The clear highlight of a fairly active morning at Hamlin Beach was a first-winter FRANKLIN'S GULL that flew in from the east, settled on the water in front of the overlook for a few minutes, and then flew in towards the beach and back off to the east. Some mediocre pictures of this bird can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.com/andyguthrie/2010_09_25#
There was a steady movement of Common Loons for most of the morning, in both directions (closer birds flying west and more distant birds flying east, for the most part), and a decent variety of other waterfowl. Highlights of these included two Red-throated Loons, four Red-necked Grebes, 21 White-winged Scoters and an adult male Surf Scoter. A distant jaeger (likely Parasitic) put on a brief show successfully harassing a gull into dropping a fish before settling on the water. Six juvenile Black-bellied Plovers and flyby Dunlin (2) and Sanderling (1) were the only shorebirds, and a Peregrine Falcon made a quick pass going west. A quick spin around the ponds at the Batavia Wastewater Treatment plant turned up one EARED GREBE and a variety of waterfowl including Redhead, both Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Green-winged and Blue-winged Teal, Ruddy Ducks, American Wigeons and Northern Pintail. Cheers, Andy Guthrie Hamlin, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
