Re: [nysbirds-l] Western Kingbird continues West Meadow Beach, stony brook, NY

[Michael Schrimpf]

Still present this morning, same spot.

On Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 12:31 Patrice Domeischel 
wrote:

> Today refound by Kathleen Coyle. Bird continues near turtle marker 9 off
> Trustees Road.
> Patrice Domeischel
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Re: [nysbirds-l] Western Kingbird continues West Meadow Beach, stony brook, NY

[Michael Schrimpf]

Still present this morning, same spot.

On Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 12:31 Patrice Domeischel 
wrote:

> Today refound by Kathleen Coyle. Bird continues near turtle marker 9 off
> Trustees Road.
> Patrice Domeischel
> --
> *NYSbirds-L List Info:*
> Welcome and Basics 
> Rules and Information 
> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave
> 
> *Archives:*
> The Mail Archive
> 
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> ABA 
> *Please submit your observations to **eBird*
> *!*
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>

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[nysbirds-l] Long Is. south shore highlights

[Michael Schrimpf]

A group of us had a Clay-colored Sparrow and flyover Red-headed Woodpecker
at the Robert Moses Field 2 volleyball courts an hour ago, and are
currently looking at 3 Marbled Godwits and a Gull-billed Tern at the Jones
Beach Coast Guard Station.

Michael Schrimpf

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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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[nysbirds-l] Long Is. south shore highlights

[Michael Schrimpf]

A group of us had a Clay-colored Sparrow and flyover Red-headed Woodpecker
at the Robert Moses Field 2 volleyball courts an hour ago, and are
currently looking at 3 Marbled Godwits and a Gull-billed Tern at the Jones
Beach Coast Guard Station.

Michael Schrimpf

--

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ARCHIVES:
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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Re: [nysbirds-l] Purposeful Birdwatching

[Michael Schrimpf]

I also get a lot of enjoyment out of observing details about the common
birds in my local neighborhood (though it helps that I've been moving to a
new local neighborhood every few years for the last decade or so!)

For everyone who wants another reason to explore "common" birds and
"normal" places, however, I'll put in a plug for the third NY breeding bird
atlas, which will get started with data collection next year:
https://ebird.org/atlasny/about

Since a big part of this project will involve collecting eBird checklists
with breeding codes all over the state, I suspect that many NY birders will
have many interesting places to explore during June in the next few years,
on the hunt for all of those breeding robins, mockingbirds, and sparrows,
etc. It makes sense to start looking forward to that now!

Wisconsin (where I grew up) is nearing completion of their latest breeding
bird atlas, which also used a special eBird portal to organize the data
collection. You can read all about the process on their main website here
<https://wsobirds.org/atlas>, and on the special eBird portal page, here
<https://ebird.org/atlaswi/home>, which has the atlas-specific map showing
all of the survey blocks. I'm not involved with the NY effort in any way,
so I don't know how much will be different in the approach, but I imagine
there will be similar resources ready ahead of next year's effort in this
state.

Anyway,
Happy "doldrums" birding!
Michael Schrimpf
Suffolk County

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On Wed, Jun 26, 2019 at 11:12 AM Shaibal Mitra 
wrote:

> Judging from many, many recent conversations with fellow birders, it seems
> that people are having a tough time of it during these June doldrums. From
> independent sources over the past week, I've heard: "crushing
> disappointment;" "why is it so bad?;" "is it going to get better?"
> "something could show up, right?;" "didn't birding used to be good?;" "this
> place used to be good, I think" and more. And this has mostly been in the
> context of ordinary, local birding, not directly related to the more
> ominous big-picture concerns expressed by Chris recently.
>
> My usual response, admittedly slightly sadistic, is that birding
> excitement has always been relative. We modern observers can't begin to
> imagine how bad it was before the legal protection of birds was implemented
> a century ago, and yet the observers of that time still found birdwatching
> exciting--and were motivated enough to achieve protective legislation in
> the face of forces as ruthless and malevolent as those confronting us now.
> Imagine the excitement experienced by Harry Hathaway, the father of Rhode
> Island ornithology, when in 1894 he saw his first Great Blue Heron, after
> ten years of field work! It was Hathaway's ongoing work that eventually
> revealed that a unique, seemingly outlying, 19th Century winter record of
> White-throated Sparrow in RI was not an accident. He documented two more
> winter records and lived long enough to see RI's plundered and deforested
> landscape recover sufficiently to harbor the lisping flocks of
> White-throats we now take for granted on the CBCs.
>
> On Long Island, Ludlow Griscom scolded over-exuberant birders who tossed
> off sight records of Ring-billed Gulls in winter and summer, citing a
> countable number of such specimens as the gold standard of documentation
> for that species in that context. Chafing at this discipline, Cruickshank
> and Peterson figured out how to find and identify Ring-billed Gulls better
> then their predecessors--proving again the eternal pleasure of purposeful
> birdwatching.
>
> Yesterday I saw my first adult Ring-billed Gulls of the season at Robert
> Moses SP, Suffolk County. I'm not sure of the date for my last spring
> adult, but I did manage to record that none were present by 17 April:
>
> https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55097294
>
> And I am able to pull up the date of the late-June return of adults in at
> least one other year:
>
> https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S17210602
>
> [note to eBird: please enable sorting of checklists by Julian date!]
>
> A little sleuthing subsequently revealed that two of my colleagues beat me
> to it this year, documenting an adult Ring-bill at Cupsogue two days before
> my exciting find (though it required some follow-up work to obtain their
> photos and a definitive age):
>
> https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57623401
>
> Hypothesis: Ring-billed Gull

Re: [nysbirds-l] Purposeful Birdwatching

[Michael Schrimpf]

I also get a lot of enjoyment out of observing details about the common
birds in my local neighborhood (though it helps that I've been moving to a
new local neighborhood every few years for the last decade or so!)

