In anticipation of a gooding morning flight, Sue and I ventured to Robert Moses State Park (RMSP) this morning, only to discover that Field 2 will be closed the next four day due to construction work at the golf course. Not to be denied, we parked at the Administration Building parking lot at Field 3 and got permission to park there, then commenced our walk westward down to Field 2. As we began our birding it was clear that there was a good movement of warblers. However, very few actually stopped their rapid westward movement down the beach. We observed Yellowthroats, Redstarts, and Northern Waterthrushes, but we had been seeing these species at RMSP (in much smaller numbers) for the past week. At the entrance to Field 3, we intercepted a small (six birds) flight of Purple Finch, pausing to watch one as it sang on a bare pine branch. At the volleyball courts, we found our first fall Clay-colored Sparrow.
Just east of the entrance to Field 2 we finally located a few additional warbler species, including Parula, Magnolia, Prairie, Pine, and Wilson's. The birds were very skittish, owing to the good hawk flight consisting of Merlins, Kestrels, and Ospreys. Most of the activity ended a little after 9:00AM. The most impressive flight of the day, however, was Red-breasted Nuthatch; We observed one hundred and five individuals in our three plus hours at RMSP. Good Birding, Ken Feustel -- 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/ --
