As many of us had earnestly hoped, rumors of an early end to the spring 2012 landbird migration were premature.
On my way to Staten Island this morning, I drove along the barrier beach (not generally a popular place to watch spring landbird migration), where I expended almost zero effort looking for landbirds. Even so, I observed a Bank Swallow and two Northern Rough-winged Swallows at Robert Moses SP, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird and a Magnolia Warbler at Captree SP, and the following at Jones Beach West End (most of these from the car as I drove through): 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird About a dozen probable migrant Gray Catbirds (difficult to distinguish from locals, but at least some newly arrived migrants clearly present) 1 Nashville Warbler 4 migrant Yellow Warblers, including at least one apparent amnicola (northerly breeding subspecies) closely studied 1 Magnolia Warbler 4 Blackpoll Warblers 2 American Redstarts at least 6 obvious migrant Common Yellowthroats (bouncing westward among isolated small clumps of veg) I am certain that with even a little bit of dedicated effort, the thickets would have been very productive. A one-hour seawatch at Robert Moses yielded 43 Sooty Shearwaters and 31 Black Scoters. Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ 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/ --
