Greetings All, Wendy Tocci and I started our day in search of her e-bird year Iceland Gull and we were not disappointed. Matter of fact we were wonderfully surprised with our other finds by the end of the morning. Our first stop was a congregation of large gull species and we quickly identified two 2nd winter Iceland Gulls. After a few more minutes of scanning a juvenile Glaucous Gull provided multiple extended bin views but the skittish flock never allowed us to put a scope on this bird. About an hour into our visit the bird of the day surfaced when an adult non-breeding SLATY-BACKED GULL joined it's Herring and Great Black-backed cousins. It's extremely dark mantle and bright pink leg color where easily recognizable while it matched neighboring Herring Gulls in size. A call was made to our crack photographer friend Peter Schoenberger who was only able to make our location in time for the arrival of two additional Iceland Gulls (both pale juveniles) and not the previously mentioned birds. By now the birds started to gain altitude and disperse and without more than a digiscope shot of the bird's upper half. An exciting but equally frustrating turn of events. Later in the day after scouring the known gull hangouts of the southern tier of the county I encountered a large swirling flock of gulls over the Wallkill/Shawangunk Correctional Facilities in the Town of Shawangunk and tried to find a vantage point without raising the ire of the correctional officers. I was not able to do so unfortunately but the agricultural grounds of the two prisons were teaming with avifauna included along with several hundred gulls were nearly two thousand Canada Geese. After several passes along McKendrick Road (which bisects the correctional facilities) I was actually able to relocate the SLATY-BACKED GULL! Please make no mistake this area is not intended for roadside birding and I would strongly recommend not pulling over (numerous signs posted along this road illustrate this point). I actually thought I would solicit a stop by the guards after making three additional passes of the bird's location, slowing down, camera on, window down but admittedly too chicken to stop. I apologize if this leaves readers yearning for more details but for now these birds have chosen a highly secured resting area, my best guess is they will visit places like the Wallkill River and Blue Chip Farm as they have historically with the onset of winter. Good luck in your search.
Happy New Year and Good birding! Mark DeDea -- 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/ --
