Mark French and I hit the Black Dirt Region yesterday, as it's one of our favorite places to bird and take in the landscape. From one of the vantage points along the Pulaski Highway, we observed 2 GOLDEN EAGLES, see eBird notes pasted below. At a different vantage point, we observed a juvenile BALD EAGLE carrying a Gray Squirrel! Surprisingly for the date, no Rough-legged Hawks or Short-eared Owls were observed...the former is shocking considering the fact that Cape May had four already...I was expecting one or two and there are usually a few Short-eareds present up there by late October with decent numbers by mid-November. Harrier numbers were low throughout the area, with five being the peak count at any one location.
"I initially spotted a large, dark eagle soaring with a group of TUVU. After putting the scope on it, I was able to see the white tail base and golden hackle but no white was apparent in the underwing. The bird peeled off to the right joining another Golden, with similar sub-adult plumage characteristics. The Wallkill River corridor is apparently an important migratory route for the species, as this is the fourth time I've observed migrants (once in December and twice in late February)." 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/ --
