One of my favorite birding books is Bull's 1964 Birds of the New York Area. The book may be nearly 50 years old, but, I still find it to be a valuable reference, especially for things like the section on hurricanes.
By the way, this is not a state book-- it covers the area around New York City, includiong all 5 boroughs, all of Long Island, northern NJ, adjacent Connecticut and the adjacent mainland counties of NY State. For those who don't have access to it, here's a summary of Bull's excellent write-up. I've included the dates and what is known about the track of each storm, for comparison purposes. Note that birds that we take for granted now, such as Forster's Terns and Oystercatchers, were "hurricane specialties" not so long ago! Mike Cooper Ridge, LI, NY 1878 Sept 12- Southerly origins- centered over Trinidad on Sept 1, Haiti Sept 4 turned inland- passed to the west of Long Island. Birds- Sooty Tern- 2 on LI, 2 in Orange County, 1 in Fairfield Conn 1924 Aug 26- Struck Florida on Aug 24, then out to sea. Birds- 1 Oystercatcher in Suffolk. 14 Black Skimmers Mecox, 1 Black Skimmer Bronx 1928 Sept 19- Puerto Rico, Florida and gulf, inland to PA and western NY State. Birds- 16 Sooty Terns throughout Suffolk. Flocks of Forster's Terns- LI, Newark, NJ and Croton Point 1933 Aug 22- east coast, then turned inland of NY area.. Birds- 2 Wilson's Plovers- East Hampton 1934 Sept 1- Florida then out to sea. Birds- Mag. Frigatebird- eastern LI, 4 Gull-billed Terns on LI, 110 Blk Skimmers at Jones Beach, 1 Blk Skimmer on Hudson River 1936 Aug 27 Coastal Florida. Birds- 2 Brown Boobies- Mecox; Long-tailed Jaeger, eastern LI, Royal Tern- Mecox (first LI record since 1831!); 50 skimmers- Moriches 1938 Sept 21- Bahamas to Cape Hatteras to eastern LI. Birds- 15 Cory's Shearwaters picked up dead, incl 1 diomedea race. 3 White-tailed Tropicbirds dead in Easthampton, 1 dead at Montauk, 1 seen flying at Jones Beach. 1 Wilsons Plover- Jones, Sooty Tern- Manorville, Skimmers along south shore LI 1944 Sept 14- east coast into New England. Birds- 4 Leach's Petrels dead on eastern LI,; 3 Oystercatchers south shore LI, 2 Sabines Gulls, Easthampton; over 700 Forster's Terns- eastern LI; up to 16 Royal Terns, Eastern LI; Black Skimmer- hundreds (with some remaining into January!)l Fork-tailed Flycatcher on East Quogue (Suffolk) 1949 Aug 29- Bahamas, Florida Keys and east coast- passed offshore. Birds- Brown Booby off Moriches; Great White Heron Jones and Mecox 1954 Aug 31 and Sept 11- mainly offshore. Birds- White Pelican- Shinnecock; 4 Brown Pelicans- Jones; 7 Oystercatchers south shore; 7 Wilson's Plovers south shore; 2 Gull-billed Terns Fire Island; 60 Royal Terns- south shore; Bridled Tern- Manasquan Inlet, NJ; Boat-tailed Grackle- Raritan Bay and Brookhaven (Suffolk) 1955 Aug 12 and Aug 19 Mainly offshore. Birds- Audubon's Shearwater- Staten Island shore.; 10 Sooty Terns, including some inland; Lots of Caspian Terns and Skimmers 1956- Sept 29- offshore. Birds- Long-tailed Jaeger and Sooty Tern at Fire Island 1957 June 27- Gulf coast, Louisiana and Texas, then Tennessee and Kentucky and western NY. Birds- first NYS record of Sandwich Tern 1960 Sept 12- Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Florida Keys, SW Florida, then crossed back into Atlantic and came up the coast.. Birds- south shore of LI- 28 Gull billed Terns; 9 Sandwich Terns; 300 Royal and 400 Caspian; 12 Sooty ; 3 Leach's storm Petrel. Bridled and Noddy were recorded from NJ. and Noddy from RI . Magnificent Frigatebird- West Islip (Suffolk); 12 Oystercaatchers, 1 Sabines Gull at Jones; Gray Kingbird- Westhampton Beach. 1200 Black Skimmers -- 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/ --