For everyone who wants another reason to explore "common" birds and
"normal" places, however, I'll put in a plug for the third NY breeding bird
atlas, which will get started with data collection next year:
https://ebird.org/atlasny/about

Since a big part of this project will involve collecting eBird checklists
with breeding codes all over the state, I suspect that many NY birders will
have many interesting places to explore during June in the next few years,
on the hunt for all of those breeding robins, mockingbirds, and sparrows,
etc. It makes sense to start looking forward to that now!

Wisconsin (where I grew up) is nearing completion of their latest breeding
bird atlas, which also used a special eBird portal to organize the data
collection. You can read all about the process on their main website here
<https://wsobirds.org/atlas>, and on the special eBird portal page, here
<https://ebird.org/atlaswi/home>, which has the atlas-specific map showing
all of the survey blocks. I'm not involved with the NY effort in any way,
so I don't know how much will be different in the approach, but I imagine
there will be similar resources ready ahead of next year's effort in this
state.

Anyway,
Happy "doldrums" birding!
Michael Schrimpf
Suffolk County

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On Wed, Jun 26, 2019 at 11:12 AM Shaibal Mitra 
wrote:

> Judging from many, many recent conversations with fellow birders, it seems
> that people are having a tough time of it during these June doldrums. From
> independent sources over the past week, I've heard: "crushing
> disappointment;" "why is it so bad?;" "is it going to get better?"
> "something could show up, right?;" "didn't birding used to be good?;" "this
> place used to be good, I think" and more. And this has mostly been in the
> context of ordinary, local birding, not directly related to the more
> ominous big-picture concerns expressed by Chris recently.
>
> My usual response, admittedly slightly sadistic, is that birding
> excitement has always been relative. We modern observers can't begin to
> imagine how bad it was before the legal protection of birds was implemented
> a century ago, and yet the observers of that time still found birdwatching
> exciting--and were motivated enough to achieve protective legislation in
> the face of forces as ruthless and malevolent as those confronting us now.
> Imagine the excitement experienced by Harry Hathaway, the father of Rhode
> Island ornithology, when in 1894 he saw his first Great Blue Heron, after
> ten years of field work! It was Hathaway's ongoing work that eventually
> revealed that a unique, seemingly outlying, 19th Century winter record of
> White-throated Sparrow in RI was not an accident. He documented two more
> winter records and lived long enough to see RI's plundered and deforested
> landscape recover sufficiently to harbor the lisping flocks of
> White-throats we now take for granted on the CBCs.
>
> On Long Island, Ludlow Griscom scolded over-exuberant birders who tossed
> off sight records of Ring-billed Gulls in winter and summer, citing a
> countable number of such specimens as the gold standard of documentation
> for that species in that context. Chafing at this discipline, Cruickshank
> and Peterson figured out how to find and identify Ring-billed Gulls better
> then their predecessors--proving again the eternal pleasure of purposeful
> birdwatching.
>
> Yesterday I saw my first adult Ring-billed Gulls of the season at Robert
> Moses SP, Suffolk County. I'm not sure of the date for my last spring
> adult, but I did manage to record that none were present by 17 April:
>
> https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55097294
>
> And I am able to pull up the date of the late-June return of adults in at
> least one other year:
>
> https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S17210602
>
> [note to eBird: please enable sorting of checklists by Julian date!]
>
> A little sleuthing subsequently revealed that two of my colleagues beat me
> to it this year, documenting an adult Ring-bill at Cupsogue two days before
> my exciting find (though it required some follow-up work to obtain their
> photos and a definitive age):
>
> https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57623401
>
> Hypothesis: Ring-billed Gull

[nysbirds-l] Black-headed Gull, Conscience Bay, Old Field

[Michael Schrimpf]

Hi all,

This morning I found a Black-headed Gull on Conscience Bay, in Old Field
(Setauket). It's a non-breeding adult, and was sticking close to the west
side of the bay, occasionally flying among the groups of ducks. I was
observing from my yard, and unfortunately there isn't anywhere for the
public to park along that part of Old Field Road, though you can park at
Kaltenborn Commons (here
<https://www.google.com/maps/place/40%C2%B057'04.5%22N+73%C2%B007'35.7%22W/@40.951244,-73.1271345,159m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d40.951243!4d-73.126586>)
and walk north along the road. The bay is visible at several points from
the road. Given that the bird seemed willing to move around, it might be
worth keeping an eye on Old Field Point and Frank Melville Park, if it
can't be found on the bay. I wonder if this might be one of the same birds
that was found along that stretch of the North Shore last winter as well...?

Here is my eBird checklist, with fairly distant photo of the bird:
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50049343

The remnants of the Bobwhite flock that I had reported on eBird several
times earlier in the summer was there as well, pretending to be rocks :-)

Michael Schrimpf
Suffolk County

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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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[nysbirds-l] Black-headed Gull, Conscience Bay, Old Field

[Michael Schrimpf]

Hi all,

This morning I found a Black-headed Gull on Conscience Bay, in Old Field
(Setauket). It's a non-breeding adult, and was sticking close to the west
side of the bay, occasionally flying among the groups of ducks. I was
observing from my yard, and unfortunately there isn't anywhere for the
public to park along that part of Old Field Road, though you can park at
Kaltenborn Commons (here
<https://www.google.com/maps/place/40%C2%B057'04.5%22N+73%C2%B007'35.7%22W/@40.951244,-73.1271345,159m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d40.951243!4d-73.126586>)
and walk north along the road. The bay is visible at several points from
the road. Given that the bird seemed willing to move around, it might be
worth keeping an eye on Old Field Point and Frank Melville Park, if it
can't be found on the bay. I wonder if this might be one of the same birds
that was found along that stretch of the North Shore last winter as well...?

