The Southern Nassau County CBC enjoyed five hours of good weather before the rains hit yesterday. Coverage was excellent by 78 participants (plus three feeder-watchers), 39 of whom attended the festive compilation, back at Otto's in Freeport for the first time since Sandy.
The preliminary species total was 133, above our ten-year average of 130. Very few regularly detected species were missed, the most notable being: Snow Goose (recorded 9 of last 10 years) American Bittern (8) Great Egret (6) Wilson's Snipe (10, but our only consistently reliable site was lost several years ago) Barn Owl (7, but no boat effort this year) Conversely, there were many notable finds: Wood Duck (Mitchell & Massapequa) King Eider (Atlantic) Ring-necked Pheasant (Mitchell) Red-necked Grebe (Atlantic) Little Blue Heron (Baldwin) Bald Eagle (Tobay) Northern Goshawk (Short & Tobay, but presumably the same continuing bird in these contiguous territories) Virginia Rail (Tobay) Greater Yellowlegs (Five Towns) Red Knot (Short) Pectoral Sandpiper (Short, potentially new to count) American Woodcock (Tobay) Black-headed Gull (Short) Lesser Black-backed Gull (Hempstead) Razorbill (Short) Great Horned Owl (Five Towns, Hempstead, & Massapequa) Eastern Phoebe (Baldwin) Tree Swallow (Tobay) Marsh Wren (Tobay & Massapequa) House Wren (Baldwin) Brown Thrasher (Baldwin) Cedar Waxwing (Massapequa) Lapland Longspur (Short) Orange-crowned Warbler (Atlantic & Massapequa) Nashville Warbler (Massapequa, just the second ever for the count, the other dating back to 1971-72) Common Yellowthroat (Tobay & Massapequa) Chipping Sparrow (Five Towns) Sharp-tailed Sparrow, sp. (Baldwin) Purple Finch (Short) Pine Siskin (Hempstead) Count-week species included Iceland Gull and Snowy Owl. Thanks to all for another great effort! Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay Bay Shore ________________________________ Connect with CSI on Social Media><http://csitoday.com/social_media/> -- 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/ --
