This is regarding my post about this bird much earlier today.
Carole Berglie managed to get down to the Sea Cliff Beach (North Shore of Long Island) within 3 feet of the South Polar Skua to take some photos. I have posted them to my website. http://www.ardithbondi.com/page91.html
Carole later told me that the Skua stayed on the beach for about 2 hours, mostly preening. When a child approached it too closely, it responded aggressively with its wings raised (but didn't leave then) showing the white crescents nicely.
It would be interesting to know if the bird is seen again, or whether it finally just flew back out to the ocean.
From the looks of the photo of the bird seen in the WE2 parking lot, that bird looked much more droopy than how Carole described this one.
Ardith Bondi -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
