Mystery Gull Sept 7 2025

 

Tour of Italy

 My wife and I are planning a trip to Italy in August -Rome, Ichia? and Sorrento.  Of course I'm planning on seeing lifers - hopefully a whole bunch.  I told my wife to be prepared for me to look cringe cause I'll have my camera and bins on me the whole time.  I'm hoping to see some T!ts : ) and a European Robin would be great, but looks like they might mostly migrate in the summer but some do stay around.

Massapequa yard, Eagles, Raven, Owl

 After getting hammered with snow recently, today was finally a nice break with warmer weather - the sky was clear and the birds seemed "happy" and were singing a lot - hearing cardinals, sparrows, grackles and possibly a Red Winged Blackbird.  I was outside and saw what I assumed were 2 Red Tailed Hawks soaring to the south, but I noticed some white on the tail of one.  I don't like to assume the ID of birds so I grabbed the bins and discovered that they were actually 2 Bald Eagles drifting north - I got some distant photos.  Later on, I saw a Raven going by.  I have been hearing/ seeing them regularly by me.  They almost seem more common than Crows by me.  There were also some gulls drifting high up in the sky.  On a side note, I heard a Great Horned Owl in the evening from the preserve.  I have been hearing them often enough lately.

 

Massapequa Preserve

 I needed to get out if only for a little while - I had seen another local birders report of a Canvasback at the preserve at the lake by the LIRR tracks.  I went over and found it right away and a Common Merganser flew in for a while - nice to see both up close - there were also a variety of domestic type Mallards that I wasn't aware of since I haven't been out birding in a while.

 

Common Yellowthroat from Sept 11, 2024 in my yard

 Old photo that was loaded on my laptop.  Periodically, I upload photos onto my laptop, then might post them on my blog and/ or a thumb drive to save them.  I'm stil behind on going through photos but starting to catch up!

 

Connecticut, Red Shouldered Hawk

 I drove my daughter up to college - on the way back I checked out the area around the hill by her college for Pileated Woodpeckers since they were recently ebirded there - no luck with that, but did see some flocks of Horned Larks on the roadside. (it had snowed the day before)  On the way home, somewhere in Conencticut, I'm fairly certain I saw a Red Shouldered Hawk perched on the side of the highway.

Massapequa Preserve, Cardinal singing

 On my walk to the LIRR, I heard a Cardinal singing - was nice to hear, but seems a little early?

Hartford, Connecticut, Barnacle Goose

 My son had a Volleyball tournament in Hartford Connecticut - we only went up for one day instead of the weekend since he had a conflict with religion class Saturday.  There were recent reports of a Barnacle Goose about 8 minutes away from the venue so we took a qukck detour and saw the goose quickly but it was a little obscured through a chain link fence.  The ebird reports that I had seen disappeared later that day - I saw some chat that the recent reports (there were a group of 3 Barnacle Geese also in Connecticut) implied that the recent sightings were captive/ escapee types.  With concerns of hunters stalking reports of waterfowl, it's hard to know exactly what's really going on.

 

Happy New Year!

 Just some quick notes for 2025.  I had around 9 lifers this year - only 2 were from Long Island, the rest from Curacao.  Looking ahead, I feel that I need to travel to increase my life-list (apparent more and more with every passing year)  I also added European Herring Gull to my life list - I feel that was the gull that was at Old Field Lighthouse some years ago.  I also added "Mangrove Warbler" since it was split from Yellow Warbler.  (our local Yellow Warbler is now known as Northern Yellow Warbler)

 There has been a Cassin's Sparrow at Montauk Point that would be a lifer for me - the problem is that I can't find a good day to see it since I would have to leave early in the morning and come back before my son's religous class etc.  If it sticks around, I might try to see it.  The reports have said that it will actually fly up to people - very curious - wish a lot of birds that I try to find were that easy!

Will see what the new year brings....