Today Betsy and I led the Buffalo Ornithological Society Lake Ontario Plain field trip in eastern Niagara and western Orleans Counties. 20 birders were on the trip and it was a memorable one. On the way to our first scheduled stop, we had lots of AMERICAN ROBINS and a small group of six geese flying west, just inland from the lake. Four were CANADA GEESE, one was a white-morph SNOW GOOSE, and the other was a distinctly smaller white-morph goose, which I desperately wanted to get another look at! At our first scheduled stop, Barker Bicentennial Park, we watched the lake for over an hour. There were lots and lots of loons and grebes, the first batches of many more to come throughout the day COMMON and RED-THROATED LOONS, HORNED GREBE (one of the most abundant waterbirds today) and RED-NECKED GREBES. Ducks included all three SCOTERS, RED-BREASTED MERGS, LONG-TAILED DUCKS, and SCAUP. We also had several large flocks of CANADA GEESE, one of which contained the diminutive CACKLING GOOSE. Another flock contained two GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE. Still another contained two white-morph geese but they were about two miles to the west and never came closer, which was unfortunate, as these were likely the two white geese we had seen earlier.
En route to our next stop, Jim Pawlicki phoned that he had the two WHITE-FRONTS and a CACKLING GOOSE on the ground not far away, so we went to Burgess Road for good scope views of these birds. At Golden Hill State Park, we checked the lake again and had what seemed like even more loons and grebes than before, including 15 RED-NECKED GREBES. By this time, most of the birds were on the water with few flying by and the water was relatively calm. We also took a short walk in the park and picked up a FOX SPARROW, EASTERN PHOEBE, HERMIT THRUSH, and GRAY CATBIRD, along with lots of AMERICAN ROBINS and CEDAR WAXWINGS. After lunch and a pit stop at the Country Store near Niagara-Orleans Countyline Road, we continued heading east. We stopped along Rt 18 to check a few thousand RING-BILLED GULLS in fields and pasture on the south side of the road but found nothing of interest with them. We had just started up when I noticed lots of geese in a corn stubble field on the north side of Rt 18, ¼ mile west of Murdock Road. A quick look with binoculars revealed one white one that appeared to be quite small. However, when I set up the scope, all I could come up with were four blue-morph SNOW GEESE. Then, Jim Pawlicki picked out the bird we were after - a ROSSS GOOSE! Although not very cooperative at first, eventually everyone got decent looks. It was a life-bird for at least two people. Further east, along Lakeshore Road, we had a group of 10 SNOW BUNTINGS and a light-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. At Shadigee we had what seemed like even more loons and grebes than we had already seen and also added 4 COMMON GOLDENEYE and a BUFFLEHEAD. Then, at the foot of Yates-Carlton Townline Road, there were massive flocks of RED-BRESTED MERGANSERS (close to 2000 individuals), as well as many more loons and grebes, including stellar looks at several RED-THROATED LOONS. Having heard from Gary Chapin about a Brant he had seen earlier at Point Breeze, we decided to trek on over there in the hopes of adding our sixth goose species of the day. While we had a nice juvenile LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, 2 BLACK SCOTERS, a SURF SCOTER, and a SNOW BUNTING on the pier, we could not come up with the Brant. On the day, our group had about 61 species of birds. On the way home, the leaders had a dark-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK along Rt 18, just west of N-O Countyline Road, and a PEREGRINE FALCON at the same spot. I thank all the participants for their help spotting birds, especially Jim Pawlicki, and for the great camaraderie. It really was a fun group today! Good birding! Willie ------------------ Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com http://www.betsypottersart.com <http://www.betsypottersart.com/> -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
