This morning, Rich Hoyer (en route home to Tucson) and I started at Hempstead Lake State Park, where we found one Cliff Swallow and 2 Barn Swallows among the Tree Swallows at the South Pond, and saw the other birds listed by Joe Giunta, as well as a pair of Wood Ducks and the apparent hybrid Green-winged X Common Teal, with a female.
At Jones Beach West End, with Robert Proniewych, we walked along the inlet to the jetty and back along the ocean front. Notable species included one Snowy Owl, 6 Piping Plover (4 flying up the inlet, 2 on the ocean shore), about 10,000 Dunlin, and the Northern Shrike, west of Field 2, along the path that leads to the beach. After we three enjoyed the rufous-morph Eastern Screech Owl at Massapequa Preserve, Rich and I headed to the Epcal property in Calverton, where we recorded 2 Eastern Meadowlarks and carefully counted 11 American Kestrels along the main runway and 9 more in the grassland that borders Grumman Road east of Connecticut Avenue, for a remarkable total of 20. WE also has a singing Pine Warbler along Manorville Road. Curious to see if there might be high numbers of Kestrels in suitable habitat elsewhere, we went to Gabreskie Airport, where we saw "only" 4. After dropping Rich at a train station, I continued to Sunken Meadow State Park, where I dd not see Pectoral Sandpipers, but saw one, perhaps LOS, American Tree Sparrow. At the Stony Brook Mill Pond, at about 7 p.m., I counted 83 Double-crested Cormorants in their nest trees. Doug Futuyma Stony Brook -- 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/ --
