Hello, Birders. (First, thanks to the several of you who have told me offline that I got Central Park's county wrong. Thanks again, and duh.) Anyhow, I saw an interesting flocklet of Cedar Waxwings at Makamah Nature Preserve, Suffolk County, earlier today, Saturday, Oct. 31st. There were 7 birds in the flock, all adults, and 2 had red-orange tail tips. One of the aberrant birds had all 12 rectrices red-orange, and the other had R1 the "normal" yellow but R2-R6 the variant red-orange. I think this latter bird was showing two generations of rectrices, with the R1s being brand-new and the R2s-R6s being left over from fall 2008; and I further suspect that the bird ingested more honeysuckle-derived rhodoxanthin in fall 2008 than thus far in fall 2009. Or I could be full of crap. Regardless, it's cool to ponder the molt/ecology interface as it relates to observing live birds in the field. (More info on how eating honeysuckle berries makes birds turn red: http://www.aba.org/birding/v39n5p62.pdf.) Access to Makamah Nature Preserve is at 40.909002 N, 73.314257 W. Other birds at Makamah earlier today included a somewhat tardy Common Yellowthroat and my first 3 Red Fox Sparrows of the season. Birds doing the "vismig" thing included several flocks of Cedar Waxwings and American Robins, all moving pretty much southwest high over the preserve. Also 3 Sharp-shinned Hawks, all juveniles. (By the way, vismig of American Robins was especially impressive over Uplands Farm Sanctuary, Suffolk County, 40.857269 N, 73.453442 W, this past Wednesday, Oct. 28th. At least 230 robins passed southwest over the sanctuary, in a pretty steady passage from 11am-noon, flying almost directly into the north-blowing drizzle. Birds "on the ground" there included several Swamp and White-crowned Sparrows, plus a Winter Wren. Neat place.) ------------------------------- Ted Floyd tedfloy...@hotmail.com Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado ------------------------------- Ted Floyd Editor, Birding ------------------------------- Please support the American Birding Association: Click on http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=884482 to search the internet. Check out the American Birding Association on FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22934255714 Check out Birding magazine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BirdingMagazine Please visit the website of the American Birding Association: http://www.aba.org _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: It works the way you want. Learn more. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_evergreen2:102009 --
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