I am enjoying the slower pace since our breeding birds are here for a while now. This allows me to get back to my LOOB which I do have! But when I have time I like to enjoy our breeding birds and here in upstate NY in the hills we have many beautiful warblers that nest. This year I looking at warblers that use conifers habitats especially with the hemlock wooley adelgid moving into the southern tier and the needle cast fungal diseases that are plaguing our conifers. This two species most common in mixed conifer/deciduous woods and fully confiferous woods here in Broome are blackburnian and black throated green warblers.
First of all, fortunately, the hemlock wooley adelgid has not done any noticeable damage but has been detected in Broome. On the other hand, many of our white pine forests are being decimated by a needle cast fungal disease. Whole forests are littered with dead pine needles. This new growth survives but the rest of the needles fall off. From what I have read, the needlecast only kills the weaker trees and some pines can be defoliated for up to 10 years and not die. So I am not certain if these trees will succumb or survive. It looks pretty bad right now in some forests. Fortunately the CCC Norway Spruce plantations which are pretty much mature have limited problems at least in Broome. My observations clearly show that Blackburnian warblers favor the spruce plantations even though they are not native. Black Throated Green Warblers favor mixed hemlock, northern hardwood forests composed of maple, beech, birch and northern red oak. But there are weird exceptions where blackburnians dominate some mixed hemlock woods here and there. I also notice that blackburnian warblers are more likely to be in mixed woods composed of white pine vs black throated greens which again are mostly with hemlocks. Black Throated Greens really seem to avoid the norway spruce plantations. This seems counter to what I have read which states that blackburnian warblers favor hemlocks the most. I don't see that around here at least. They like the spruce plantations far more and to a lesser extent white pine. I On Wed, Jun 26, 2019 at 6:08 PM pmaxp <pm...@well.com> wrote: > Folks: > > Down my way (Gainesville, FL) during the doldrums of June (intense heat > and humidity), we have the June Challenge. A friendly county-only > competition to observe the most species. Everyone shares their finds. It is > both fun and interesting and it gets all who participate out in the field > visiting our regular hot spots and less frequently visited locations. I > believe June Challenges occur in counties all over the US, perhaps overseas > as well. > > If anyone is interested for the future, I can send along the official > rules as used in Florida. > > cheers, > > Peter > (temporarily in Orient, NY) > > On Jun 26, 2019, at 4:56 PM, Naomi Lloyd <naomi_kest...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > This is my time of year for birdwatching rather than birding. > > Naomi Lloyd > > > On June 26, 2019, at 3:10 PM, Andrew Baksh <birdingd...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > There is something quite serene and enjoyable during those slow periods in > getting to know your common birds. Robins are still cool birds for me; > especially those spotted ones ;-) > > The reality is, we live in the age of instant gratification. We want our > birds now! Fast and lined up for us. > > -------- > "I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the > ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own > abhorrence." ~ Frederick Douglass > > 風 Swift as the wind > 林 Quiet as the forest > 火 Conquer like the fire > 山 Steady as the mountain > Sun Tzu <http://refspace.com/quotes/Sun_Tzu> *The Art of War* > <http://refspace.com/quotes/The_Art_of_War> > > (\__/) > (= '.'=) > > (") _ (") > > Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device! > > > Andrew Baksh > www.birdingdude.blogspot.com > > On Jun 26, 2019, at 2:26 PM, ArieGilbert <ariegilb...@optonline.net> > wrote: > > Re doldrums: one cannot appreciate a great day of birding without bad > days. Yin/Yang > > Also its important to have LOOB > > ( life outside of birding ) > > Arie Gilbert > No. Babylon NY > www.PowerBirder.Blogspot.com > www.QCBirdClub.org > > Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device > > -------- Original message -------- > From: Shaibal Mitra <shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu> > Date: 6/26/19 11:11 AM (GMT-05:00) > To: "NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu)" <NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu> > Subject: [nysbirds-l] Purposeful Birdwatching > > Judging from many, many recent conversations with fellow birders, it seems > that people are having a tough time of it during these June doldrums. From > independent sources over the past week, I've heard: "crushing > disappointment;" "why is it so bad?;" "is it going to get better?" > "something could show up, right?;" "didn't birding used to be good?;" "this > place used to be good, I think" and more. And this has mostly been in the > context of ordinary, local birding, not directly related to the more > ominous big-picture concerns expressed by Chris recently. > > My usual response, admittedly slightly sadistic, is that birding > excitement has always been relative. We modern observers can't begin to > imagine how bad it was before the legal protection of birds was implemented > a century ago, and yet the observers of that time still found birdwatching > exciting--and were motivated enough to achieve protective legislation in > the face of forces as ruthless and malevolent as those confronting us now. > Imagine the excitement experienced by Harry Hathaway, the father of Rhode > Island ornithology, when in 1894 he saw his first Great Blue Heron, after > ten years of field work! It was Hathaway's ongoing work that eventually > revealed that a unique, seemingly outlying, 19th Century winter record of > White-throated Sparrow in RI was not an accident. He documented two more > winter records and lived long enough to see RI's plundered and deforested > landscape recover sufficiently to harbor the lisping flocks of > White-throats we now take for granted on the CBCs. > > On Long Island, Ludlow Griscom scolded over-exuberant birders who tossed > off sight records of Ring-billed Gulls in winter and summer, citing a > countable number of such specimens as the gold standard of documentation > for that species in that context. Chafing at this discipline, Cruickshank > and Peterson figured out how to find and identify Ring-billed Gulls better > then their predecessors--proving again the eternal pleasure of purposeful > birdwatching. > > Yesterday I saw my first adult Ring-billed Gulls of the season at Robert > Moses SP, Suffolk County. I'm not sure of the date for my last spring > adult, but I did manage to record that none were present by 17 April: > > https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55097294 > > And I am able to pull up the date of the late-June return of adults in at > least one other year: > > https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S17210602 > > [note to eBird: please enable sorting of checklists by Julian date!] > > A little sleuthing subsequently revealed that two of my colleagues beat me > to it this year, documenting an adult Ring-bill at Cupsogue two days before > my exciting find (though it required some follow-up work to obtain their > photos and a definitive age): > > https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S57623401 > > Hypothesis: Ring-billed Gulls whose breeding efforts fail after early June > abandon the colonies and disperse, some reaching the coast. > > 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/ > > -- > > -- > *NYSbirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm> > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive > <http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> > ABA <http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01> > *Please submit your observations to **eBird* > <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>*!* > -- > > -- > *NYSbirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm> > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive > <http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> > ABA <http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01> > *Please submit your observations to **eBird* > <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>*!* > -- > -- > *NYSbirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm> > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive > <http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> > ABA <http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01> > *Please submit your observations to **eBird* > <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>*!* > -- > > -- > *NYSbirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm> > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive > <http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> > ABA <http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01> > *Please submit your observations to **eBird* > <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>*!* > -- > -- 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/ --
