With a new roof being put on our home, today was a perfect day to spend outdoors, and we abandoned our usual south shore birding destinations and headed for the north shore of Long Island to Caumsett State Park. Once we left our car it was apparent that we had made a good decision - the fields were alive with sparrows. We quickly had our FOS Fox Sparrow and a Lincoln's Sparrow. Ruby-crowned Kinglets were everywhere, we eventually tallied fifty-eight for the day. In the fields east of the Fishing Road we tallied another Lincoln's Sparrow. Purple Finch were also present, with eighteen observed. Once we entered the woods White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos were common. Hermit Thrush also appeared in good numbers (16), and three Winter Wrens were observed at the brush pile (also known as the dump). On the west side of Fresh Pond we encountered ten Rusty Blackbirds and an additional Fox Sparrow. On Fresh Pond there were ten Wood Ducks. With all the bird activity raptors were present in good numbers, we observed five species for the day. Lingering warblers were scarce, but we did see three Black-throated Blue Warblers. We encountered a good size flock of migratory Canada Geese on the polo field (approx. 200 birds), but found nothing unusual. We tallied ten species of sparrows for the day, and although we did not see anything particularly rare, there were always birds to look at.
Ken & Sue Feustel -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
