A mornings birding on the south shore barrier beaches produced an eclectic mixture of birds today. We started at Robert Moses State Park, where things were fairly slow, highlights being an Eastern Kingbird and two Indigo Buntings. We then moved west to West End. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot we noticed a group of birders on the east side of the boat basin looking through their scopes with some intensity. We then observed three large shorebirds in flight that landed on the shoreline, showing their large decurved bills that proved to be Whimbrels, always a good Spring observation. A group of birders then headed toward the median, where a sharp-eyed Sam Janazzo identified an early Cape May Warbler feeding in one off the Willow trees northeast of the large poplar tree. Also present were Parula Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, and Ruby-throated Hummingbird (being harassed by the Cape May Warbler). Unseen by us but also reported were Black-throated Green Warbler and Hooded Warbler. Although the overall number of birds was low, the quality more than made up for the paltry numbers.
Ken & Sue Feustel -- 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/ --
