On my morning run I went down to pine neck dock at the mouth of swan river in East Patchogue. The bay is still frozen over and the mouth of the river had one small pocket of open water remaining. A number of mute swans were loafing on the ice and a few dozen ducks were swimming in the opening (I believe they were scaup). One duck stood out which I soon realized was a golden eye. If you’re in the area may be worth a visit to take some nice photos as the opening is close to the dock (which is free of ice and snow).
Interestingly there is quite a bit of open water on swan river south of Swezey Avenue bridge -- 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/ --