Starting with 8 birders, and ending with 2, we were blessed with a fine day to walk the woods and fields that make up the above locations. Our total for the day is at present, a tentative 52, with only 2, of the 4 promised tallies, received by the author.
We had a somewhat disappointing 10 warbler species, including Black-throated Green & Chestnut-sided, with Blue-winged being the most numerous. The fast flying C.Raven under attack from 5 crows was a neat sighting, but the bird of the day had to be the very low (6') and close (15') Black-billed Cuckoo, which stayed in the same area for ~ a 15 minute "photo-shoot", in addition to thrilling us with it's vocalizations ! We did not see a Yellow-billed, missing the one I had yesterday while scouting the area. We were surprised by this, given the huge amount of Tent Caterpillar Nests (many of them open and spewing out their black payloads) at the DEC site. The Calverton Grasslands did produce some of its specialties ie, Horned Larks, E.Blue Bird, and Grasshopper Sparrow, but held back on N.Harrier, Kestrel and E. Meadowlark, Afterward, Sue Benson and I met by chance at the Herb Farm, on River Rd., Calverton. Sue to buy some flowers, and I to do more birding ! As in passed Springs, it was quite active, with 5 warbler species seen, including the Chestnut-sided mentioned above. Cheers, Bob -- 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/ --