Here is my eBird checklist, with fairly distant photo of the bird:
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50049343

The remnants of the Bobwhite flock that I had reported on eBird several
times earlier in the summer was there as well, pretending to be rocks :-)

Michael Schrimpf
Suffolk County

--

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ARCHIVES:
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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/

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Re: [nysbirds-l] Governors Island: European Goldfinch Flock (18-Dec)

[Michael Schrimpf]

Hi all,

Just to add a bit more context:

There have been many in-depth discussions on this topic among the eBird
reviewers, and the folks at Cornell acknowledge that this is an issue they
wish to tackle soon. In one of his recent responses to our reviewer
listserv, Marshall Iliff indicated that addressing this is a priority for
them, so I imagine we should have additional tools soon (perhaps in the
next year), presumably impacting what shows up in the public output, and
likely including some user-options for what to count and what not to count
on our own personal lists.

The current recommendation is to report any live, wild birds, including
introduced birds (see the bottom of this help page):
http://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/973921-what-data-are-appropriate-

In many places some of those introduced birds will become 'invalidated' by
the reviewers, meaning they won't show up in public output (but will still
show up on your lists), while other established species will show up on
public maps. The important thing is that regardless of review status, those
records are still in the database, and if/when they become important to
monitor the community will still have access to those records. Some of that
process may change once eBird Central invents new tools to deal with the
data.

Many (but not all) exotics are also 'domestic' types, by which eBird means
"distinctly-plumaged domesticated varieties that may be free-flying".
Locally this includes things like Budgerigar, 'Swedish' Mallards, etc.
There are normally separate taxonomic categories for those birds with the
words (Domestic type) in parenthesis. These should only be used for birds
that are identifiable as a domestic variety. These domestic varieties
currently don't show up on lists. More info on that category can be found
on this help page:
http://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/1006825-the-ebird-taxonomy?b_id=1928

Michael Schrimpf
Suffolk Cty
eBird reviewer for the high seas and Antarctica


On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 1:16 PM, <brian.whip...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The umpteen responses I’ve gotten to the contrary are why I hedged my
> sureness.
>
> Does anyone know the proper protocol for entering escapees on checklists
> (benefitting science) without having them inaccurately show up on lifelists
> (benefitting type-A listers)?
>
> Also, I know some of my Central Park checklists include Budgies, but
> there’s no Budgie on my NYS life list, so I must have done something right.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>

--

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ARCHIVES:
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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/

--

Re: [nysbirds-l] Governors Island: European Goldfinch Flock (18-Dec)

[Michael Schrimpf]

Hi all,

Just to add a bit more context:

There have been many in-depth discussions on this topic among the eBird
reviewers, and the folks at Cornell acknowledge that this is an issue they
wish to tackle soon. In one of his recent responses to our reviewer
listserv, Marshall Iliff indicated that addressing this is a priority for
them, so I imagine we should have additional tools soon (perhaps in the
next year), presumably impacting what shows up in the public output, and
likely including some user-options for what to count and what not to count
on our own personal lists.

The current recommendation is to report any live, wild birds, including
introduced birds (see the bottom of this help page):
http://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/973921-what-data-are-appropriate-

In many places some of those introduced birds will become 'invalidated' by
the reviewers, meaning they won't show up in public output (but will still
show up on your lists), while other established species will show up on
public maps. The important thing is that regardless of review status, those
records are still in the database, and if/when they become important to
monitor the community will still have access to those records. Some of that
process may change once eBird Central invents new tools to deal with the
data.

Many (but not all) exotics are also 'domestic' types, by which eBird means
"distinctly-plumaged domesticated varieties that may be free-flying".
Locally this includes things like Budgerigar, 'Swedish' Mallards, etc.
There are normally separate taxonomic categories for those birds with the
words (Domestic type) in parenthesis. These should only be used for birds
that are identifiable as a domestic variety. These domestic varieties
currently don't show up on lists. More info on that category can be found
on this help page:
http://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/1006825-the-ebird-taxonomy?b_id=1928

Michael Schrimpf
Suffolk Cty
eBird reviewer for the high seas and Antarctica


On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 1:16 PM,  wrote:

> The umpteen responses I’ve gotten to the contrary are why I hedged my
> sureness.
>
> Does anyone know the proper protocol for entering escapees on checklists
> (benefitting science) without having them inaccurately show up on lifelists
> (benefitting type-A listers)?
>
> Also, I know some of my Central Park checklists include Budgies, but
> there’s no Budgie on my NYS life list, so I must have done something right.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>

--

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http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
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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:
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--

[nysbirds-l] Atlantic Ocean Recreational Use Survey

[Michael Schrimpf]

Hi everyone,

There is currently a survey on recreational use of ocean habitats being
collected Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Oceans (MARCO
<http://midatlanticocean.org/>). The purpose of the survey is to understand
what types of recreational activities people take part in throughout the
Mid-Atlantic region, and what concerns recreational ocean users may have
about other current and possible uses of ocean and coastal resources.

The link to the survey is here:
https://rutgers.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dhhBNbWnko9rmJv

It should only take 15-20 minutes, but unfortunately the deadline is Sep
5th (sorry for the late notice).

It might be a good idea to make sure that birding (particularly on pelagic
trips) gets represented in the results.

Michael Schrimpf
Setauket

--

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/

--

[nysbirds-l] Atlantic Ocean Recreational Use Survey

[Michael Schrimpf]

Hi everyone,

There is currently a survey on recreational use of ocean habitats being
collected Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Oceans (MARCO
<http://midatlanticocean.org/>). The purpose of the survey is to understand
what types of recreational activities people take part in throughout the
Mid-Atlantic region, and what concerns recreational ocean users may have
about other current and possible uses of ocean and coastal resources.

The link to the survey is here:
https://rutgers.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dhhBNbWnko9rmJv

It should only take 15-20 minutes, but unfortunately the deadline is Sep
5th (sorry for the late notice).

