Buffalo Ornithological Society
Birding Western New York and the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario

Evening Grosbeak - © Sue Barth

Scoping January

The new year begins and so do all the year lists! Now is the time to get out and find any of those rarities that were uncovered during the Christmas Bird Counts. Those who use eBird can watch all their newly submitted checklists autofill their new year's county and state lists. If you do not have an eBird account, why not make that a resolution! It's easy and you are adding valuable data as a citizen scientist! The BOS statisticians frequently pull data out of eBird for the monthly noteworthy records column in The Prothonotary newsletter.

Great Horned Owls are vocalizing this month as the birds begin nesting. During your birding outings, check old Red-tailed Hawk and Crow nests, they may have been repurposed by a Great Horned Owl! It's always exciting to see those ear tufts sticking up above the edge of the old stick nests!

Goat Island is a great place to begin your list. Catch up with Iceland and Glaucous Gulls at the roosting areas just south of Three Sisters Islands; in 2008 a Ross's Gull showed up here. Even if the access to Three Sisters is closed due to icy walkways, you can easily scan these flocks from the shoreline opposite the parking area. The resident passerines forage in mixed species flocks along the water's edge and by the parking area where people put out seed. Check these flocks for uncommon wintering species such as Winter Wren, Yellow-rumped and Pine Warblers.

Waterfowl are still plentiful above and below The Falls. There is a nice little pull off along the Niagara Scenic Parkway between the north Grand Island Bridge and Niagara Falls SP, appropriately called Waterfowl Viewing Area. You may catch massive rafts of diving ducks here with scattered dabbling ducks mixed in. Uncommon species such as Black and Surf Scoter may be found amongst the hordes as well as the rarer King Eider; bring your scope.