Mark French, Shayna Marchese, Mike Ruscigno, Diane Tishler, and myself took an open-country winter raptor trip today. The Black Dirt Region held 15+ NORTHERN HARRIERS (six gray ghosts), 1 "Northern" RED-TAILED HAWK (abieticola), 7 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS (four light, three dark), 6 SHORT-EARED OWLS (hunting Oil City pre-dawn), 500+ HORNED LARKS, 200 SNOW BUNTING, & 2 LAPLAND LONGSPURS (Liberty Lane).
The Shawangunk Grasslands held 14+ NORTHERN HARRIERS (This is certainly an undercount, since birds that dispersed earlier in the day come back to the roost site late in the day.), 1 "Northern" RED-TAILED HAWK (abieticola), 1 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (dark), & 11+ SHORT-EARED OWLS (Best count in the air at once, however there were probably more like 14-15 present, since a small number popped up close to the viewing platform, after the initial group.). Mike Britt Bayonne, NJ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