It might be a good idea to make sure that birding (particularly on pelagic
trips) gets represented in the results.

Michael Schrimpf
Setauket

--

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/

--

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Michael Schrimpf]

Interesting...I'm curious how the timing of the NC wreck compared to the
one in NY - was it also within a day or two, and was it close to Jun 18th?

In thinking about this, and in speaking with Joe when he was writing the NY
Times article, I brought up the need for good baseline data. Based on the
scattered reports of wrecks over the years, it seems that Great Shearwaters
washing ashore in noticeable numbers is not that unusual on the East Coast
- but there are several questions we can't answer without more data:

1) Is this a normal amount of mortality for the northward migration?

2) If so, are there reasons why sometimes the birds are closer to the
coast, allowing us to detect the weak individuals as they hit the beaches?

3) If this is higher than normal mortality, do these periodic wrecks
coincide with oceanographic patterns, either locally or remotely?

4) For comparison, what is the rate of beached Great Shearwaters when we
don't see them coming ashore in a large pulse?


The data in the Haman et al. paper I linked to in a previous thread give us
a good starting point, but they only refer to 'wrecks', and only go up to
2011, so any patterns in the last few years are a mystery.

We could start answering these questions if we had a system of regular
beach monitoring up and down the Eastern Seaboard - a program like that
exists in the West (the COASST 
program), which I interacted with closely while I was doing my master's
work at the University of Washington. A similar program used to exist here (
SEANET ), but has since been put on hold due
to lack of funding/interest. I contacted the director, Julie Ellis, who
told me that John Stanton at USFWS (cc'ed) is hoping to continue SEANET. If
there's anyone out there interested in helping with that effort, it would
go a long way towards collecting some of these data.


Cheers,
Michael




On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 3:33 PM, Paul R Sweet  wrote:

> As a post-script to the Great Shearwater story, a colleague from the North
> Carolina Museum informed me that the wreck extended to that state. One
> rehabber there took in 80 birds.
>
>
>
> *From:* bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:
> bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu] *On Behalf Of *Tshrike19
> *Sent:* Monday, July 17, 2017 1:49 PM
> *To:* NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu
> *Subject:* [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and
> Starving - The New York Times
>
>
>
> Hi All,
>
>
>
> As Derek mentioned in a previous post, the coastal low pressure system
> that set up from the night of the 6/17 through the 19th, resulted in a
> strong and persistent onshore wind, as well as strong gusts.  This system
> resulted in strong southeast flow from new England all the way to key west
> (I was there at the time), these conditions can certainly help concentrate
> seabirds inshore where they are typically more scarce.   In addition, as
> also mentioned, there is an abundance of bait offshore.  Many of the
> charter and head boat captains I've chatted with (in NJ though) have
> mentioned the abundance of sand eels offshore, with fluke being caught on
> some of the Montauk boats spitting up sand eels on deck and some of the
> charters going for tuna seeing bait balls of sand eels.It's probable
> that large numbers of Shearwaters were already offshore due to food
> availability with the weather system helping to concentrate them inshore.
> If so much food is available offshore, why does it appear many are starving
> is a question though, and we can only speculate as to what may be causing
> this.   Perhaps some of these birds arrived in the NY Bight in bad shape
> already and didn't have the energy to actively forage (sick from a virus,
> toxin load from algae??).  Was anyone able to age the birds they were
> finding dead, or will the folks who are receiving the dead shearwaters be
> able to provide an age breakdown?  Mortality tends to be high in first of
> year birds, if there was a high percentage of young birds in this unusual
> concentration off long Island it wouldn't be unusual finding a number of
> dead birds (with an onshore wind to bring the dead and dying to shore).   A
> fact of nature is that seabirds sometimes wreck in large numbers, it's been
> happening long before we were around.
>
>
>
> tom brown
>
>
>
> Tshrike19
> tshrik...@aol.com
>
> --
>
> *NYSbirds-L List Info:*
>
> Welcome and Basics
> 
>
> Rules and Information
> 

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Michael Schrimpf]

Interesting...I'm curious how the timing of the NC wreck compared to the
one in NY - was it also within a day or two, and was it close to Jun 18th?

In thinking about this, and in speaking with Joe when he was writing the NY
Times article, I brought up the need for good baseline data. Based on the
scattered reports of wrecks over the years, it seems that Great Shearwaters
washing ashore in noticeable numbers is not that unusual on the East Coast
- but there are several questions we can't answer without more data:

1) Is this a normal amount of mortality for the northward migration?

2) If so, are there reasons why sometimes the birds are closer to the
coast, allowing us to detect the weak individuals as they hit the beaches?

3) If this is higher than normal mortality, do these periodic wrecks
coincide with oceanographic patterns, either locally or remotely?

4) For comparison, what is the rate of beached Great Shearwaters when we
don't see them coming ashore in a large pulse?


The data in the Haman et al. paper I linked to in a previous thread give us
a good starting point, but they only refer to 'wrecks', and only go up to
2011, so any patterns in the last few years are a mystery.

We could start answering these questions if we had a system of regular
beach monitoring up and down the Eastern Seaboard - a program like that
exists in the West (the COASST 
program), which I interacted with closely while I was doing my master's
work at the University of Washington. A similar program used to exist here (
SEANET ), but has since been put on hold due
to lack of funding/interest. I contacted the director, Julie Ellis, who
told me that John Stanton at USFWS (cc'ed) is hoping to continue SEANET. If
there's anyone out there interested in helping with that effort, it would
go a long way towards collecting some of these data.


