The Smithtown Count (Suffolk County, LI) was held on Saturday, December 27 with some of the mildest weather in count memory. The day began at a cool 30 degrees and ended with a balmy 54 degrees and no wind throughout the day. We tallied 111 species which is 5 off of our count record. The highlights included:
Highlights (recorded on fewer than 6 of the last 10 counts) 3 Snow Goose 3 Cackling Goose 1 Common Eider 21 Wild Turkey 1 Red-necked Grebe 18 Killdeer 1 Wilson's Snipe 1 Barn Owl 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 Common Raven 1 Tree Sparrow 1 House Wren 4 Eastern Bluebird 1 Common Yellowthroat 1 Pine Warbler 3 Chipping Sparrow 1 White-crowned Sparrow 3 Purple Finch 3 Pine Siskin Misses: Wood Duck Canvasback Black Scoter Great Cormorant Merlin Black-bellied Plover Greater Yellowlegs Bonaparte's Gull Horned Lark Brown Thrasher Additionally, the calm, still conditions were ideal for owling such that we recorded 24 Screech owls and 31 Great Horned Owls. Rich Gostic Compiler, Smithtown Count -- 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/ --