An exciting day of birding in Sullivan County at Morningside Park and Apollo Plaza with a good number of birds coming in on the storm. Highlights included SEVEN BLACK TERNS!! This is a county record! I was able to reach Arlene Borko and Scott Baldinger who were able to come over and see the birds. The shorebirds were in good number with the following seen:
Semi-palmated Plover - 1 Killdeer - 42 Spotted Sandpiper - 1 Solitary Sandpiper - 1 Lesser Yellowlegs - 2 Semipalmated Sandpiper - 4 Least Sandpiper - 27 Pectoral Sandpiper - 2 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER - 1 (rare) Wilson's Snipe - 1 Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Green Heron and a Merlin were also seen. The most exciting part of the day was when the seven BLACK TERNS were foraging and I suddenly heard one screeching. I turned to see that a Merlin had the tern in mid air (or so I thought). The tern got away and all of the terns mobbed the hawk, joined by nearly 75 assorted swallows. All of the screeching was intense. The Merlin seemed to become confused in the flurry and eventually broke off, diving on the shorebirds on one of the islands. He was hot on their tails when I looked back at the terns. The entire flock of terns and swallows were spiraling skyward. The eventually peeled off and all headed directly east over the horizon, not to return. I couldn't spot the Merlin again, but fortunately, all the shorebirds settled down and were still present when Lance Verderame came and was able to see them a couple of hours later. Great birding! John Haas PS Scott called later to inform me that a large mixed species flock of warblers, vireos and tanagers had come in to the Nature Trail at the Bashakill. The highlight of which was a TENNESSEE WARBLER -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
