The Long-tailed Duck…

…is a life bird for me. Thanks to Rob Stone alerting me, I was able to get to Glenmere Lake in Florida NY today after work to see some really good birds, including a beautiful Long-tailed Duck. Here is a very distant photo, heavily cropped:

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A Long-tailed Duck, two Horned Grebes, and three Lesser Scaups in the distance out at Glenmere Lake 4/10/13.

When I got home I read John Haas’ post at Bashakill Birder and learned that due to the thunderstorms that passed through last night, there was a major fallout of birds. John wrote specifically about Sullivan County, but I imagine that I saw these birds in Orange County for the same reason. I had never birded at Glenmere Lake before, but it is now on my radar for birding spots. Here is my species list for the day:

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Osprey at Glenmere Lake 4/10/13/

Canada Goose  X
Mute Swan  2
Wood Duck  4
Mallard  5
Greater Scaup  1
Lesser Scaup  8
Long-tailed Duck  1
Bufflehead  10
Pied-billed Grebe  4
Horned Grebe  3
Double-crested Cormorant  5
Turkey Vulture  3
Osprey  2
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Tree Swallow  X
Black-capped Chickadee  1
American Robin  X
Red-wing Blackbird X

 

 

Here’s one more photo that includes five different types of water birds floating together:

Click on the photos to enlarge.

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In this photo: 1 Bufflehead, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, 2 Horned Grebe, 1 Greater Scaup, and 10 Lesser Scaup at Glenmere Lake 4/10/13. I struggled with the Lesser Scaups vs Greater Scaups while I was in the field. I was fairly confident that I had one Greater Scaup while I was out there,  though I don’t know if I would have picked up on it if I didn’t know that Rob Stone had both scaups there earlier in the day. In this photo, I think the 2nd bird to the right of the Pied-billed Grebe might be the Greater Scaup, but it is really tough to tell.

One thought on “The Long-tailed Duck…”

  1. Matt,
    Glad you got some good birds! Always keep in mind for the future, when you get these strong westerly storms during migration, it always (at least almost always) puts down some good birds. John

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