What a great day. Started at Stewart Park around 11 am and found the KING EIDER immediately and exactly where many others had it the last couple days...between the Red and White "Lighthouses" next to the rocks. Thanks to all for the posts and almost daily updates. What a great bird. The bird was actively swimming and diving and occasionally resting with mallards and others. I got two fuzzy distant digi-scoped images. Not great photos by any means...but good enough to tell it is a king eider.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/5252643039/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/5252642885/ Then, I had the good fortune of running into Ken Rosenberg and Kevin McGowen at Stewart. Ken pointed out the GLAUCOUS GULL that was found earlier by Tim Lenz and Kevin found the ICELAND GULL- Two species I am unfamilar with. There were also many RING-BILLED, HERRING and GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLS. Also present was 1 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL-- that makes 6 species of gulls at Stewart! Kevin then found a single CACKLING GOOSE among the many Canadas. There were also many REDHEADs, COMMON MERGANSERS, several COMMON GOLDENEYES, several HOODED MERGANSERS, many MALLARDS and BLACK DUCKS, and a single fly-by RING-NECKED DUCK. Later, went on the Short-Eared Owl trip led by Ann Mitchell to Rafferty Road with fellow Binghamton area birders, Nancy Morgan, Mary Ann and Courtney Moore. After some time, 1 SHORT EARED OWL was found in the distance flying around just after sunset. Prior to sunset, one of the highlights at Rafferty were hundreds of AMERICAN ROBINS flying by to the north. There were also several HORNED LARKS, ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS, MOCKINGBIRDS, 1 fly-by NORTHERN FLICKER and at least 1 RED-TAILED HAWK. Dave Nicosia Johnson City, NY -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
