Having done the Christmas bird count with Jeff Ritter last week, I decided to revisit the Kissena Park on Christmas day to see what was still around. While numbers were down a bit from last week, the Red-headed woodpecker continues to be an active presence, and can heard loudly rattling on the western side of the hill south of the lake.
While looking for the winter wren seen last week at Eric Miller’s secret warbler spot north of the golf course, I was surprised to find a house wren, a pretty rare bird for late December. (And one which would have been a nice addition to the count last week. Oh well...) Then on my way home I stopped at the parking area north of the Plandome train station looking for the yellow-breasted chat. Having dipped on Thursday and not heard any further reports, I didn’t expect much. But when I arrived, he was sitting on top of a brush pile on the left of the path near the 5 door garage. And in typical chat fashion, he disappeared before I could take a photo. Good winter birding to all, Peter -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
