Many birders converged on the Bashakill this weekend. There were many field trip, Big Day and Big Weekend participants. At times it was hard to get a parking spot. I doubt anyone was disappointed. Highlights of our weekend (Arlene Borko, Lance Verderame, Bill Fiero and I were a team) included 27 species of warbler. The best finds included BAY-BREASTED, CERULEAN, NASHVILLE, WILSON'S, CANADA, TENNESSEE and MOURNING WARBLER! Canada Warbler was in especially high number and all the common warblers were abundant. On the marsh, AMERICAN BITTERN, LEAST BITTERN (sat), COMMON MOORHEN, VIRGINIA RAIL and PIED-BILLED GREBE were all seen with the American Bitterns putting on a real show both Saturday and Sunday (one group reported having a hard time finding moorhen, but that was not our experience). Night birds were also very cooperative, especially Sunday morning when @ 4 am three BARRED OWLS and one GREAT HORNED OWL could all be heard easily (sat morning was quite windy). COMMON NIGHTHAWK and WHIP-POOR-WILL performed nicely as well. Another nice note is that Orchard Orioles continue to increase at the Bashakill. We have two breeding pairs that were easily seen this weekend, as well as some additional individuals which may be breeding as well. It was really a great weekend, and hopefully it will continue for at least another week. See you out there, John Haas
-- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --