Saturday Birding

On saturday I indulged myself in a birding adventure of my own through a walk on Maidstone beach and various locations throughout the three mile harbor area. As usual I saw the common gulls, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, and Laughing Gull, I also saw the usual Double-Creasted Cormorants as well. However, a long red bill stuck out from the group, I immediately thought it was an American Oystercatcher, but I figured they don't stay around in New York during the fall / winter season. But I double checked in my field guide to find that the American Oystercatcher is in fact a year round bird. After my excitement of seeing the American Oystercatcher at this time of the season I hit a "dry spell." I kept finding the usual birds and decided to stop by a friends house who lives by Gerard Drive on Springs Fire Place Road. We "explored" the yard of what an acre of farm like property, which had a garden, a couple bird feeders (although it looked like squirrels were using them more then the birds were) and a colloquial stye house. While there I saw a myriad of different Sparrows, all though identifying sparrows is not my strong point I believe I spotted a few Field Sparrows ( due to the white ring and the red / pink tint to the bill), Swamp Sparrow (due to gay breast and brownish red top of the head) and I thought I saw a chipping sparrow but it turns out I was mistaken and it was in fact a American Tree Sparrow. Towards the end of my adventure I managed to see what I thought weretwo Northern Bobwhite quails, but then I remembered that they were Ring-Necked Pheasants, because Pheasants are larger then quails are. (I remembered their names from when we had raised them while i was in middle school, sadly all the quails got eaten by Raccoons and only the pheasants survived).