6/4/10 Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) Route in Hamilton Co. (with a few miles in Warren Co.)
I ran an annual BBS route yesterday (start time for the route is 4:46 a.m.). It begins at the bridge between Indian and Lewey Lakes on Route 30, runs north to the village of Indian Lake, then southeast on Route 28 to Cleveland Road in North River (which becomes Cemetery Rd., then left for a few hundred feet on Thirteenth Lake Rd. to a right on Harvey Rd., and left on Rogers Rd. where the route ends on the steep hillside). Once again this year, I found a singing Philadelphia Vireo early in the route near the "Timberlock" sign on Route 30 (mile post 1410 north of the sign). (Mike Moccia found the bird after I posted it last year, so it appears to be a reliable nesting location.) I tallied 64 species on the route. I found many Mourning Warblers (8) at stops toward the end of the route (which is why I listed the road names above), including 3 singing birds at the last stop on Rogers Rd. (logged area). Once again, I found Evening Grosbeaks in this area also. A nice surprise this year was a singing Olive-sided Flycatcher at a stop along Route 28 (mile post 1432) in a wetland north of the road. I had nice views of a couple Indigo Buntings (5 tallied at points). Other highlights included a vocalizing Barred Owl early in the morning, and a Black Duck with six young. 6/2/10 Fox Marsh (southeastern St. Lawrence Co.) along Route 56 On my way back to Potsdam from the Mountain Birdwatch survey on Blue Mt., I drove very slowly along Fox Marsh on Route 56. Here are a few of the species heard: Wilson's Snipe Olive-sided Flycatcher (at the south end - I usually hear them at the north end) Great Crested Flycatcher Northern Waterthrush Lincoln's Sparrow Swamp Sparrow Mourning Warblers are still breeding outside our Long Lake house. We took trees down in 1997, and each year I keep thinking the area has grown up too much to support them anymore - but, they're still around! (I view this situation as a way to see how long it takes for Mourning Warblers to move on from areas that are left to regenerate.) On May 8th outside our Potsdam house, I observed a long, brutal fight between two Common Grackles - the most violent avian battle I've ever witnessed. It is a behavior I wish I had been able to capture on video. They wrestled and used their bills in an awful stabbing knife-like way. When it was finally over, one of the fighters looked awful, and I was surprised it was able to fly away. On May 7th in the Town of Oswegatchie, I found a Northern Mockingbird - only the second one I've ever found in the North Country of NY. The area behind our Potsdam home is filled with winged-warblers. I've observed the Blue-winged Warblers move into the area over the past several years. Tom Langen, Clarkson Univ. biologist, used the area to train his students to do winged-warbler surveys, and he referred to one bird, singing a Blue-winged song, as a "hybrid". I too, do not know what to call the bird - it has all the characteristics of a Blue-winged Warbler, except it has yellow wing bars. It doesn't fit any of the hybrid descriptions in Dunn & Garrett. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I would be interested to hear them. I can hear one bird singing a Golden-winged Warbler song from our house (I haven't tracked this bird down yet), and along an area I walk with our dogs, there is a Golden-winged Warbler, followed by the "hybrid" bird, followed by a Brewster's Warbler (singing a Golden-winged song). The Brewster's Warbler has two different wing markings - on one side it has 2 yellow patches, and on the other, it has 3 yellow patches. Joan Collins Potsdam & Long Lake -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
