4/11/14 Long Lake (Hamilton Co.), Newcomb and Minerva (Essex Co.)
There was a huge movement of birds between yesterday and today. I visited Newcomb, Minerva, and several areas of Long Lake this morning and found many new arrivals/migrants (& many more of the arrivals I posted yesterday). Here are some of the species (* for first-of-the-season, at least in the central Adirondacks since Ive been south quite a bit!): Amer. Black Duck on Long Lake *Green-winged Teal 1 on Long Lake Common Merganser several on Long Lake Ruffed Grouse Wild Turkey Pied-billed Grebe 4 together on Long Lake *Great Blue Heron perched over a solidly frozen pond where there is a two-nest rookery! (photo on Facebook) Turkey Vulture several on a deer carcass (with Common Ravens) on the Hudson River (I suspect the deer fell through the ice) Red-tailed Hawk *American Woodcock 1 in the middle of Route 28N near Long Lake I had to slam on the breaks and get off the road to avoid hitting it. It was bobbing and content to be on the snowless road! It flew to a snowless patch of ground and foraged I took photos and a video. The video had my husband laughing I will work on uploading it to Facebook! Barred Owl vocalizing along Little Tupper Lake *Belted Kingfisher Hudson and Boreas Rivers Yellow-bellied Sapsucker more today Pileated Woodpecker several Merlin pair in a large White Pine along Long Lake near the bridge (very loud!) *Eastern Phoebe several Gray Jay 1 along Sabattis Circle Road Brown Creeper numerous and lots of singing (outside our house and at all my stops) Winter Wren many more today Golden-crowned Kinglet numerous with lots of singing *Fox Sparrow abundant and heard singing/viewed at nearly all my stops! Song Sparrow *White-throated Sparrow 1 by the Boreas River Dark-eyed Junco Red-winged Blackbird *Rusty Blackbird 3; 1 in Newcomb flying over the golf course heading toward the Hudson River and at least 2 at the Little Tupper Lake outlet (this is also a place I find them migrating in the fall) Common Grackle Purple Finch Red Crossbill 3; pair along Route 28N in Minerva acting as if they have a nest (I believe some are still nesting while others already have fledglings) and an apparently solo male along Sabattis Circle Road in Long Lake this bird spent about ½ hour really close to me. It gritted on the dirty snow in the road and along the snowbanks, and perched in several trees. It vocalized non-stop singing, calling, and making other sounds that I have never heard from this species. I took photos (on my Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/AdirondackAvian ) and a few videos, plus several recordings. It was a good winter for Red Crossbill nesting from Long Lake to Minerva this year. Joan Collins Long Lake, NY -- 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/ --
