Connetquot River SP 112 Feb Joe Giunta, Sam Jannazzo, Joe Viglietta and I (Sy Schiff) birded the large mill pond. While mostly frozen, there was a large stretch of open water. The far side of the pond contained open water and a pair of RED-NECKED GREBES were visible there, They gradually drifted to the left and ceased to be visible from our vantage point. First stop, first look and we had our target bird. We turned our attention to the feeding frenzy going on in front of us. It was almost too much of a good thing. The churning made it difficult to pick out some of the species It included a sizeable number of Wigeon including a male EURASIAN WIGEON, COMMON and HOODED MERGANSER, BUFFLEHEAD, RING-NECKED DUCK, RUDDY DUCK, a single Northern Pintail and MALLARD. A GREAT BLUE HERON watched from the edge. A pair of RED-TAILED HAWKS circled overhead. A CAROLINA WREN came to the suet at the feeder by the hatchery. (We took advantage of the senior citizen permission to drive back there).
The way home consisted at a number of stops starting with Lake Capri in West Islip where we added AMERICAN COOT, but struck out on the Redhead reported there. Driving home via the ocean beaches, we stopped by Captree SP, East Gilgo where we had a PEREGRINE FALCON on an Osprey nest and Jones Beach West End. At the Nature Center, all of us saw our FOS SAVANNA SPARROW. Sy -- 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/ --
