Hi All, I have a tradition of birding Van Cortlandt every Thanksgiving, especially since the Parade Grounds are usually devoid of athletic activity that day. In the past I’ve encountered some cool stuff - Vesper Sparrow, Lapland Longspurs, American Pipits, Snow Bunting, even a Greater White-fronted Goose among the hundreds of Canada Geese. This year I made it the day after Thanksgiving and came upon 13 Horned Larks (along with 4 cowbirds among a flock of Mourning Doves).
The problem is eBird didn’t like my high account above 8 - despite it not being uncommon for them to congregate in flocks of that size and larger and having spent a good amount of time counting them over and over again as they continually jockeyed ahead of each other on the lawn. What’s more, eBird wouldn’t count my observation as first-sighted of the month, nor last sighted, and since they’re not considered rare - it wouldn’t even make the rare bird alert as unconfirmed. They’ve probably moved on, but I wanted to report them for what it’s worth, since they’re not that commonly sighted inland. Happy Holidays birding, Alan Drogin -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") NYSbirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/nysbirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) birding_DOT_aba_DOT_org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
