Spent a beautiful morning doing an extensive walk around the Cedar and Overlook beach parks (town of Babylon, Suffolk Co.) from 8:45-11:30, followed by brief visits to Oak Beach Road, Captree S.P., and the marsh north of Captree Island.
At Cedar/Overlook I walked the length of the tidal overwash lagoon that runs east-west from Overlook to Cedar, as well as the one to the west of the volleyball courts (flooded today) at Cedar. As Ken Fuestel noted, passerine movement was less than overwhelming, but a fair number of PINE SISKINS, a few AMERICAN PIPITS, and 2 small flocks of SNOW BUNTINGS were observed. The highlight of this part of my walk though were a pair of late-ish juvenile PECTORAL SANDPIPERS, seen well on the north side of the lagoon in front of the 9/11 Memorial. Other shorebirds noted were Black-bellied Plovers, Dunlin, and Sanderling, all on the beach at Overlook. At Cedar Beach marina there were good numbers of Juncos, several Song Sparrows, 2 Hermit Thrushes, 3 E. Phoebes, a Merlin, and a N. Harrier. One female Boat-tailed Grackle was on the boardwalk. A slow drive down Oak Beach Road turned up little other than a Sharp-shinned hawk that made a strafing run parallel to the road before plunging into a bare shrub on the roadside. Several Juncos flushed as the Sharpie hopped its way into the interior of the bush. One brave/scared-stiff/stupid Junco held its ground. The Sharpie either didn't see it (not likely) or for some reason judged the Junco to be unreachable, because it eventually flew off without pressing the attack further. Lucky Junco. I spent only ~20-25 minutes at Captree S.P., during which both the Common Ground Dove and W. Kingbird were missing in action. Slowly cruising in my car past spots the dove had or might utilize turned up only low numbers of sparrows (Song, Swamp, White-crowned, Junco). Thankfully I'd seen the dove last Sunday and the Kingbird (and dove again briefly too) yesterday so I didn't feel to bad about giving in the rumblings of my stomach and heading for home. On the way though I made one last stop to scan Captree Island marsh, where there were 2 pairs of Hooded Mergansers, a Great Blue Heron, and a Greater Yellowlegs. -- 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/ --
