Yesterday afternoon, during the snow showers, I found a 1st cycle Glaucous Gull at the Bellport Bay Yacht Club. It was still present today at mid-morning, resting on the south dock.
My dad and I decided to head east this afternoon to check for various waterfowl. En route, we spotted an adult Bald Eagle circling over Sunrise Highway near the Carmans River. A bit later, we had a 1st winter Bald Eagle along Wickapoque Road in Southampton. This bird stayed around for quite awhile, tussling with a pair of Osprey. The ponds in Southampton held the usual variety of March waterfowl; a female Canvasback on Agawam Pond was the only one of note. Along Dune Road, we found some newly arrived migrants including a Piping Plover and 18 Am. Oystercatchers. The highlights of our afternoon were two Eurasian Green-winged Teals at Terrell River County Park. In addition, I believe we observed two possible Eurasian x American Green-winged Teal intergrades. While the variation among the American Green-winged Teals is quite broad in terms of the extent of pale stripe on the lower scapulars (a feature that was interesting to study in this flock of 143 Americans), I believe these two hybrid individuals stood out out from the rest. Both possessed a vertical white line on each side of the breast as well as a fairly bold horizontal stripe across the lower scaps. While this latter feature was not as strong as in that of the two pure Eurasians, it was significant enough that we could track each individual through the flock solely by this field mark. In addition, the two suspect intergrades appeared to have paler flanks, and were paler than adjacent Americans in the vent area. One individual was present for most of our visit and well-photographed; my dad picked out the second individual just prior to our departure and we were able to observe this one for several minutes before it flew down the creek. Photos of the teal can be seen at the end of this album: 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/ --
