Hi all, Spent from 5pm to 9:30pm looking for rails and trying to see what the cranes were up to. No luck on the Soras or Kings (if they are still breeding here), but did have a Virginia briefly call during the day. I wonder if the rails there start calling at 10pm like they do in CT? I wonder because I certainly didn't hear them before I left. The cranes do seem to be on a nest since I saw the female acting as though she was on one but it was hard to see the nest behind the plants. She was acting like she was turning eggs and then she sat down. The male was by himself about 300-400ft away. I guess that would be confirmed breeding then. I observed the male for most of the afternoon and evening and he never ventured near the nest site nor did the female come off the nest site. Interesting. Also seen as confirmed even though just south in NJ were two families of Mallards, two Canada Geese families, two Pied-billed Grebe families and two Wood Duck families. Many pairs of Common Gallinules were also seen as well as a Least Bittern. After dark I had a Big Brown Bat and Hoary Bat (a new species for me). Andrew Andrew v. F. Block Consulting Naturalist 20 Hancock Avenue, Apt. 3 Yonkers, Westchester Co., New York 10705-4780 www.flickr.com/photos/conuropsis/albums --
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/ --
