In nearly 4 hours of birding at Jones Beach West End, Andrew Baksh and I tallied a total of 74 species, with a few nice highlights. The day began (7:00 AM) at the sandbar, seen well from around the Gazebo area where there were expected numbers of various shorebirds, including a few Semipalmated Sandpipers (a bit early), 32 Red Knot (1 bird may have had a monitoring device attached to its right leg), and a surprisingly early and very large number of Black Skimmers (225). This is the earliest date I have on record for Black Skimmer in our area. A pair of Common Tern were FOS, while a steady stream of Eastern Kingbirds were mostly moving east throughout, seen and heard especially around the median totaling 25-30 birds was interesting. A bit of an oddball was a late Golden-crowned Kinglet, seen at the inner turnaround (barely vocalizing, appearing rather dull, was probably a first year bird). Others from this spot (as the fog component kicked in) were a male Wilson's Warbler, at least 3 White-crowned Sparrows (some singing) and the top 2 prizes, a female Summer Tanager found and photographed by Andrew and a nice Yellow-breasted Chat, which began vocalizing nicely for prolonged periods about an hour after I found it. Both of us had nice looks at each, and they could remain for tomorrow with plenty of butterflies around to keep their crops filled. Bobby Berlingeri Elmont, N.Y. --
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/ --
