Overcast with fog, 42
degrees and calm
An early morning at Bear
Mountain State Park produced more than I had anticipated….not more species, but
certainly more numbers. I drove
down to the play field between the Administration Building and the Inn and
found droves of Canada geese, European starlings, Rock pigeons, and Ring-billed
gulls feasting on whatever it was that attracted them to the field on the damp
morning.
I counted 91 gulls (all Ring-bills
of course!), 127 Canada geese, a dozen pigeons, and 70 European starlings for a
grand total of 300 birds all having their breakfast together at Bear
Mountain. More birds were
continually flying in as I counted, so this is a conservative estimate of the
totals, but regardless, there were quite a few.
In spite of the numbers, I
searched and searched and could not locate any extraordinary gulls or
geese. I guess those are yet to
come this year.
I made one more check of the
area of Iona Island where I found only two species active this morning. A Belted kingfisher was having his
breakfast in the marsh and I enjoyed watching him work pretty hard at his trade
and generally coming up empty-handed (empty-billed?). A Northern mockingbird had it a lot easier, as he perched in
a tree and plucked the berries from the branches for his repast.
It was a bit early and chilly
for the songbirds to be up and about.
Even the feeders at my home were pretty quiet. The action will pick up there as the day
wears on and the weather clears out and warms up. I think those little ones are a lot more like many of us
humans on cloudy dreary mornings like this!
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