A very brief run through the North Woods, the Loch, the western edge of the Meer and Duck Island in Central Park matched well with other reports from today. So though birds continue to be scarce in numbers and variety; a very few managed to slip in anyway.
A Red-eyed Vireo was feeding over the path in the Loch at 8 this morning, which was a FOS bird for me and a nice surprise at this point. The White-eyed Vireo, which could reliably be heard singing from that location for the past three days was no where to be found. Also in the Loch was a singing Blue-winged Warbler, one singing Nashville Warbler and one Black-and- white Warbler. A question: Yesterday I birded the Loch with James Knox, which turned up nothing worth mentioning that hasn't already. Except that we both clearly heard a sound that startled and confounded us both. A fairly loud mono-sybalic scolding type call emanating from the canopy. It must have been perched at the very tip as neither could find it in the 3min. It remained and called about 4 times. He astutely suggested a Purple Martin. I was thinking along similar line though not that specific bird. So, not being familiar with Martin calls, we looked it up and it was remarkably close, almost exact, though this one was louder and grittier. I should say that I'm no ear-birding master, but am very familiar with the sounds of the North End of C.P., and this was a mystery. We also checked the Meer and scanned the adjacent tree tops for any confirmation with out success. Also, It was definitely not either of the two swallow species known to be present that day. So, does anyone know of another species, and not forcibly another swallow, that could make such a sound, if not a Purple Martin? I ask this out of pure interest and have little hope of ever knowing for sure. It was just such a distinctly foreign sound that I thought there might be a more obvious answer or rather, a distinctly less obvious one. Good luck, Nadir Souirgi -- 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/ --
