The 1st N.Harrier I came upon today (3 in total, all, first seen on the ground) was a brown individual on Hulse Landing Rd., Wading River. It seemed to be just resting, with no evidence laying around, that it had just fed (see below). In a weedy area of the same field, a flock of ~ 50 Horned Larks were feeding, with a number of them stretching out and jumping (not flying) high up a frozen in-place weed stem to get at a seed...I don't remember seeing that behavior before.
A Canada Goose flock, holding about 575 birds, was located on the n/s of Rt. 25, 1/8 mile e/o Edwards Ave ( behind the "deli" ) in Calverton - at least 1 Cackling Goose was part of the mix. Also, ~ 100' away from this flock, was another feeding, brown plumaged N. Harrier. After heading home for chores & lunch, the Riverhead sod-fields bordered by Northville Tpke., Rt. 25, Sound Ave & Doctor's Path were visited. I didn't find anything notable in the goose flocks therein, but the 2 raptors seen along the way made up for that ! First, in a sod-field on the s/s of Sound Ave, a male N. Harrier (Gray Ghost) was busy devouring "something" - the bird finished dinner and flew off, before I could I.D. prey ! On Doctors Path, an immature Merlin was perched in the tallest tree in front of the " Garden Apartments". Cheers, Bob -- 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/ --
