This morning I took a drive down Dune Road. On my way toward Hampton Bays I spotted an Adult Cooper's Hawk on a powerline. Two hooded mergansers were near the Quogue/East Quogue border on a small pool on the north side of the road. Other highlights include: American Bittern (near triton lane), belted kingfishers, 2 great egrets and three great blue herons. Well off-shore, near the 1-mile buoy were 2-3 huge rafts containing thousands of birds. My guess is eiders or scoters, but they were too far offshore to tell through my camera or bins. Photos of some of the birds including the bittern can be seen here: http://birdsoflongisland.blogspot.com/2013/01/american-bittern-on-dune-road.html
Additionally, I saw on LIbirds.com that a Purple Gallinule was picked up approximately 70 miles offshore by some fisherman and brought to the rehabber in Hampton Bays... that bird must have really been confused swimming around with all of the puffins out there. -- - Luke Ormand, East Patchogue www.birdsoflongisland.blogspot.com www.wildlongisland.blogspot.com -- 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/ --
