The Lark Bunting found by Brent Bomkamp this morning at the Robert Moses SP volleyball courts was still present when Patricia Lindsay and I visited from 07:45 to 08:45.
When we arrived, the bird had moved out of sight. According to Brent, it had been associating loosely with several Song Sparrows, feeding in the sparsely vegetated sandy area near the barbecue grills and retreating periodically to the first row of shrubs to the west. Shortly before we arrived, it had flown southward over the dune at the southwest corner of the open area. In my experience, when seed-eating birds retreat to the swales beyond this dune, they are difficult to pursue without disturbing them (and without exposing the observer to swarms of Amblyomma larvae, aka Long Island chiggers). On the other hand, such birds frequently return eventually to what they were originally doing. Because we had only a short time to look, we gambled on scanning from the top of the small dune. We were fortunate to find the bird, still associating with several Song Sparrows, and we concluded that the bird was comfortable in the area and likely to return to its original routine. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39436187 Congratulations, Brent, on a great find! Shai Mitra Bay Shore -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
