Once again, on a Thursday morning, I found myself at Hempstead Lake State Park, taking part in the weekly bird-walk sponsored by the South Shore Audubon Society. This morning's meander drew a large crowd of approximately 25 "happy campers", who were made even happier as the walk progressed. While the raw weather kept bird species and numbers down, the sociability of the "moving mass" more than made up for the discomfort, in most cases. ! As mentioned in the "Subject-line", some of us needed a tad more than most of the other birders, in order to counter the effects of poor circulation...good conversation and anecdotes can only go so far !
Not surprisingly , all the Swallows were first seen over water, with Bank, Tree, Cliff and Barn feeding over the South Pond, while N.Rough-winged was encountered over MacDonald's Pond. We then were reluctant to leave this location in case a Purple Martin decided to show up, and I even had the idea to offer a $6.00 bonus for the first person to find one...but I chickened out ! In addition to the Bank and Cliff Swallows, Great Crested Flycatcher, E.Kingbird and Ovenbird were FOY species for me. Stops at Tangle-wood Preserve in Rockville Centre and Cow Meadow Park in Freeport produced a Male Orchard Oriole and a Green Heron respectively ! These birds were a product of the "sociability" mentioned above ! Cheers, Bob -- 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
