Had a good day in Brooklyn (before the snow), capped off with the male BARROW'S GOLDENEYE (BAGO) seen in Rockaway Inlet from Manhattan Beach Park between 2:15-2:45 p.m. Map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zTixGyKi8_-M.keyDKxMOSLxA The bird was associating with about 10-15 Common Goldeneye (COGO) and there were ~125 additional COGO in the inlet. It was not all that active initially and I was able to pick it out from the Commons on the basis of a distinct line of white squares on the black back, a black shoulder spur and the distinctive head shape with an obvious crescent-shaped facial spot. I was able to stay on it fairly easily for about 1/2 ghour but unfortunately by the time Bobbi Manian arrived the bird had started to dive and move about. With the storm starting to whip up the waves and snow coming down visibility quickly deteriorated and we were unable to refind it in about 10-15 minutes of looking. Also unfortunate was that the bird was at least 500 yards away (and maybe more like a half mile) and my attempts at photographing it were for the most part unsuccessful. The weather doesn't look ideal for looking for it for the next couple of days, but this location had had a lot of Goldeneye in the past few weeks and hopefully the bird will linger in the area at least through the weekend. Earlier in the day I spent my time at Floyd Bennett and tallied at least 2-3 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, a SHORT-EARED OWL (had 2 RLHA and the SEOW in same binocular view at one point). Watched a light morph successfully catch a mouse/vole two different times. Other raptors seen were a continuing RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, a MERLIN, a NORTHERN HARRIER and 2 early migrating TURKEY VULTURES. 3 RED-NECKED GREBES were seen in Jamaica Bay from the boat launch. Landbirds included at least 5 FIELD SPARROWS in one flock, 6-7 RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES in the pines near the southern entrance and 2 LAPLAND LONGSPURS in a small flock of Horned Larks in the community garden parking lot. A brief search for the MEW Gull came up empty, though another RED-NECKED GREBE and the continuing ICELAND GULL were nice. I have not seen the Mew since Feb. 17th despite multiple attempts. See you afield,Shane BlodgettBrooklyn 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/ --
