looking for a rare bird is not helped when possible reports are received 5 days
after the fact. And neither you nor I know how many unsuccessful attempts have
been made, which doesn't necessarily mean everyone is being reactionary. There
are many people out there birding regularly as evidenced by the many reports
posted on various forums
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Possible Re-sighting of Little Egret and Laughing
Gull RFI
From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2015 15:52:28 -0400
CC: [email protected]; [email protected]
To: [email protected]
The answer to Shai's question on juvenile Laughing Gulls is yes! I have seen
several on the East Pond with my last few visits along with a few crisp looking
Juv Herring Gulls as well.
The possible Little Egret sighting, is quite intriguing and I agree about the
apparent lack of effort in trying to track the possible whereabouts of that
bird when it went missing. Alas, these days it appears birding....at least to
my observation has become more reactionary to eBird Alerts rather than the
search itself.
Cheers,
風 Swift as the wind林 Quiet as the forest火 Conquer like the fire山 Steady as the
mountainSun Tzu The Art of War
(\__/)
(= '.'=) (") _ (")
Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device!
Andrew Bakshwww.birdingdude.blogspot.com
On Jul 30, 2015, at 3:10 PM, Shaibal Mitra <[email protected]> wrote:
On the evening of Saturday, 25 July, Patricia Lindsay and I boarded the "Moon
Chaser" for an old-fashioned Wilson Brothers Band Brews Cruise of Fire Island
Inlet. Pat didn't even have her binoculars, but I had mine, and I scanned the
marsh north of the Captree boat basin in an effort to find her an elusive
Tricolored Heron for her year list. What I found was an egret that strongly
reminded me of the Little Egret present at nearby Gardiner County Park in late
May: long black bill, flat crown, and an angular nape lacking any visible
plumes; and the lores appeared dark, so that the eye through the bill looked
continuously dark. I showed the bird to Pat, and also to Holly Wilson and
Phillip Camhi, and they all agreed with the impressions just described. Taking
my turn with the binoculars again, I watched the bird rise and fly out of sight
to the north, revealing all-black legs and bright yellow feet, indicative of an
adult. Although the circumstances of our views were far from ideal, I have a
hard time seeing an adult Snowy Egret with dark lores and and lacking a bushy,
rounded nape, and furthermore standing stately and lanky-looking, as this bird
had. The passage of two months could account for the loss of the two long head
plumes and a shift from orange to yellow foot color. I mentioned our
expererience to some local birders but saw little point in posting it unless we
were able to nail it down--especially given the disappointingly limpid follow
up searches back in May, after the bird first went missing.
When I returned to Captree today, I did not find the egret of interest (nor the
Tricolor), but I did see something that surprised me: at least three brand-new
juvenile Laughing Gulls, well out to the east of Sexton Island, in bad light.
For years now we southwestern Suffolk County birders have suspected that
Laughing Gulls were breeding in the Captree/Sexton/East/West Fire Island area
of Great South Bay, based on the regular early spring arrival here of birds in
high breeding plumage, earlier than and inland from our ocean-hugging passage
migrants.
While pondering these things, a Royal Tern flew over heading east with a
begging juv in tow, reminding me that it is by no means too early for juv
Laughing Gulls to disperse east from Jamaica Bay. But it has been my impression
that fledging there is late this year (I saw no juvs on my twice daily commutes
on the Belt Parkway through 21 July). On a hunch, I drove over to Orowoc Lake
in Islip, an epicenter of the sort of early spring LAGU activity has been
making us curious, and was delighted to see a juvenile Laughing Gull fly
in--surely one of the most beautiful birds in the world.
So, have folks been seeing juvs around Jamaica Bay lately? Does anyone know of
actual nesting evidence in Great South Bay?
Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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