Thanks to everyone for their good advice a month ago on how to report 2010 breeding bird records.
After several weeks of persistent work, two species long suspected of nesting at Greenport's North Bay are now confirmed, the least bittern and the Virginia rail. I have nice photos of the nests and eggs, but no way to post them. I'd be happy to email them to anyone interested. Last week the male bittern was sitting on 3-4 eggs, which may have doubled by now. On Sunday the rails were on 2 eggs, so are probably still laying. There may only be the one pair of rails, but six to eight pairs of bitterns are possible based on my earlier survey of courting males and the ongoing activity. Unfortunately it is not possible to access any of the sites without a kayak or canoe. The rail nest is only accessible at high tide, and entails a bit of wading after leaving your boat somewhere behind. I am still looking for a bittern nest in the northern basin of North Bay. The one found so far is in the downriver portion sometimes called "Furgary Bay," off of the Fabric Factory at North 2nd Street. The presence of a nesting specie with a "threatened" status in NY State (the bitterns) will also change the status, or "score" of this Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat. This is one of the reasons that I was so eager to establish breeding confirmation. To that end I appreciated all of the excellent advice from members of this Yahoo group (one writer as far afield as Florida!). But I've been instructed that for sightings in Greenport and around the City of Hudson it would be more proper to be posting at the Hudson-Mohawk group instead (?). So I will post the above there as well, as soon as I am signed up at HM birds.