Cheers,
Michael




On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 3:33 PM, Paul R Sweet  wrote:

> As a post-script to the Great Shearwater story, a colleague from the North
> Carolina Museum informed me that the wreck extended to that state. One
> rehabber there took in 80 birds.
>
>
>
> *From:* bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:
> bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu] *On Behalf Of *Tshrike19
> *Sent:* Monday, July 17, 2017 1:49 PM
> *To:* NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu
> *Subject:* [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and
> Starving - The New York Times
>
>
>
> Hi All,
>
>
>
> As Derek mentioned in a previous post, the coastal low pressure system
> that set up from the night of the 6/17 through the 19th, resulted in a
> strong and persistent onshore wind, as well as strong gusts.  This system
> resulted in strong southeast flow from new England all the way to key west
> (I was there at the time), these conditions can certainly help concentrate
> seabirds inshore where they are typically more scarce.   In addition, as
> also mentioned, there is an abundance of bait offshore.  Many of the
> charter and head boat captains I've chatted with (in NJ though) have
> mentioned the abundance of sand eels offshore, with fluke being caught on
> some of the Montauk boats spitting up sand eels on deck and some of the
> charters going for tuna seeing bait balls of sand eels.It's probable
> that large numbers of Shearwaters were already offshore due to food
> availability with the weather system helping to concentrate them inshore.
> If so much food is available offshore, why does it appear many are starving
> is a question though, and we can only speculate as to what may be causing
> this.   Perhaps some of these birds arrived in the NY Bight in bad shape
> already and didn't have the energy to actively forage (sick from a virus,
> toxin load from algae??).  Was anyone able to age the birds they were
> finding dead, or will the folks who are receiving the dead shearwaters be
> able to provide an age breakdown?  Mortality tends to be high in first of
> year birds, if there was a high percentage of young birds in this unusual
> concentration off long Island it wouldn't be unusual finding a number of
> dead birds (with an onshore wind to bring the dead and dying to shore).   A
> fact of nature is that seabirds sometimes wreck in large numbers, it's been
> happening long before we were around.
>
>
>
> tom brown
>
>
>
> Tshrike19
> tshrik...@aol.com
>
> --
>
> *NYSbirds-L List Info:*
>
> Welcome and Basics
> 
>
> Rules and Information
> 

Re: [nysbirds-l] Death on the Beach

[Michael Schrimpf]

Hi all,

Just to follow up - the link to the paper by Haman et al. is here
<http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.7589/2012-04-119?url_ver=Z39.88-2003_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed;>
(including
the abstract). I think the full text is behind a paywall for most, but send
me an email if you would like a pdf.

The authors have some evidence that on at least one occasion a wreck of
Great Shearwaters may have been caused by poor food conditions in the South
Atlantic, during their molting period prior to migration. These birds make
the crossing of the low-productivity Tropics quite quickly, and travel past
Long Island just before arriving at their "early winter" feeding grounds
off of Massachusetts. It's possible that poor conditions somewhere very
distant would cause them to start the journey without full reserves. We are
only beginning to learn the details of the migration patterns in a lot of
seabirds, and there are still plenty of unanswered questions in the field.

I'm eagerly awaiting the results of the necropsies being performed on the
collected specimens.

Michael Schrimpf
Setauket/
Stony Brook University

On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 5:26 PM, Shaibal Mitra <shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu>
wrote:

> I spent several hours at Democrat Pt today, carefully checking the entire
> wrack line, and found 14 dead Great Shearwaters and a dead Leatherback
> Turtle (the folks in Riverhead have been notified).
>
> http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S37704445
>
> I also just heard through Derek Rogers that dead Great Shearwaters have
> been found on the beach at Montauk.
>
> To me, the simultaneous deaths of these shearwaters, along with the Brown
> Booby and the Leatherback Turtle, seem more than a coincidence and are
> suggestive of something wrong out there in the blue water, probably
> relating to food.
>
> At this point, it seems that the weather pattern described by David
> Nicosia probably played a role in concentrating these animals in our area,
> but would not in itself have caused their distress. Andrew Farnsworth has
> described major sea surface temperature anomalies in the Atlantic; this
> sort of thing could have big impacts on marine food webs, and it is
> possible that the birds encountered food shortages over larger areas and
> longer periods than they could tolerate. Finally, Michael Schrimpf alerted
> us to a paper describing 12 mass mortality events involving Great
> Shearwaters on the US Atlantic Coast (GREAT SHEARWATER (PUFFINUS GRAVIS)
> MORTALITY EVENTS ALONG THE EASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. Journal of
> Wildlife Diseases, 49(2), 2013, pp. 235–245 # Wildlife Disease Association
> 2013. Katherine H. Haman,1,2 Terry M. Norton,2 Robert A. Ronconi,3 Nicole
> M. Nemeth,1 Austen C. Thomas,4 Sarah J. Courchesne,5 Al Segars,6 and M.
> Kevin Keel7,8).
> I haven't read this yet, but a quick scan reveals not only that many GRSH
> involved in strandings were emaciated, but also that in some cases they had
> swallowed plastic.
>
> We await further data on the scale of the wreck, and on the condition of
> the specimens that have been salvaged.
>
> Shai Mitra
> Bay Shore
> --
>
> 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/
>
> --
>
>

--

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/

--

Re: [nysbirds-l] Death on the Beach

[Michael Schrimpf]

Hi all,

Just to follow up - the link to the paper by Haman et al. is here
<http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.7589/2012-04-119?url_ver=Z39.88-2003_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed;>
(including
the abstract). I think the full text is behind a paywall for most, but send
me an email if you would like a pdf.

The authors have some evidence that on at least one occasion a wreck of
Great Shearwaters may have been caused by poor food conditions in the South
Atlantic, during their molting period prior to migration. These birds make
the crossing of the low-productivity Tropics quite quickly, and travel past
Long Island just before arriving at their "early winter" feeding grounds
off of Massachusetts. It's possible that poor conditions somewhere very
distant would cause them to start the journey without full reserves. We are
only beginning to learn the details of the migration patterns in a lot of
seabirds, and there are still plenty of unanswered questions in the field.

