Snowy Owl at Piermont Pier (NY)

Returning to Piermont Pier on Wednesday I found the persistent and relatively tame Snowy Owl in an even more accommodating location only 30 yards off the road devouring yet another unlucky Ruddy Duck. This owl showed the somewhat atypical behavior of plucking Ruddy Ducks from the water, apparently using only one talon, and was quite a success at it too. Click on the icon or click here to see the pics.

Ivory Gull at Piermont Pier (NY)

An adult Ivory Gull turned up at Piermont Pier on the Hudson River in NY and on the morning of Feb 26th was pretty cooperative as was the prior celebrity of the area - the Snowy Owl - perhaps an example of the Patagonia Rest Stop effect. The Ivory Gull was feeding on the remnants of a Ruddy Duck that the Snowy Owl had caught. The Ivory Gull however only remained for a couple of days. North American populations of Ivory Gull appear to be in rapid decline (see this article for example) and it is tempting to point the finger at Global Warming given its impact on other Arctic ice-dependent species like the Polar Bear. Increased vagrancy might be an outcome of a fragmenting population, but then this could just be a random vagrant. Preliminary pics, prior to populating the Gallery with the rest of them. Click here to see the pics.