Derek Rogers' A.M. post re: the dredging/ gull interaction near Shinnicock Inlet got at least 2 birders (Bobby Rosetti & I) to spring into action and head for the south-shore...albeit, my "spring" being much later than Bobby's ! Although he was headed out when I finally arrived, he shared what he had seen, down to the locations of the 5 white-winged gulls (1 Glaucous & 4 Iceland) that he had observed. I found the Glaucous Gull first, and as I was photographing it, Richard Haimes, of West Islip arrived at the scene, and started taking pictures, as well. Richard is a fairly new birder, and while he had seen this specie before, the 2 Iceland Gulls we found shortly afterwards, were new birds for him ! When he asked about other good birding spots along Dune Rd., I invited him to join me heading west toward the Westhampton Bridge - what a lucky break...for me !
A little past the Ponquogue Bridge we came upon 5-6 Boat-tailed Grackles (my FOS) out in the marsh, and at a spot roughly 1/4 the way from the bridge to Tiana Beach, Richard came roaring up to me with his window down, yelling "Snowy" ! Yes, I had missed it, and to my chagrin, found, not a "grayish" bird, but a very bright, white, adult instead ! Ah, at times, we all have to eat "humble pie" ! Before splitting up at the first W.H. bridge, we had added a N. Harrier, having her lunch out in the marsh, as well as a Black Crowned Night-Heron feeding quite close to the road. As Richard was headed back to the inlet to try and get better pictures of the Iceland Gulls, I was heading for home, and some unfinished chores. While en-route, and since it was along the way, I decided to check out a Turkey Vulture report which was told to me this past Monday, under atypical circumstances. On Monday afternoons a neighbor & myself volunteer at a 'soup-kitchen" in Riverhead. After picking up food donations from King Kullen, another volunteer and I were returning to the church, when I noticed 8 T.V's. in flight. When I called this to her attention, she told me her sister has them roosting on her property, wondering if these were the same birds? We then made a quick detour, but found none there at that time. Well, today they were there, at least 12 strong, but there could have been more...dense trees. Before giving out the location, I'm going to ask the homeowner how she wants to handle it. Cheers, Bob -- 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/ --