I'm eagerly awaiting the results of the necropsies being performed on the
collected specimens.

Michael Schrimpf
Setauket/
Stony Brook University

On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 5:26 PM, Shaibal Mitra 
wrote:

> I spent several hours at Democrat Pt today, carefully checking the entire
> wrack line, and found 14 dead Great Shearwaters and a dead Leatherback
> Turtle (the folks in Riverhead have been notified).
>
> http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S37704445
>
> I also just heard through Derek Rogers that dead Great Shearwaters have
> been found on the beach at Montauk.
>
> To me, the simultaneous deaths of these shearwaters, along with the Brown
> Booby and the Leatherback Turtle, seem more than a coincidence and are
> suggestive of something wrong out there in the blue water, probably
> relating to food.
>
> At this point, it seems that the weather pattern described by David
> Nicosia probably played a role in concentrating these animals in our area,
> but would not in itself have caused their distress. Andrew Farnsworth has
> described major sea surface temperature anomalies in the Atlantic; this
> sort of thing could have big impacts on marine food webs, and it is
> possible that the birds encountered food shortages over larger areas and
> longer periods than they could tolerate. Finally, Michael Schrimpf alerted
> us to a paper describing 12 mass mortality events involving Great
> Shearwaters on the US Atlantic Coast (GREAT SHEARWATER (PUFFINUS GRAVIS)
> MORTALITY EVENTS ALONG THE EASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. Journal of
> Wildlife Diseases, 49(2), 2013, pp. 235–245 # Wildlife Disease Association
> 2013. Katherine H. Haman,1,2 Terry M. Norton,2 Robert A. Ronconi,3 Nicole
> M. Nemeth,1 Austen C. Thomas,4 Sarah J. Courchesne,5 Al Segars,6 and M.
> Kevin Keel7,8).
> I haven't read this yet, but a quick scan reveals not only that many GRSH
> involved in strandings were emaciated, but also that in some cases they had
> swallowed plastic.
>
> We await further data on the scale of the wreck, and on the condition of
> the specimens that have been salvaged.
>
> Shai Mitra
> Bay Shore
> --
>
> 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/
>
> --
>
>

--

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/

--

Re: [nysbirds-l] Red-tailed Hawk subspecies and eBird reporting them

[Michael Schrimpf]

Hi all,

I don't usually post to the list - I'm presently a PhD student at Stony
Brook, and also volunteer as an eBird reviewer.

I certainly agree with Shai that in most cases it is safe to assume that
all individuals observed belong to the common taxa, and when those are
reported in regions where this assumption is safe, eBird reviewers are
expected to accept those records. So, those Yellow-shafted Flickers in
Shai's example would all be validated in a NY checklist, even if an
observer may not have studied all 27 of those flickers carefully - that
would not be the case in western Kansas (where reporting flickers to
subspecies does require careful examination).

Speaking for myself (not with any authority from eBird Central) I
respectfully disagree with Shai's claim that it would be "incorrect" to
report those individuals that were seen clearly to subspecies, while
reporting the others to species.

Any analysis of the distribution of one of these taxa will need to make
filtering decisions about how to treat those individuals not recorded to
subspecies, and in this case would treat any 'Northern Flickers' as
Yellow-shafted Flickers, so the total numbers would not wind up being
misleading at all. I suppose that if you are scanning some of the output on
the eBird website, and looking through numbers of Yellow-shafted Flickers
alone (without the context of the rest of the checklist), it could be
misleading, but I see that more as a limitation to the data exploration
tools. Data recorded in different categories can always be lumped, but not
always split, so in my opinion recording finer scale information (like
which individuals you were able to ID to a more specific taxa) should not
be considered 'incorrect'. That is actually one reason why I make more
liberal use of the "spuh" and "slash" categories in eBird than many other
users.

While these are my views on the topic, I would welcome input from the eBird
team leaders (who have had many similar discussions internally and on the
eBird reviewer listserv). I've cc'ed Marshall Iliff here, and will put the
question to the reviewer listserv as well.

Cheers,
Michael Schrimpf
Suffolk County

On Tue, Feb 28, 2017 at 9:39 AM, Shaibal Mitra <shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu>
wrote:

> Hi Rich and all,
>
> This is a very interesting piece and definitely a helpful way to begin a
> broader conversation on this topic within the bird records community.
>
> As explained in this article, the question of how to report species and
> their subspecies is quite complex. I've thought about this a lot and have
> derived a set of guidelines that can be applied to the problem in a more
> general way, including the related challenge of reporting other sets of
> nested taxa, such as spuhs and their constituent species.
>
> Having read the article on Red-tailed Hawk taxa in Vermont, there are some
> issues that I think deserve extra emphasis.
>
> At the level of species and their subspecies, in most situations there is
> exactly one identifiable subspecies that is overwhelmingly more frequent
> and abundant than any other subspecies at any given site and any given
> date. There are actually surprisingly few situations in which the second
> most likely subspecies of a given species occurs frequently enough that it
> poses any challenge to the simple equation that a report of the species
> equals a report of the default subspecies in that situation.
>
> For a large number of species, only one subspecies has ever been recorded
> in a given area. For instance, all Northern Flickers ever studied
> critically in New York State have been Yellow-shafted, without even one
> exception in all of time. It would be flatly incorrect and misleading to
> include on a Vermont eBird checklist something like:
>
> 23 Northern Flicker--migrating
> 4 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)--studied carefully
>
> Such an approach would mis-represent the number of Yellow-shafted Flickers
> observed, and the appropriate approach is to report 27 flickers as one line
> item, and it doesn't really matter which category one uses because they are
> effectively identical in Vermont in the 21st Century.
>
> At the next level of complexity, there are many cases in which one
> subspecies occurs regularly whereas others occur as rare vagrants. Thus, it
> can be presumed that all Brant observed on Long Island are hrota unless
> explicitly suspected as something else. It is simply an error to record
> something like this on a checklist from Jamaica Bay:
>
> 1 Brant (Black)--photos
> 300 Brant (Atlantic)--studied carefully
> 2,000 Brant--estimated
>
> Again, this grossly mis-represents the number of Atlantic Brant observed.
> The 2,000 neglected Brant can be assumed to be hrota because the greatest
> conceivable number of vagrant orientalis, ber

Re: [nysbirds-l] Red-tailed Hawk subspecies and eBird reporting them

[Michael Schrimpf]

Hi all,

I don't usually post to the list - I'm presently a PhD student at Stony
Brook, and also volunteer as an eBird reviewer.

