Echoing Tim Healy's account, Pat Lindsay and I participated in this memorable coastal flight a little further to the east, around Fire Island Inlet.
Waking up at 6:00, we noted conditions favorable for a fallout this morning: sw wind around 7 mph, with patches of local fog and precipitation. We arrived at Robert Moses State Park at 6:45, well before the rain started there at 8:10. While driving, the sight of even a few Gray Catbirds flying east to west over openings was a sure sign that a major flight had taken place. Whereas Catbirds arrived in our region as early as 25 April this year, no real flight had been observed before today. Myrtle Warblers were the most conspicuous component of the morning flight at RMSP, but variety was fairly good. Although volume was not huge, there were lots of birds moving east to west over the puckerbrush. When the rain hit, the Myrtles kept flying for a while, but it became difficult for us to monitor. We moved around the inlet, checking sites for gulls, shorebirds, etc., finding modest success, until we arrived at Gilgo. There we saw something really amazing--a huge flight of Ruby-crowned Kinglets. It was shocking not only for its magnitude in relation to date (we counted 79 bouncing east to west in less than two hours and once had 20 in view at once, knee-high in leafing-out poison ivy), but also because we had seen NOT ONE Ruby-crown at RMSP, during the early stages of the flight. It is actually an axiom of barrier beach flights that the species composition should vary radically from hour to hour and from place to nearby place. I well remember my first ever springtime flight here, on 30 April 1996, when I banded (to me) such shockingly early things as Blue-winged and Blackburnian Warblers (among other Neotropicals) at Fire Island Lighthouse. When, after work, I drove over to RMSP, I not only met Tony Lauro and Angus Wilson for the first time, but also shared their view of 20+ Ovenbirds walking around in a small patch of ground near the administration buildings (which I had barely suspected), and learned of Long-tailed Jaegers and other sightings unimagined from my banding station. We all had had an amazing morning, but the details were very different. Today, we eventually saw 107 species between RMSP and Gilgo, and enjoyed the company of Joan Quinlan (who showed us a Cape May Warbler), Taylor Sturm (who showed us an early Eastern Wood-Pewee), and Pete Morris (who showed us a Hooded Warbler--and the bird of the day, a four-weeks-late American Tree Sparrow). This total doesn't include Hairy Woodpecker, American Crow, Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse, Mute Swan, or several other ubiquitous denizens of the mainland. An outstanding feature of today's flight was the mix of early and late spring species. It is disorienting to see American Tree Sparrow and Junco along with Pewee and Swainson's Thrush. It is worth emphasizing how unpredictable these flights are (once again, none of the radar prognosticators nailed it ahead of time) and how much they vary from place to place. We didn't see our first Savannah Sparrow until after noon, then later found multiples together at RMSP. We saw just a very few Chipping Sparrows at Gilgo during the late morning peak of the flight, but found a dense group of 16 there when we returned two hours later. Gilgo was the unquestioned sparrow epicenter, for reasons that are not clear. The most unusual thing we observed today was the number of Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, species that should have peaked weeks ago. But the overall volume was only good, not great. For an example of great, see: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S22010106 We'll surely be out there early tomorrow! Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ Take a picture. Write a caption. Win a prize. Where’s Danny the Dolphin today?<http://www.csi.cuny.edu/wheresdanny/> -- 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/ --
