There was a nice fallout of October migrants this morning at the Sands Point Preserve (Nassau County).
Yellow-rumped Warblers (why can’t they go back to Myrtle?; easier to type, see PS note below), Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Golden–crowned Kinglet (1 for every 4 Rubys) covered the ground around the pond. The kinglets seemed oblivious to my presence. Closer inspection around the pond yielded a Blackpoll, Tennessee, and Common Yellowthroat. Moving around the preserve, I found many Eastern Phoebe, Palm Warbler (most yellow), and a very very drab Pine Warbler that I got to study up close for a while. I also found one male Black-throated Blue and the last bird of the day before I left was close views of an Orange-Crowned Warbler in the shrubbery directly behind Hempstead House. Other notables were a Gray-cheeked Thrush amongst many Hermits seen today, 3 White-crowned Sparrows, a few Brown Creepers, and 4 gorgeous Wood Ducks on the pond. Hawks were 2 Sharp-shinned. 2 Red-tails, and a distant Peregrine out over Long Island Sound. White-throated Sparrow are in full force with close to 150 seen today, along with about 40 Dark-eyed Juncos. Very few American Robins (why is that?) and I struck out on Winter Wren which really annoyed me. Moving over to private land west of the preserve didn’t merit the walk into the cold wind. There were about 750 Brant on the beach and smaller skeins of 50-100 were coming in all day east to west. I also saw a few flocks of genuine Canada Geese flying over including one small flock of 8 that were impossibly high in the sky. I tried my hardest to pull a calling Dickcissel out of the dune shrubbery but I just couldn’t see it, so I’m not reporting it. (I found one in the same exact location on Sept 14). A Savannah Sparrow was also skulking in there. A lone Black-bellied Plover on the beach. Some Laughing Gulls out over an otherwise empty sound and the salt marsh was empty save a few more Palm Warblers. Cheers!! Glenn Quinn Hauppauge, NY PS You have no idea how hard it is to type up a report like this when you’ve three Flying Dogs in you, at 8 point 3 per cent alcohol each. Cheers again! Let’s go Mets! -- 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/ --
