On light south winds, Bill Watson and I met along the south Erie shore in Chautauqua County today with the highlight being an adult Black-headed Gull at Barcelona Harbor in the late afternoon amongst 550+ Bonaparte's Gulls. Also present at Barcelona was an adult Little Gull, juvenile Long-tailed Duck, and Snow Bunting (on breakwall). Both the Black-headed and Little Gulls were present near the docks on the west side of the harbor across the from the main parking lot/pier with extremely close views had from the boat docks near the base of the west breakwall. Both birds stuck around fairly late, although the Black-headed was last seen leaving the harbor and flying out to into the lake proper around 5:30 pm.
Conditions were ideal for catching the Horned Grebe migration along the lakeshore with grebes being by far the most common waterbird out on the lake next to Bonaparte's Gull. Diligently counting from public vantage points from Silver Creek south to Barcelona Harbor, the Horned Grebe total came out to 955. Dozens of Common Loons were also present much further out in the lake along with 2 Red-throated Loons. Highlights at Dunkirk Harbor included a flock of 15 Brant feeding on the algae covered rocks along the north/east end of the outer breakwall, along with 2 juv. Black-bellied Plovers present on the Main St. Beach. Watson's additional counts from Dunkirk included 455 Double-crested Cormorants, 18 Great Blue Herons, 46 American Coot, 4 Greater Scaup, and 2 Lesser Scaup. Black-headed Gull photo is here: www.flickr.com/photos/jmpawli10 Jim Pawlicki Amherst, 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/ --
