For those that like to plan well ahead, please note your calendars that next season's Southern Nassau CBC will be held on Saturday January 2nd 2021.
> ---------- Original Message ---------- > From: Shaibal Mitra <shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu> > To: "NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)" <NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu> > Date: January 2, 2020 at 2:53 PM > Subject: [nysbirds-l] Southern Nassau County CBC--Preliminary Results > > Saturday 28 December 2019 was a fine day for the 80th iteration of the > Southern Nassau County CBC, with mild temperatures, light winds, and no > precipitation. The total of 135 species recorded on count day was above our > recent average of about 130. This count has an impressive resume of genuine > rarities discovered on count-day, and our participants added to this legacy > twice again this year: a Painted Bunting found near the Gatsby restaurant at > Jones Beach by Pete Morris and Taylor Sturm, and a Townsend's Warbler found > at the Florence Avenue Beach, along the bay shore in Massapequa, by John > Gluth. By my calculations, the overall count probably missed three or four > species that would otherwise have been found, as a result of effort > re-directed to admiring these little green birds. > > As usual, there were many other notable species as well: > > Blue-winged Teal at Bellmore Mill Pond > Red-necked Grebe from Jones Beach > Clapper Rail from the boat > Common Gallinule at Bellmore Mill Pond > 12 Red Knots at Point Lookout > 36 Purple Sandpipers at and westward from Point Lookout > 99 Razorbills along the oceanfront > Black-headed Gull at Jones Beach West End > American Bittern at Tobay > 2 Barn Owls somewhere near water of some kind > Short-eared Owl also, curiously, somewhere near water of some kind > Northern Saw-whet Owl somewhere > 6 Eastern Phoebes at various places in Jones Beach, Hempstead Lake, and > Mitchell > House Wren in Massapequa > 3 Marsh Wrens from Jones Beach and the boat > a count-week Grasshopper Sparrow at Point Lookout > 3 Eastern Meadowlarks in the Five Towns > Nashville Warbler in Baldwin > 3 Orange-crowned Warblers from Jones Beach, Tobay, and the Five Towns > Common Yellowthroat in the Five Towns > Palm Warbler at Jones Beach > > As often is the case on good-weather days, high counts were recorded for many > species: > 23 Cooper's Hawk > 40 Red-tailed Hawk > 213 Blue Jay > 130 Carolina Wren > 24 Gray Catbird > 190 Northern Mockingbird > 17 Hermit Thrush > 660 Song Sparrow > 66 Swamp Sparrow > 288 Boat-tailed Grackle (this impressive number being the remainder after > careful excision of potential duplicate flocks) > 16 Common Ravens (again, after adjustment for possible duplications; > meanwhile, Bald Eagle has aged out of being notable!) > 7 Chipping Sparrows > > Only two species were recorded in unusually low numbers: > 25 Snow Bunting > 2573 Herring Gull > > And only three more or less regular species were missed: > Purple Finch > Lapland Longspur > Rusty Blackbird > > --though Snowy Owl should be cued here, too, given their documented presence > (and torment) within the circle, both before and right after the CBC. > > There are many lessons to be learned from these data, but I'd like to take > this opportunity to point attention to just two questions. First, it is not > by chance that all three of our rarest species (Grasshopper Sparrow, Painted > Bunting, and Townsend's Warbler) have shown distinct waves of occurrence in > the Northeast this season. Those who dismiss vagrancy as a passive > consequence of weather systems ought to ponder why so many other species, > present in the same source regions and experiencing the same weather > patterns, have NOT been lining up along our shores lately, as these species > have. > > But perhaps even more mysterious is the great Chipping Sparrow flood of 2019. > Although our tally of 7 was admittedly smaller than the rounding errors > suffered by Hugh McGuinness et al. in Accabonnac, it is still a very large > number for urban western Long Island. And all of the counts I know of or > participated in this season, from southern New England to Long Island, > encountered this species in much higher than usual numbers--close to triple > digits in some cases. There are a lot of parallels between Chipping Sparrow > and White-crowned Sparrow: both are good CBC species at our latitude, but > unlike other half-hardies, both show a preference for inland and rural > settings vs. coastal/urban migrant traps. And this December's Chipping > Sparrow phenomenon reminds me a lot of last year's large numbers of > White-crowned Sparrows on all the CBCs. How does this happen? > > Many thanks to our 90+ participants and to Otto's Freeport for hosting our > compilation. > > Happy New Year and the best of birding in 2020! > Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay > Bay Shore > -- > > 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/ > > -- > -- 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/ --
