Got out for a short while this afternoon (3:20 - 4:30) and found the adult Iceland Gull still at Iron Pier Beach, Jamesport.
I took Doctors Path on my return home and came upon an adult Red-tailed Hawk in the sod field, plucking away at, what looked like, a fresh kill. It's prey was a fairly large bird with gray in it...possibly a gull ? The hawk was intent on devouring it's meal, and nothing caused it to stop, or temporarily move away. Not my backing up to come abreast of it, ~ 40' away. Not my turning off the engine, nor my lowering the window, and not my taking so many pictures, which only stopped when my battery gave out - I must have taken close to 100 shots ! It also wasn't fazed by the good amount of cars & trucks that were traveling at a fast pace on this connecting road between Rt. 25 and Sound Ave., Riverhead. What really amazed me was when it remained stationary, even as a caravan of 3 police cars & 2 ambulances came racing up D.P. (with their lights flashing and sirens blasting) toward Sound Ave. I was in the southbound lane, and when they came by me, staying as close to the other side as possible, they were probably no more than 25' from the bird...and yet it didn't budge ! I couldn't help but think of all those times in the past, when I have caused Red-tails and other hawk species to take off prematurely, after I had caused so much less of a disturbance. As I drove away, I wondered how long it had been since it's last meal ? 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/ --
