Today, I was among the crowd ( ~ 20 coming & going) that feasted on the impressive image of *Mycteria americana *as it fed along the e/s of Beaverdam Creek, ~ 100 yards s/o Montauk Highway, at the intersection of Mill Rd. I was part of a 3 car caravan that was "trolling" for the bird, after checking out the spots it had been seen earlier in the week, without success. Upon pulling into the "Casa Boso" parking lot, which provided a look-see at Beaverdam Creek, the moment arrived...the stork struck ! After about 2 minutes, while we viewed & photographed our prize, the owner of the property was demanding we leave his land immediately ! He gave us another minute to take one more photo, but that was it ! As we headed east on Montauk Highway, we happened to see a group of birders (Shai, Pat, et al) looking at "our" bird from a closer and better angle. What transpired was a moment for the ages ! Due to the pandemic, contact between many birders had ceased, or been curtailed at the least. The Wood Stork brought a good number of folks close-up and almost touching ! For me, this was the best part of this avian adventure ! Sure, getting a state bird, a region bird and a suffolk co. bird was neat, but all those records still came up 2nd for me !
Cheers, Bob -- 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/ --
