My dad and I visited Eastport Lake this afternoon, from 3:15 to 3:45.
As John noted, a 1st cycle Laughing Gull was present on the ice, with the Ring-billed Gulls
An immature Great Cormorant was sitting near the dam at the north end of the pond. In my experience, Great Cormorant are fairly unusual on any inland, freshwater lake, even here on Long Island. Unfortunately, closer inspection of the bird revealed a reflective string or ribbon hanging from its bill and throat.
The pond itself was mostly frozen with all the waterfowl packed into the far north end, making sifting through the flocks quite difficult at times. Among the 900 geese present when we arrived, I was able to pick out 3 Cackling Geese. While we were still at the lake, multiple flocks took off from the pond heading NW, one of which included at least one of the Cacklers. A tally of 33 Canvasback and 7 Redhead were also present.
Photos of these birds as well as some photogenic highlights from Montauk yesterday can be seen at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117391989476777248424/NewYorkBirds2013 Good birding, Michael McBrien East Patchogue -- 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/ --
