While watching the morning flight at Robert Moses SP, southwestern Suffolk County, on 22 Oct, I was reminded of Willie's note regarding 145+ Blackpoll Warblers in western NYS two weeks prior, on 9 Oct. Patricia Lindsay and I counted at least 13 Blackpolls at Fire Island this Saturday, among a seasonally expected very large number of Myrtle Warblers (8,750 between 7:35-8:50, plus 2,550 more 10:30-11:30, after we took a break to chase the nearby Scissor-tailed Flycatcher). We detected most of the Blackpolls by flight call, then visually confirmed them to varying degrees. About half put down and were seen at close range; others continued past but were seen well enough to exclude the ubiquitous Myrtle Warbler, as well as the potentially similar-sounding (to me) species, such as Northern Waterthrush and Yellow Warbler, most likely to occur at this site.
Although it is true that lots of late migrants were around this weekend (we recorded 13 species of warbler and are aware of five more seen by others on LI), we didn't tally more than three individuals per day for any of these, apart from Myrtle, Palm, and Blackpoll. Furthermore, farther downstream on LI's beaches, Doug Gochfeld and crew counted a seasonally very notable tally of 6+ Blackpolls at Fort Tilden, Queens County on Saturday. Looking through my records, my latest date for 10 or more Blackpoll Warblers in a day on LI is 12 Oct 99, when P. A. Buckley and I tallied 10 on a thorough search of the Fire Island Inlet area. It certainly seems as though there is something very interesting going on this year--perhaps a job for an enterprising eBirder! Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ From: Willie D'Anna and Betsy Potter [[email protected]] Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 10:39 AM To: 'Geneseebirds'; [email protected]; NYSBirds Subject: [nysbirds-l] Lots of Blackpoll Warblers!! Betsy and I covered our usual portion of Section 3 on the annual BOS October Count on Sunday. This area is bounded by the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, Rt 78, and Rt 104 in Niagara County. We have been doing this section for about 25 years. This was a truly remarkable day for BLACKPOLL WARBLERS. We have never had more than two Blackpoll Warblers on this count, which is always held on the second Sunday in October. Today, we had 43! When talking with Jim Pawlicki, we discovered that he had 70 BLACKPOLL WARBLERS in Section 4, to the east of us! Also, as posted by Bob Beal, he had at least 32 BLACKPOLL WARBLERS further east, at Braddock Bay and Island Cottage Woods! These would all be very respectable numbers during the peak of this species fall migration, which generally falls in the second or third week of September. At this time of year, however, these numbers are simply incredible. The average count for Blackpoll Warbler on the entire BOS October Count (that is, over the entire huge BOS Region with 70 years of count data) is three and the maximum count is 23 in 1954. The maximum count since 1980 is only 7 in 1994. (Note that I am missing the data from 2005 to the present.) Also note that Betsy and I only counted Blackpolls that we could identify visually. Betsy could have probably added a dozen or so to her total had she elected to include calling birds but she chose not to (Bay-breasted Warbler has a very similar call though we saw none this day). I cannot hear their call notes. All of the Blackpoll Warblers were seen very near Lake Ontario. We spent over an hour at an inland site, Joseph Davis State Park (about 3.5 miles inland), and had none. Jim Pawlicki mentioned making the same observation in Section 4 – his birds were also near the lake but not inland. What is also intriguing about this fall’s Blackpoll migration is that this species has been our (Betsy’s and mine) most common warbler since September 17th, mainly at sites along Lake Ontario. That is almost four weeks! It sure seems like they had a very successful breeding season. Good birding! Willie ------------------ Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com http://www.betsypottersart.com<http://www.betsypottersart.com/> ________________________________ Change is in the Air - Smoking in Designated Areas Only in effect.<http://www.csi.cuny.edu/tobaccofree> Tobacco-Free Campus as of July 1, 2012. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
