I watched Lake Ontario from home for nearly 4 and 1/2 hours this morning. There was a nice flight of waterbirds, with the highlight bird coming only ten minutes into my watch - a breeding-plumaged PACIFIC LOON! See details below. After watching for about 3 and 1/2 hours, I decided to quit at the four-hour mark. It was right at the four-hour mark when one of the closest PARASITIC JAEGERS I have ever seen came wheeling by! I have been watching the lake a lot this fall and finally, this was the first jaeger I saw. I thought I might see a Cave Swallow today but I guess I had my share of luck already. My complete list follows.
Good birding! Willie Home, Niagara, US-NY Oct 15, 2012 7:57 AM - 12:18 PM Protocol: Stationary Comments: Submitted from BirdLog NA for iOS, version 1.4.2. Watched the lake from Yolanda's. Betsy joined me for about 30 minutes. 35 species (+1 other taxa) Canada Goose 43 American Wigeon 11 American Black Duck 7 Mallard 23 Northern Pintail 3 REDHEAD 1 Flew by with scaup. Larger size and gray (versus white on scaup) wing stripe were evident. Greater Scaup 15 Lesser Scaup 31 Greater/Lesser Scaup 6 SURF SCOTER 33 Many were adult males. White-winged Scoter 41 Long-tailed Duck 15 Red-breasted Merganser 37 Red-throated Loon 19 Most were observed during the latter half of count. PACIFIC LOON 1 In alternate plumage. Flying west, like most of the birds. Flew by relatively close, perhaps 300 or 400 yards. Smaller than the Common Loons I had been seeing. Upperwings were uniformly dark, belly white, feet trailed behind the tail. White on top and sides of head and neck was extensive and striking - so much so that I briefly considered Bufflehead, which would have been much smaller with much faster wingbeat and showing obvious white in the wings. I wondered if Pacific Loon could ever look this white on the nape, instead of silvery, but I was able to find a few photos on-line that showed this. The lower part of the head and neck were dark, contrasting strongly with the crown and nape. White braces were seen along the sides of the back. It may not be possible for me to rule out Arctic Loon, although that may not appear so white-headed. This is the second Pacific Loon I have seen in NY and the first in Niagara County. Common Loon 174 Only a dozen or so counted on the water. Horned Grebe 7 Red-necked Grebe 7 Double-crested Cormorant 20 Bonaparte's Gull 1 Ring-billed Gull 94 Herring Gull 176 COMMON TERN 1 PARASITIC JAEGER 1 Juvenile intermediate morph. One of the closest jaegers I have ever seen! It was pointed west but the wind was taking it east, as it was doing its shearwater style flight. Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Eastern Phoebe 2 Blue Jay 1 Black-capped Chickadee 2 Tufted Titmouse 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Brown Creeper 2 Carolina Wren 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 Hermit Thrush 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org) -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
