The summer birding doldrums came to a spectacular end today with the finding of two large and showy rarities. A Cattle Egret was found by Candy Giles at LaSalle's Landing Park feeding on the lawn. This was not entirely a surprise as there had been a report of one a week or two ago seen on the roof of a car(!) in the airport parking lot. Not exactly a chaseable bird, although at today's sighting there were stories of people who had tried. Then Mike Tetlow, who had spent this SW-windy afternoon at the Braddock Bay hawkwatch counting Bald Eagles, young Broadwings and young Redtails,spied a black-and-white shorebird on the breakwall and drove to the East Spit to check it out. Sure enough, it was an American Avocet. Score another good bird for the new breakwall across the mouth of Braddock Bay.
The Cattle Egret was still being seen through early evening. The Avocet was not visible but had not flown, having tucked itself in behind a barrier. It had been flushed once by a young eagle but had returned so might still be present tomorrow morning. ebird hotspot names are LaSalle's Landing Park and Braddock Bay--East Spit. Pat Martin -- 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/ --
