The Smithtown Count was held on Friday, December 27 amidst cloudy, calm, mild conditions with daytime temperatures in the low 50's. We tallied 106 species that included the following highlights:
1 Snow Goose 1 Pink-footed Goose 2 Cackling Goose 2 Canvasback 7 Common Eider 82 Common Merganser 2 Red-necked Grebe 2 Virginia Rail 6 Purple Sandpiper 1 Wilson's Snipe 12 Razorbill 1 Black-headed Gull 2 Northern Gannet 1 Northern Harrier 45 Eastern Screech Owl 17 Great Horned Owl 4 Northern Saw-Whet Owl 1 American Kestrel 3 Merlin 4 Peregrine Falcon 1 Eastern Phoebe 14 Common Raven 5 Marsh Wren 2 Eastern Bluebird 17 Snow Bunting 1 Chipping Sparrow 1 Yellow-breasted Chat 1 Baltimore Oriole 1 Orange-crowned Warbler Count Week: Wild Turkey, Lesser Black-backed Gull Notable misses of birds that we get with some regularity included: Wood Duck Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Cormorant Black-crowned Night Heron Kildeer Fish Crow (ouch!) American Tree Sparrow (first miss since 1939) Savannah Sparrow Many thanks to all of our dedicated participants, and a special thanks to Marc Oliveri for coordinating our compilation venue at the Sweetbriar Farms Nature Center in Smithtown, and also Sean Duffy, who as our count archivist enriches our compilation with insightful anecdotes of the long history of the Smithtown Count. Richard Gostic Compiler -- 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/ --
