I spent most of the day at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (JBWR), taking in the winter scene and digging up birds where I could. Both the South and North Marsh are frozen over with very little open water. Pumpkin Channel in the bay, was the same with small patches of open water.
There was not much waterfowl in these open patches but within the ones that were available for viewing I found 1 drake Northern Pintail among American Black Ducks and Mallards. An Adult Red-shouldered Hawk was also observed on the short portion of the West Pond trail. Over on the East Pond, the situation was much the same. The pond, is mostly frozen over, with a sliver of open water which held 7 ducks. 4 Mallards, 2 Hooded Mergansers and 1 Bufflehead. Despite the paucity of birdlife, I had 2 Rough-legged Hawks on the east side of the pond. Both adult birds, one dark and one light morph. Back at the JBWR visitors center, I caught up with an American Kestrel, that put on a nice show. It caught a White-footed Mouse, which it displayed allowing a few digiscope shots before heading off for a comfortable dining perch. Later at Big Egg Marsh, I was greeted by 6 Snow Geese on the ball field not knowing there were hundreds more on the ice in the frozen bay which all put up when a chopper flew over the area. The only notable bird was an Ipswitch Sparrow, that was tracked down by Tom Burke who by then had joined me along with Gail Benson. Not a lot of birds but an enjoyable day birding around the Bay. Cheers, -- 風 Swift as the wind 林 Quiet as the forest 火 Conquer like the fire 山 Steady as the mountain Sun Tzu <http://refspace.com/quotes/Sun_Tzu> *The Art of War* <http://refspace.com/quotes/The_Art_of_War> (\__/) (= '.'=) (") _ (") Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.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/ --
