Looking to bird somewhere out of the gusty SW wind, I headed up to Sunken Meadow State Park on the north shore (Smithtown). The brush dump adjacent to the northwest corner of closed parking field 1, and the wet area immediately south of field 4, were the most productive areas. The dump had 7 species of sparrow (Swamp most abundant, ~15), with the highlights being a LINCOLN'S and a White-crowned. Other highlights were a very drab first-fall DICKCISSEL (probably a female as it appeared to lack any yellow at all), and 2 Indigo Buntings. The wet area at field 4 harbored 2 RUSTY BLACKBIRDS in the SW corner, as well as the only 2 Eastern Phoebes I saw today. Up the hill through the picnic area to the west, two large Eastern Red Cedars laden with fruit attracted good numbers of Robins, Cedar Waxwings, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, plus a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker which hung upside down to feed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgluth_brb/ Sunken Meadow State Park, Suffolk, US-NY Oct 15, 2011 9:10 AM - 1:30 PM Protocol: Traveling 2.5 mile(s) 47 species Canada Goose X Mute Swan X Mallard X Double-crested Cormorant X Great Egret 1 Red-tailed Hawk 2 Sanderling 1 Laughing Gull 2 Ring-billed Gull X Herring Gull (American) X Great Black-backed Gull X Rock Pigeon X Mourning Dove X Red-bellied Woodpecker 3 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2 Downy Woodpecker 2 Northern Flicker 1 Eastern Phoebe 2 Blue Jay X American Crow X Fish Crow X Black-capped Chickadee 2 Tufted Titmouse 1 Carolina Wren 2 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 American Robin X Gray Catbird 1 Northern Mockingbird 3 Cedar Waxwing X Common Yellowthroat 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) X Eastern Towhee 3 Chipping Sparrow 2 Savannah Sparrow 2 Song Sparrow 10 LINCOLN'S SPARROW 1 Swamp Sparrow 16 White-throated Sparrow 5 White-crowned Sparrow 1 Northern Cardinal X Indigo Bunting 2 DICKCISSEL 1 A very drab bird, with no discernible yellow anywhere in its plumage. Red-winged Blackbird 5 RUSTY BLACKBIRD 2 Common Grackle X House Finch 1 House Sparrow X This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org/ny) -- 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/ --
