Birdwalk Highlights for 10/17: Wolfe's Neck Center, Freeport.
The cove was the place to be today, as we were greeted with a massive feeding frenzy upon our arrival: 1500 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, 300 RING-BILLED GULLS, a goodly 100 LAUGHING GULLS, and 30 HERRING GULLS all worked a school of fish pushed into the shallows. A GREAT BLUE HERON and 3 GREATER YELLOWLEGS fished in the creek, with two late SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS joining 9 SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS on the mudflat. A single OSPREY was fishing further out in the bay.
The edges and gardens were surprisingly slow today, with sparrow numbers limited to totals of only 35 SONG SPARROWS, 9 SAVANNAH SPARROWS, and 4 WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS. At least 14 EASTERN BLUEBIRDS in various small groups were perhaps the passerine of the day, but we did have a late-ish GRAY CATBIRD and two fly-over COMMON GRACKLES.
Keeping an eye on the sky, we had a nice mix of migrant raptors; 12 TURKEY VULTURES, 3 SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS, 2 AMERICAN KESTRELS, a nice look at an immature RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, and at the end, and even better view of an immature NORTHERN HARRIER.
Finishing back at the cove, we scoped more Laughing Gulls on the mudflats, noted a couple of BELTED KINGFISHERS, enjoyed a RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER taking a rest, and scoped some of our returning bay ducks with 20 SURF SCOTERS, 15 newly-arrived BUFFLEHEADS, 4 RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS, and one fly-by WHITE-WINGED SCOTER as we rounded out a nice, diverse list of birds for the morning's outing.
And happily, we didn't see any dead birds at the GLASS WALL OF DEATH at the Smith Center, but recent rain on southerly winds washed the windows to prevent us from seeing signs of this ongoing disaster.
