I took advantage of this gorgeous day and went over to Sunken Meadow State Park(Suffolk County) this morning. I birded from 8:00am-12:00pm on the Inner Marsh trail, down near the Golf Course, to the backwaters of Sunken Meadow Creek. The best bird seen was a very early White-eyed Vireo in the expansive thickets about three quarters of a mile down the trail. He was actively foraging in and out of the thickets. Waterfowl were quite plentiful today with 15 species recorded, the best being a drake Canvasback, 2 Lesser Scaup, 7 Northern Shovelers, 27 Green-winged Teal, 12 Wood ducks, 9 Hooded Mergansers, and 11 Common Mergansers(still lingering). The full bird list from today is below.
Great Blue Heron- 8 Great Egret- 1 Mute Swan Canada Goose Wood duck- 12 Green-winged Teal- 27 American Black ducks Mallards Northern Shoveler-7 Gadwall American Wigeon- 2 Canvasback- single drake on Sunken Meadow Creek Lesser Scaup- 2 Ring-necked Duck- 20 Bufflehead- 8 Hooded Merganser- 9 Common Merganser- 11 Osprey- 6 Sharp-shinned Hawk- 1 Red-tailed Hawk- 1 Killdeer-1 American Coot- 2 Great-horned Owl- 1 Belted Kingfisher 5 species of Woodpecker including a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Eastern Phoebe- 3 Tree Swallows- 24+ Fish Crows White-eyed Vireo- 1 very early bird Yellow-rumped warblers Golden-crowned Kinglets Gray Catbird- 1 Eastern Towhee- 3 Song, White-throated, and Swamp sparrows Vinny Pellegrino www.flickr.com/pellegrinov East Northport, NY "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined." -Henry David Thoreau -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --