Hello,
The plantings of Norway spruce have greatly expanded the range of Blackburnian and Magnolia Warblers, and to a lesser extent Yellow-rumped Warbler in upstate NY. I find Yellow-rumps will use red pine plantations more than Magnolia or Blackburnians. Black-throated Green's have always preferred the native northern hardwoods usually with hemlock IMO. I find white pine to be used about equally by all of them. Matt ________________________________ From: bounce-120575433-44102...@list.cornell.edu <bounce-120575433-44102...@list.cornell.edu> on behalf of David Nicosia <daven102...@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, June 20, 2016 8:12 PM To: Shaibal Mitra Cc: NYSBIRDS-L; broomebi...@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] New Michigan State Forest NW Chenango County, NY: Swainson's Thrush and Lots of Warblers. One thing I have noticed in the southern tier of NY, is that BLACK-THROATED GREENS tend to be the most common warbler of "northern" affinities, with just a few BLACKBURNIANS around here and there. The forests in the southern tier on the north slopes tend to be northern hardwoods, including sugar maple, beech, northern red oak eastern hemlock and white pine. The eastern hemlock seems to be the most common conifer on the northern slopes. The southern slopes tend to be more oak(both white and northern red), with white pine, the most common conifer. It is harder to find Black-throated Greens or any warbler of northern affinities here (although not impossible). We have only a few isolated forests where there may be a balsam fir or red spruce tree here or there and they are just isolated. We do have norway spruce plantations, but to my knowledge around the Broome county area at least, not as extensive as NW Chenango County. I also see more extensive norway spruce plantations in Cortland County, southern Cayuga County, southern Madison Co and southern Onondaga Co especially over the high terrain. One wonders if swainson's thrush is found in these areas too??? I would imagine blackburnians are probably everywhere in these areas too. I know at Long Pond State Park there is a fairly large norway spruce plantation and I found blackburnians to be most common along with Magnolia warblers a few years back. Black throated greens seemed to be more common in the native woodlands which were maple, beech and hemlock. So, I wonder if BLACKBURNIANS prefer spruce, fir and red pine to white pine and hemlock, which is far more common in the southern tier? Maybe Black-throated Greens prefer hemlock and white pine at least in central NY?? Dave On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 4:10 PM, Shaibal Mitra <shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu<mailto:shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu>> wrote: Hi Dave and all, I also find the breeding distribution of Black-throated Green Warbler perplexing. It is common and widespread over what strikes me as an unusually broad array of forest types, giving absolutely no indication to my eye of any kind of specialized preference. Yet it is absent from many places that look superficially as good (or better, in terms of the density of conifers) as places where they are numerous. For example, in southern Rhode Island both this species and also Hermit Thrush breed quite commonly in extremely unimpressive-looking* oak woods with just a few pitch or white pines. And in this same area, BT Green Warbler also breeds in Atlantic White Cedar bogs, another southern-style forest type. But on nearby Long Island, these very same habitats (along the very same moraines) are completely shunned by Black-throated Green Warblers (and support just a very few Hermit Thrushes, which here are restricted to the very "best" Pitch Pine forests). Even more striking is the scarcity of both of these species in near-upstate New York (e.g., Westchester and Orange Counties, and elsewhere) in nice-looking Transition Zone woods. This disparity takes a lot of getting used to for anyone who has seen the kind of sterile and depauperate woods* they like in RI, but now that I get it, David's observations from Chenango County seem just a more extreme example of a pattern I see in a lot of places. I've always wondered if the limiting factor was not so much the vegetation type but some combination of temperature and humidity; southern RI probably has lower maximum temps at this time of year, owing to the ocean influence, than do many low-mid elevation places in upstate NY. In addition to these two species, Northern Waterthrush, Canada Warbler, Purple Finch, and other boreal-associated species also co-occur as breeders surprisingly close to the coast in RI, in utterly non-boreal forest types: http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L732767?yr=all&m=6&rank=mrec&hs_sortBy=taxon_order&hs_o=asc http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L335600/all/6 If this temp/humidity explanation is true, the absence/scarcity of these species on similarly ocean-cooled eastern Long Island is more difficult to explain but might be attributable to the very small and highly fragmented nature of its woodlands, in addition to their already emphasized low quality.* Anyway, these were my thoughts when I read this very interesting and inspiring report. I think I'll count some Ovenbirds somewhere tomorrow morning! Shai Mitra Bay Shore *It took me a while to come up with these euphemisms to replace the phrases I would use naturally when speaking . ________________________________________ From: bounce-120574834-3714...@list.cornell.edu<mailto:bounce-120574834-3714...@list.cornell.edu> [bounce-120574834-3714...@list.cornell.edu<mailto:bounce-120574834-3714...@list.cornell.edu>] on behalf of David Nicosia [daven102...@gmail.com<mailto:daven102...@gmail.com>] Sent: Monday, June 20, 2016 2:28 PM To: NY Birds; Cayuga birds; broomebi...@googlegroups.com<mailto:broomebi...@googlegroups.com> Subject: [nysbirds-l] New Michigan State Forest NW Chenango County, NY: Swainson's Thrush and Lots of Warblers. Had a chance to bird New Michigan State Forest from mid to late morning Today, 6/20/16. This forest is a high elevation boreal-type forest which is quite rare in upstate NY outside the Adirondacks and Catskills. There are areas of dense NORWAY SPRUCES planted by the CCC groups back in the 1930s so much of this forest is dense and fairly mature. There are also areas of RED PINE within a more typical northern hardwoods type forest of SUGAR MAPLE, AMERICAN BEECH, CHERRY and other deciduous trees and scattered native BALSAM FIR and to a lesser extent EASTERN HEMLOCK. The deep spruce woods are homes to a large population (locally) of BLACKBURNIAN WARBLERS. In addition, you can find SWAINSON'S THRUSH here too along with WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS which again are quite rare outside our bigger mountains. Once thing that puzzled me was the lack of BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS and YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS. The most common warbler was the OVENBIRD but a close second was the BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. Do BLACKBURNIANS out-compete BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS? Or was the lack of hemlock ravines more a factor here? I also was able to record the beautiful song of the SWAINSON'S THRUSH and append to my e-bird list which can be linked below. In any event, I drove for over 9 miles in this beautiful area and carefully counted as many birds as I could hear. My e-bird list is my best effort at an "exact" count. I was conservative and very careful not to double count. I was amazed that I totaled 69 BLACKBURNIAN WARBLERS in 9 miles and a whopping 86 OVENBIRDS with a total of 50 species. I took just under 3 hours. see e-bird list here.... http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30317959 Dave Nicosia Johnson City, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- ________________________________ 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/ -- -- NYSbirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- 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/ --
