Here are two more views of that bird I saw on the beach at Moreau today. I hope this will help somebody tell me what bird this is.
Also, here's another photo of that Osprey my friends and I found dead along the shore of Moreau Lake last Friday. It's enough to make you weep, is it not? Why would anyone want to kill an Osprey? Unfortunately, some people just get a kick out of shooting and killing anything that flies.
When I visited Moreau State Park today, I talked with park naturalist Gary Hill, who told me there would probably be an investigation into how this legally protected raptor was killed. Gary had reported the bird's death to Peter Nye, head of the endangered species unit of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The bird is being stored in a freezer awaiting examination by state wildlife pathologists.
The bird looks like a Snow Bunting to me.
ReplyDeleteAlso in posting below this one I do think that insect is a Wooly Aphid. When I found a bunch of them on a branch lately some of the adults looked just like the one in your photo.
Sure looks like a snow bunting to me! And here you were just commenting on Monday that you've never seen one! Ask and ye shall receive, eh? :)
ReplyDeleteThey are snow buntings - you must have been very still and close to them to get such great portraits of them !
ReplyDeleteA first for me too - saw them Monday at the Park - (I had thought they would whiter, but apparently the white is their summer plumage) - they were in constant motion and my photos are blurry.
A great find.
Yes I'm still angry about the osprey.
Squirrel, Ellen, Sue: Sounds like a consensus about the Snow Bunting. I had never seen one or, at least, not so as I noticed. They breed up in the Arctic, so we are where they fly south to for the winter. I saw just this one, fluttering about on the beach. I was able to get quite close to it.
ReplyDeleteSnow buntings!!! Sue told me about them recently and I almost screamed with glee, I MUST get to Moreau soon!!! I have never seen a snow bunting in person and they look absolutely adorable!!!
ReplyDeleteI personally would love to choke with my bare hands the person who shot that osprey. That is how much I love birds.
The snow bunting is beautiful, it's feathers look so soft. I can imagine how lovely it would be to stroke - not that the bunting would appreciate it one bit!
ReplyDeleteNow that I know that the bird was not shot the first thing that strikes me about the Osprey is how beautiful its markings are and how sharp and slender its wings. I was lucky enough to see live Ospreys in the lake District this year, they are stunning birds, unmistakeable for anything else. So sad to see one in death.
And oh, I just noticed that the last few comments I made probably link right back to your blog - I copied your blog address to put in my blogroll and have been accidentally pasting it in to these comments ever since :D