Patricia Lindsay, Holly Wilson, and I participated in this year's exploratory trial of a rare bird roundup on eastern Long Island.
We didn't find anything really rare, but we found a good variety of CBC-quality species in our Southampton territory: In the coastal scrub adjacent to the Mecox Bay inlet: 1 Marsh Wren 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 Orange-crowned Warbler 1 Western Palm Warbler 1 Pine Warbler 2 Yellow-breasted Chats At Agawam Pond: 1 Richardson's Goose Elsewhere we had a Yellow-bellied Sapasucker and 3 Gray Catbirds (our only ones all day!) near the Mecox Dairy, 4 male Eastern Towhees (our only ones all day!) along Noyac Path, and robust numbers of Northern Shovelers (6 at Shorts Pond & 47 at Old Towne Pond). Some photos can be seen at: https://picasaweb.google.com/109808209543611018404/LIRoundup2011 This interesting exercise was inspired by Doug Gochfeld, and for Patricia and me also recalled the 16 year-old tradition of intensive CBC-style counts during mid-November on nearby Block Island. It's a reminder that rare birds are actually rare, and that common birds (like catbirds and towhees) do some interesting things between November and December. I expect party totals for catbird and towhee on the Sagaponack CBC will greatly exceed our tallies yesterday! Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ Change is in the Air - Smoking in Designated Areas Only in effect.<http://www.csi.cuny.edu/tobaccofree> Tobacco-Free Campus as of July 1, 2012. -- 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/ --
