Starting off exceedingly early, especially for a Saturday, I met the rest of our small, but satisfying group at Mary's Marvelous at around 7:20 AM. Maddy took her time buying some food, and then we were off in Doc's car. We all chit-chatted for a while, on the way to MTK. Once we arrived at the lighthouse, we met up with some other birders that claimed to be "beginners" and belonged to SOFO. They were most certainly NOT beginners. We stood up on a balcony-like ledge, overlooking the water which had a few boats and many birds that day. We followed the older, more experienced eyes when they shouted out things like "Eider ducks! Down by "Eastboard" ship, lower left, southwest, edge of Block island!" Although it was very hard to see, and even harder to follow their directions, we managed to hold our own. We stood up there for a while, debating on whether or not our whole birding trip would be like this. We recorded a few more birds, such as the Common Eider Ducks, (which we can identify by the long bills and wedge-shaped heads), a Peregrine Falcon, which Anthony took upon himself to record it as "Pear green" (silly Anthony), and some Crested Cormorants, which have black, sleek bodies and a long neck. Shortly after, we were on our way to the next of many stops, and we saw some House Finches in the brush on the edge of the sidewalk, which were tiny, with small, flat heads and large beaks for their body size. Over the water, we watched Artic Skuas or Parasitic Jaegers fly around. Continuing, we wrote down two Bonaparte's Gulls, Foster Terns, Common Terns and Laughing Gulls, which were all resting on the water or flying around. The group recognized the gulls because of their white triangular markings on the edge of their wings and because of their light gray bodies.
While continuing our vast journeys throughout Montauk, a Myrtle Warbler flew by us, which was soon followed by a bunch of Black-Capped chickadees. Next we saw a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, which is small (for a hawk) and has stubby wings with a long tail. Once we parked ourselves in one spot for a while, we looked to the sky and saw an American Crow harassing a Red-Tailed Hawk. Everyone seemed to get a major kick out of this. Speaking of major kicks, once on our way to the next stop, Anthony and Zeb were kicking Maddy and I, and made us look like complete fools to the experienced birders, "tripping over ourselves". Once we arrived to a little indent in the cliffs, overlooking the water, we saw a Song Sparrow and a Cedar Waxwing. We identified the Cedar Waxwing because of its large head, short neck and medium sized body. Later, we saw a Northern Mockingbird and a Red Winged Blackbird.
We filed back into the car and headed towards Deep Hollow Ranch. Binoculars and Telescopes in hand, we trekked down a long path and looked out into an enclosed field containing many, many birds. Given directions to "spot the only bird different from the group", we looked through our binoculars for a couple of minutes and noticed the only bird that had a whiter head, and pinky-orangey legs. Once you noticed these differences, the Greater White Fronted Goose really stood out from the sea of Canada Geese. The group that came with us was enthralled with a Stilt Sandpiper, which we watched for a while. We continued on, and went down some other path to look for some birds in a woodsy area. After debating about Chiggers and Lonestar ticks, we tried working our magic with the sounds that make birds curious and come out of their hiding spots. Once this didn't work, we all hopped back into our cars, and were on the road again.
Coming to our third and final destination, our group was pooped and reluctantly got out of the car, unaware of the last trek Doc would drag us on. Throughout the long debate of who sang the song "Build me up Buttercup", we saw some more Common Grackles, Starlings, and two Wood Ducks come out of nowhere on the pond.
This birding trip was very exciting, very successful and I was thoroughly exhausted for the rest of the day. I am very excited for the next birding trip!
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