The 98th Smithtown Count (Suffolk County, Long Island) was held on
Tuesday, December 27 amid clear, calm, cool conditions with daytime
temperatures in the mid 30's. The Smithtown Count is centered in Stony
Brook and extends west to Sunken Meadow State Park, east to Mt. Sinai
Harbor and south to Lake Ronkonkama. Seven parties and 38 participants
tallied 106 species and 24,319 individuals. This exceeds our 10 year
average of 104 species. The highlights of the count included:
1 Pink Footed Goose (Head of the Harbor)
1 Cackling Goose (Phillip's Mill Pond)
1 Common Eider (Mt. Sinai Harbor, Cedar Beach)
2 Ruddy Duck (Sunken Meadow)
39 Wild Turkey
1 Virginia Rail (Lake Ronkonkama)
15 Killdeer
3 Purple Sandpiper (Mt. Sinai Harbor, Cedar Beach)
3 Wilson's Snipe (Nissequogue River)
2 Lesser Yellowlegs (Head of the Harbor)
2 Greater Yellowlegs (Sunken Meadow)
1 Lesser Black-backed Gull (Old Field Point)
103 Common Loon (Lake Ronkonkama)
24 Northern Gannet (Sunken Meadow, Mt. Sinai Harbor/Cedar Beach)
1 Great Cormorant (Old Field Point)
1 Double-crested Cormorant (Head of the Harbor)
4 Bald Eagle
4 Northern Saw-Whet Owl
1 Peregrine Falcon (Stony Brook Mill Pond)
1 Eastern Phoebe (Bill Richardson Park)
22 Common Raven
1 Marsh Wren (Short Beach)
1 Brown Thrasher (Sunken Meadow)
12 Eastern Bluebird (Sunken Meadow)
2 Common Redpoll (McAllister County Park)
6 Chipping Sparrow (Sunken Meadow)
2 Savannah Sparrow (Sunken Meadow)crowned
Birds that we get more often than not but missed on this count included:
Wood Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, Black Crowned Night-Heron, Razorbill, Fish
Crow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird.
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all of our dedicated
participants and to Sweetbriar Farm for hosting our compilation. If you
would like to participate next year, the 99th Smithtown Count will be
held on December 27, 2023.
I wish you all a healthy and happy new year.
Rich Gostic
Compiler
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