The Birdy Site: Oyster Bay in Early Spring

Today, I birded some areas in Oyster Bay, Long Island, to try to get a last glimpse of waterfowl before spring came, whereupon I would be engrossed in warblers flitting through the trees at ridiculous speeds and struggling to tell the two dowitchers apart.

I started out at Theodore Roosevelt Park, which seemed to be an extremely attractant for young romantic couples. I was not interested in romance. I was interested in the Ospreys soaring over the water and parking lot, and generally being beautiful birds. Numerous Bufflehead and a lone Double-crested Cormorant floating out there. Ring-billed and Herring Gulls grabbed food from the parking lot, and four female Hooded Mergansers hung out by the piers.

The best bird at that place were four Long-tailed Ducks floating and diving way out. Soon, I knew, they would be heading north, starting to breed in small arctic ponds on the tundra. I felt thrilled to see them before they took off, heading north.

Bufflehead

Next, it was Mill Pond. And it was good, better than the beach. More Ospreys circled over our heads, and more Buffleheads swam and dove in the water, but there was also a Great Blue Heron, resplendent in breeding plumage, and my FOS (first of season) Great Egret, its long tail plumes waving in the breeze.

Great Blue Heron

As many beautiful birds as we could see, The Bird of The Day was, or were, a large quantity of Tree Swallows swooping and diving over the water. They are fairly common birds in the spring, so why were they so exciting, you ask?

The reason is, as I stood, swinging my binoculars around wildly to follow the antics of those swallows, their blue-green backs reflecting the setting sun, I rejoiced and marveled at the fact that, in almost three years of birding, those Tree Swallows were the centuplicate bird, another avian diamond going about it's daily activities that had let me be privileged enough to witness it.

There's another way of putting it. The Tree Swallow was my 100th Life Bird.

And so we left, me having seen my 100th bird. It's always fine heading home after a great day of birding, and so I went contentedly into the car and let the pond slide away behind me.