Today, Earth Day was celebrated at the Quogue Wildlife Refuge, where the
weather encouraged participants to wear short-sleeved shirts, or even just
T-shirts ! The Eastern L.I.Audubon Society was one of the sponsoring
organizations (under the leadership of the QWR) and had the fun task of
leading the scheduled bird trips at both 11:30 AM & 1:30 PM. The first walk
(lead by Eileen Schwinn & myself) had just about equal numbers of kids &
adults...totaling ~ 8 participants, in all. They all appreciated what they
saw and learned, including nice looks at a House Wren, Purple Martins, Tree
Swallows, Downy Woodpecker and especially the 2, Great-horned Owl
nestlings, living in an old Osprey platform nest ! The 1:30 group was
smaller in size, consisting of only a Father & Son team and your's truly !
Group 2 managed to see all of the birds group 1 saw, plus an additional
sighting of a Pine Warbler. While on this walk, Simon (who is all of 9
years old) correctly called out Purple Martin, Tree Swallow, most of the
common species, and even found a Box Turtle, in addition to an
unidentified, small, brown Butterfly - I got a photo, so maybe we'll be
able to come up with a name ! Sure sounds like Simon and NYSYBC are in
each-others
Following the Earth Day celebration, I went down to Dune Rd. {Post La.
Bridge, Quogue to the Ponquogue Bridge, Hampton Bays, and saw some evidence
of migration, namely, 1 highly-colored Black-bellied Plover,a flock of 8
Semipalmated Plovers feeding , and an American Bittern. This bird was
actively feeding on the n/s marsh, opposite house # 28, ~ 1/4 mile w/o
Tiana Beach.
Cheers,
Bob
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