a few raptors and a couple of Wood Ducks

Although it looked like a good day for raptors, I saw only a few. A raucous Murder of Crows was directed at yet another Merlin. An accipiter on the far shore of Weesuck Creek looked small enough to be a Sharp-shinned Hawk and there were a few Osprey moving across. The Jamaica Bay Osprey that is being radio-tracked, crossed Cuba and has reached South America. All the Weesuck Creek Osprey seem to be gone -- probably on a similar migratory track; the ones on the creek are almost certainly now all migrants.

A pair of male Wood Ducks came wheeling over the creek and seemingly wanted to settle in our pond -- not once but three times. Each time they decided that my presence on the edge of the pond made that body of water off limits and they eventually disappeared.

Carl Safina reports a short-tailed grackle-like bird at his feeder which sounds, from his description, like a Shiny Cowbird. He'll try to get a picture. This is a possible vagrant along the Atlantic Coast although I have no idea if there are any LI records.

Eric Salzman