In spite of a late start, I headed for the West End of JBSP, with a few planned stops enroute. RMSP, as with all my "ports of call" today, had, as their most numerous species, the ubiquitous E.Phoebe. I must have seen between 125 to 150 all told !
Prior to reaching the F.I.Hawkwatch, I had picked up an adult Merlin. In addition to the warm camaraderie that one always finds at the watcher's platform, good birds are found there almost always ! Although I was there for just a short-while today, the highlight for me was having an interaction between a raven and a crow pointed out by one of the regulars. An adult Peregrine Falcon was at rest on the water tower as I left the barrier beach. A stop at Gilgo, produced a Palm Warbler and 2 White-crowned Sparrows, among the many Yellow-rumped Warblers and common sparrows found there. A Lesser Yellowlegs was feeding in the marsh. The water tower at JBSP produced its own adult Peregrine Falcon. At the West End I had both adult and immature Merlin, in addition to a Kestrel. The area near the Coast Guard fence was loaded with sparrows and warblers. Swamp was my only new sparrow species for the season, with all but one warbler (again a Palm) being Yellow-rumped. The last stop of the day held the bird of the day ! In the grassy area in front of the fishing boats at Captree SP, a Dickcissel was found feeding with a flock of ~ 10 House Sparrows.They moved around quite a bit, at times venturing into the grassy area's of the eastern-most parking lot. Cheers, Bob -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --