We spent the day birding on the east end, starting our day at Montauk Pt. The point had numerous Common Eider and scoters but very few other species. We missed Razorbill entirely and had only one Red-throated Loon. Hoping it would get better we worked our way back west stopping briefly at Ditch Plains, where the only bird of interest was a single Purple Sandpiper. As we headed down West Lake Drive an American Bittern flew overhead from the Lake Montauk marshes. This species is rare in winter on the Montauk peninsula - we haven’t seen one in the Montauk area for many years.
At Lake Montauk (west) jetty we found four Iceland Gulls, one adult and three immatures. WE took a short ride to Montauk Downs State Park in hopes of seeing if the Pink-footed Goose found on the Montauk CBC was still present. We quickly located the bird among numerous Canada Geese and three Snow Geese. A walk to Hook Pond was taken without really expecting to see anything given the frozen conditions. Much to our surprise we found six Tundra Swans on a small area of open water with Canada Geese, Mute Swans and various ducks. On the way west we received a timely e-mail from Derek Rogers concerning two Ross’s Geese in a farm field on Long Lane just east of Stephen Hands Path. A stop by the farm field quickly yielded the Ross’s among an estimated three thousand Canada Geese. The trip concluded on a down note with nothing of interest on the frozen tundra of Dune Road. Good Birding, Ken & Sue Feustel -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