I certainly agree with Shai that in most cases it is safe to assume that
all individuals observed belong to the common taxa, and when those are
reported in regions where this assumption is safe, eBird reviewers are
expected to accept those records. So, those Yellow-shafted Flickers in
Shai's example would all be validated in a NY checklist, even if an
observer may not have studied all 27 of those flickers carefully - that
would not be the case in western Kansas (where reporting flickers to
subspecies does require careful examination).

Speaking for myself (not with any authority from eBird Central) I
respectfully disagree with Shai's claim that it would be "incorrect" to
report those individuals that were seen clearly to subspecies, while
reporting the others to species.

Any analysis of the distribution of one of these taxa will need to make
filtering decisions about how to treat those individuals not recorded to
subspecies, and in this case would treat any 'Northern Flickers' as
Yellow-shafted Flickers, so the total numbers would not wind up being
misleading at all. I suppose that if you are scanning some of the output on
the eBird website, and looking through numbers of Yellow-shafted Flickers
alone (without the context of the rest of the checklist), it could be
misleading, but I see that more as a limitation to the data exploration
tools. Data recorded in different categories can always be lumped, but not
always split, so in my opinion recording finer scale information (like
which individuals you were able to ID to a more specific taxa) should not
be considered 'incorrect'. That is actually one reason why I make more
liberal use of the "spuh" and "slash" categories in eBird than many other
users.

While these are my views on the topic, I would welcome input from the eBird
team leaders (who have had many similar discussions internally and on the
eBird reviewer listserv). I've cc'ed Marshall Iliff here, and will put the
question to the reviewer listserv as well.

Cheers,
Michael Schrimpf
Suffolk County

On Tue, Feb 28, 2017 at 9:39 AM, Shaibal Mitra 
wrote:

> Hi Rich and all,
>
> This is a very interesting piece and definitely a helpful way to begin a
> broader conversation on this topic within the bird records community.
>
> As explained in this article, the question of how to report species and
> their subspecies is quite complex. I've thought about this a lot and have
> derived a set of guidelines that can be applied to the problem in a more
> general way, including the related challenge of reporting other sets of
> nested taxa, such as spuhs and their constituent species.
>
> Having read the article on Red-tailed Hawk taxa in Vermont, there are some
> issues that I think deserve extra emphasis.
>
> At the level of species and their subspecies, in most situations there is
> exactly one identifiable subspecies that is overwhelmingly more frequent
> and abundant than any other subspecies at any given site and any given
> date. There are actually surprisingly few situations in which the second
> most likely subspecies of a given species occurs frequently enough that it
> poses any challenge to the simple equation that a report of the species
> equals a report of the default subspecies in that situation.
>
> For a large number of species, only one subspecies has ever been recorded
> in a given area. For instance, all Northern Flickers ever studied
> critically in New York State have been Yellow-shafted, without even one
> exception in all of time. It would be flatly incorrect and misleading to
> include on a Vermont eBird checklist something like:
>
> 23 Northern Flicker--migrating
> 4 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)--studied carefully
>
> Such an approach would mis-represent the number of Yellow-shafted Flickers
> observed, and the appropriate approach is to report 27 flickers as one line
> item, and it doesn't really matter which category one uses because they are
> effectively identical in Vermont in the 21st Century.
>
> At the next level of complexity, there are many cases in which one
> subspecies occurs regularly whereas others occur as rare vagrants. Thus, it
> can be presumed that all Brant observed on Long Island are hrota unless
> explicitly suspected as something else. It is simply an error to record
> something like this on a checklist from Jamaica Bay:
>
> 1 Brant (Black)--photos
> 300 Brant (Atlantic)--studied carefully
> 2,000 Brant--estimated
>
> Again, this grossly mis-represents the number of Atlantic Brant observed.
> The 2,000 neglected Brant can be assumed to be hrota because the greatest
> conceivable number of vagrant orientalis, bernicla, etc. that could be
> present 

[nysbirds-l] Any updates on EPCAL access?

[Michael Schrimpf]

Has anyone heard anything recently from the Town of Riverhead about access
to the abandoned runway at EPCAL?

I regularly see drag-races on the runway, while I have been good about not
going past the end. Birders apparently continue to be stopped when they
wander out onto the runway - my friend and I were only a hundred meters or
so past the end when we were approached by an officer this morning.

We were courteous to the officer, obeyed his instructions to leave, and
didn't ask any questions, though his tone was rather condescending from the
very start. He also threatened us with jail-time for trespassing, just as
has happened to others in the past. Based on how briefly we were out there
before he showed up, we think there must be some sort of automatic
monitoring system that alerts authorities, so they must see everyone that
uses it for anything.

I would really like to see some documentation from the Town about is and is
not allowed. If there is a double-standard when it comes to looking the
other way on the part of law enforcement, I feel that is something that
must be addressed.

If, on the other hand, there is a legitimate process for getting permits to
do some things (like flying model planes and drag-racing), I would like to
have the ability to apply for access to go birding. At the very least, I
feel that the "no trespassing" signs should look a bit more modern than big
concrete blocks that look like they've been there since Northrup-Grumman
operated the place. It should also be made clear whether birders can cross
the southwest end of that runway to access the paths that go up towards
Veterans Memorial Park (at the moment, you need to walk past the barriers
to get there - and I have never before been stopped for doing that).

