Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Prospect Jan 23rd...bbbbrrrrrrr....

Bitter cold has frozen about 80 % of Prospect Lake, leaving some open areas in the middle and one along the west shore; on the latter, 16 HOODED MERGANSERS huddled together with the Ruddy Ducks and Northern Shovelers with Canada Geese in the mix. The RED -BREASTED MERGANSER  took advantage of one of the lake middle areas, a solitary figure happy I presume to have the feeding spot all to itself.

Winter's grip  does not have an effect on WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS, two females seen feeding in the leaves and broken small twigs in Butterfly Meadow's middle section, along with 4 PINE SISKINS, a nice sighting to watch from the warm confines of a heated work truck ( with the vents  going full blast ).

One more note to mention: when looking at the sweetgums trees by the West Island shelter, all the Black-capped Chickadees took off into the phragmites ,making me wonder why. Of course, a moment later,an adult COOPER'S HAWK flew in and landed in one of the Sweetgum trees.I would take off rather than get eaten by a winter testy hawk.

--KB

Peter lists




Prospect Park--Prospect Lake, Kings, US-NY

Jan 23, 2013 9:00 AM - 9:25 AM

Protocol: Stationary

15 species



Canada Goose 125

Mute Swan X

American Black Duck X

Mallard X

Northern Shoveler 30

Bufflehead 4

Hooded Merganser 16

Red-breasted Merganser 1

Ruddy Duck 55

Pied-billed Grebe 1

Great Blue Heron 1

American Coot X

Ring-billed Gull 500

Herring Gull X

Great Black-backed Gull 1



Prospect Park, Kings, US-NY

Jan 23, 2013

Protocol: Incidental

9 species



Cooper's Hawk 1 west isl shelter sweetgums

Red-tailed Hawk 1

Black-capped Chickadee 6

Tufted Titmouse 1

White-throated Sparrow 25

Northern Cardinal 2

White-winged Crossbill 2 Butterfly Meadow

Pine Siskin 4 Butterfly Mead

American Goldfinch 2



View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12709564