - the highest number and closest looks I have had here.
The other highlight today in 1.5 hours of watching was an excellent number of BLUE-WINGED TEAL. These were mostly moving past in uniform flocks of 15-35, with only a few Green-winged Teal mixed in. The total count by the time I had to leave was 282. Yesterday (9/11) featured an adult LITTLE GULL in basic plumage. This bird moved east around 9:30 am with a handful of Bonaparte's Gulls, but left that group to settle on the water with Ring-billed Gulls in front of parking area #3. Dominic Sherony & I moved down there and got good scope looks and poor pictures as it sat on the water. At around 10:30 am, after we had moved back to the overlook at field #4, the Little Gull flew back past us going west. Other highlights Sunday included an American Golden Plover that flew south overhead off the lake, a moderate flight of Common Loons (21), and single Horned and Red-necked Grebes sitting in front of the overlook. On Friday (9/10) visibility was limited due to distortion and fog over the lake, but there was one juvenile PARASITIC JAEGER and one JAEGER SP. moving east. There was also a decent variety of waterfowl including several flocks of Northern Pintail and small numbers of Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Black Duck, Red-breasted Merganser (4) and Greater Scaup (1). Cheers, Andy Guthrie Hamlin, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