I will probably send a letter to the Town, much like Luke Ormand did a
while back, but I am wondering what others in the community have heard
before I take any action. I worry that without more regular "feedback" from
birders, our concerns about use of the area might be easy to ignore.

Michael Schrimpf
Suffolk County

--

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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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--

[nysbirds-l] Any updates on EPCAL access?

[Michael Schrimpf]

Has anyone heard anything recently from the Town of Riverhead about access
to the abandoned runway at EPCAL?

I regularly see drag-races on the runway, while I have been good about not
going past the end. Birders apparently continue to be stopped when they
wander out onto the runway - my friend and I were only a hundred meters or
so past the end when we were approached by an officer this morning.

We were courteous to the officer, obeyed his instructions to leave, and
didn't ask any questions, though his tone was rather condescending from the
very start. He also threatened us with jail-time for trespassing, just as
has happened to others in the past. Based on how briefly we were out there
before he showed up, we think there must be some sort of automatic
monitoring system that alerts authorities, so they must see everyone that
uses it for anything.

I would really like to see some documentation from the Town about is and is
not allowed. If there is a double-standard when it comes to looking the
other way on the part of law enforcement, I feel that is something that
must be addressed.

If, on the other hand, there is a legitimate process for getting permits to
do some things (like flying model planes and drag-racing), I would like to
have the ability to apply for access to go birding. At the very least, I
feel that the "no trespassing" signs should look a bit more modern than big
concrete blocks that look like they've been there since Northrup-Grumman
operated the place. It should also be made clear whether birders can cross
the southwest end of that runway to access the paths that go up towards
Veterans Memorial Park (at the moment, you need to walk past the barriers
to get there - and I have never before been stopped for doing that).

I will probably send a letter to the Town, much like Luke Ormand did a
while back, but I am wondering what others in the community have heard
before I take any action. I worry that without more regular "feedback" from
birders, our concerns about use of the area might be easy to ignore.

Michael Schrimpf
Suffolk County

--

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http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME
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ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--

[nysbirds-l] EPCAL Rough-legged Hawks and dead loon

[Michael Schrimpf]

Emily Runnells and I made a quick stop at EPCAL (Suffolk County) this
afternoon to watch the Rough-legged Hawks (saw 4 in total, 3 light and one
dark). Just before we left, we walked over to a dead bird upside-down in
the snow, right at the start of the west runway (perhaps 30-40 meters from
the road). Thinking we would find a goose, imagine our surprise when it
turned out to be a Common Loon. Here's a link to a picture:
https://flic.kr/p/r8atsJ

Has anyone else seen this bird sitting there? The carcass was in pristine
condition (though quite frozen). We're curious about how long it may have
been there - we suspect that scavengers would not take long to discover a
meal like that, even if it's pretty icy. We also speculated about the
circumstances that led the bird to end up in grassland habitat so far from
the shore...

Michael Schrimpf
Sound Beach

--

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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] EPCAL Rough-legged Hawks and dead loon

[Michael Schrimpf]

Emily Runnells and I made a quick stop at EPCAL (Suffolk County) this
afternoon to watch the Rough-legged Hawks (saw 4 in total, 3 light and one
dark). Just before we left, we walked over to a dead bird upside-down in
the snow, right at the start of the west runway (perhaps 30-40 meters from
the road). Thinking we would find a goose, imagine our surprise when it
turned out to be a Common Loon. Here's a link to a picture:
https://flic.kr/p/r8atsJ

Has anyone else seen this bird sitting there? The carcass was in pristine
condition (though quite frozen). We're curious about how long it may have
been there - we suspect that scavengers would not take long to discover a
meal like that, even if it's pretty icy. We also speculated about the
circumstances that led the bird to end up in grassland habitat so far from
the shore...

Michael Schrimpf
Sound Beach

--

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] EPCAL Common Ravens

[Michael Schrimpf]

My girlfriend, Emily, and I had a group of 5 Common Ravens at Calverton
Executive Airpark this morning, while we were about half-way down the
runway.

All 5 seemed to be travelling together (perhaps a pair and some recently
fledged young?). We first noticed 2 in the trees, and 3 on the runway.
While our initial instinct had us calling them crows, we were struck by how
large they looked. Closer looks through the scope revealed much heavier
bills and wedge shaped tails (on at least some - one of them appeared to be
missing most of its rectrices). Unfortunately they flew away over the
treeline north of the runway before we could get close enough for pictures,
but as they flew they began calling, and were very clearly ravens -
relatively high-pitched, drawn-out croaks. We briefly heard them calling
again later as we were walking the trail from the west end of the runway
north to the ball-fields.

eBird checklist here:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18853137

Michael Schrimpf
Sound Beach

--

NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME
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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] EPCAL Common Ravens

[Michael Schrimpf]

My girlfriend, Emily, and I had a group of 5 Common Ravens at Calverton
Executive Airpark this morning, while we were about half-way down the
runway.

All 5 seemed to be travelling together (perhaps a pair and some recently
fledged young?). We first noticed 2 in the trees, and 3 on the runway.
While our initial instinct had us calling them crows, we were struck by how
large they looked. Closer looks through the scope revealed much heavier
bills and wedge shaped tails (on at least some - one of them appeared to be
missing most of its rectrices). Unfortunately they flew away over the
treeline north of the runway before we could get close enough for pictures,
but as they flew they began calling, and were very clearly ravens -
relatively high-pitched, drawn-out croaks. We briefly heard them calling
again later as we were walking the trail from the west end of the runway
north to the ball-fields.

eBird checklist here:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18853137

Michael Schrimpf
Sound Beach

--

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/

--