Wednesday morning, while again getting a late start, the "lure of the west" prevailed, although unlike Tuesday AM, I decided to start this day at Hempstead Lake State Park. Within a few minutes of my arrival, Ed B.(not sure of the spelling) showed up, and we proceeded to bird together. Ed had visited H.L.S.P very recently, knew where the birds had been, and therefore, as they say in the navy, "took the Conn". He, of course, knew that the stream was dry, but I was blown away - never saw it this bad ! We started at the north end, following the stream south until, as Ed hoped, we ran into a batch of warblers hawking insects among the exposed aquatic vegetation. We had 3, possibly 4 Palm Warblers, a 1st year female Parula, plus both a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a Swainson's Thrush, seen by Ed, but not by me. We were probably about 75' from where the widest part of the stream makes a right hand turn, and gets much narrower as it heads to the south, when I failed the "judgement/greed test" ! Ed, who only had low shoes on, let me know he was turning back because of the mud, and was going to walk around to continue following the stream. To his credit, he had warned me, by way of a story re: a birding friend of his, but it fell on deaf ears ! I,on the other hand, had my 16" Muck Boots on..."so damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead" ! There came a time when I realized the mud was a bit much, and after my last step forward, I tried lifting the other leg to start turning back, but it was in too deep to raise, before losing my balance, which caused me to come crashing down - on all fours, with the one foot out of its boot, but still in a black sock, which had been white just a few seconds before ! After regaining ownership of my boot, and trudging out to dry land, I hobbled up to my car, and started the cleansing process !
Putting H.L.S.P. behind me, I went down to Jones Beach State Park, starting at the Coast Guard Station. A rough count of A. Oystercatcher (by 5 & 10's) was ~ 300. One of these birds had a single red band above both knees. Please pass on any information you may have on this banding procedure. Did not find the previously reported Caspian Terns, but did see at least 12-15 Foster Terns. Also seen were 4 Western Willets ! All of the birds seen at the C.G.S.were also viewed by Bobby Kurtz, who stopped in, after the R.M.H.W. The J.B. Water-Tower held 2 adult Peregrines, both resting on same perch, on the north side (in shade, at time of observation). Also, had a juvenile Peregrine on the R.M.Parkway. Cheers, Bob -- 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/ --
