[nysbirds-l] Gyrfalcon at Cedar Beach Marina (Suffolk County)
Yesterday Sue and I observed a large gray falcon briefly sitting on an Osprey platform in the salt marsh north of the Cedar Beach Marina (CBM). Before we could even get out of the car to look at the bird it dropped off the platform and flew low over marsh before abruptly pouncing on something hidden in the marsh grass. We stayed an additional hour in anticipation of the bird showing itself - which it never did. The light gray back, large bulky body, broad, pointed wings and manner of flight all suggested a Gyrfalcon, but the observation was too brief to be sure. We entered the sighting in E-bird as ”large falcon sp.”. Today a brief stop at CBM in the morning yielded only a Peregrine Falcon on the Osprey Platform. However, we had alerted another birder of the possibility that a Gyr was present, and in the early afternoon we received a phone call that the Gyrfalcon was being observed north of the marina, perched in a lone Cedar tree out on the marsh. Upon arriving, the bird was sitting in the Cedar, interestingly the same tree used by the last Gyfalcon seen in this location a few years ago. The bird, seen from a distance with a spotting scope, was heavy-bodied, resembling a Red-tailed Hawk. The light gray back with light feather edgings was observed, as well as the weak, narrow mustache stripe. During our observation of well over an hour, we observed the bird tussle with a Peregrine Falcon, chase a Black Duck (he missed) and grab two unidentified prey items, always flying back to the lone Cedar tree after presumably devouring its prey. The bird was too far away for my meager telephoto, but usable photos were obtained and will be posted to e-bird in the near future by another birder. Our observation of the birds behavior gave us no reason to believe this bird was an escapee from a falconer. A word about access. Cedar Beach Marina is usually open during the week when maintenance people need to get in. The facility is open on the weekend if there is some special event being held there, which does not happen frequently at this time of year. If the facility is closed my recommendation is to park at Cedar Overlook on the south side of the Ocean Parkway, (opens anywhere from 9 to 10AM on weekends) walk west past the 9/11 Memorial on your left then out the entrance of Cedar Beach to the parkway. Cross the parkway carefully and walk in the main entrance to the marina. You could also park outside the entrance to the marina and take your chances with the gendarmes. Good Birding, Ken & Sue Feustel -- 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/ --
Re: [nysbirds-l] More Gulls - Weather Maps
Shai and others: Go to this link to start at 27 October 2010: http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/dailywxmap/index_20101027.html Click “Next Day” or “Previous Day” at top right or left to change the map accordingly. Go to this link to start at 13 November 2015: http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/dailywxmap/index_20151113.html Browse backward and forward from that date using the above described method at that page. These maps, other similar maps, and more historical weather maps are all available from this link: http://www.lib.noaa.gov/collections/imgdocmaps/daily_weather_maps.html Sincerely, Chris T-H On Dec 9, 2015, at 1:19 PM, Shaibal Mitra mailto:shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu>> wrote: Very belatedly, I would like to offer some thoughts about the astonishing Franklin's Gull flight of 13 November 2015, partly inspired by Bobby's intriguing post. Now several weeks after the flight, summaries and interpretations have been prepared and digested: http://birdcast.info/forecast/migration-story-mid-latitude-cyclones-plains-temperature-anomalies-edmund-fitzgerald-and-franklins-gulls-part-2/ In particular, parallels have been drawn between this year's incursion and a similar one in November 1998: https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/nab/v053n01/p00012-p00019.pdf I'd like to add two ideas to the discussion: (1) a suggestion to the weather history enthusiasts in our community to examine 27 October 2010 as another potential example of a similar phenomenon; and (2) some questions about how and why the birds ended up where they did. (1) On 27 October 2010, Ken Feustel found a hatching-year Franklin's Gull at Robert Moses SP, Suffolk County, Long Island. A number of us raced there very quickly, hoping to see this locally very rare species, but narrowly missed it. Broadening our search, we found numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (a parallel to Bobby's experience, and also our own, this year), but almost absurdly, Patricia Lindsay found a different, adult, Franklin's Gull at nearby Captree SP. Although eBird shows only one other Franklin's Gull along the northeast/mid-Atlantic coast during Oct-Dec 2010, that bird was also found on precisely the same date, 27 Oct, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It seems very likely that others passed undetected that day. The weather-map aficionados will probably remember this period, because in the days immediately following, a remarkable series of vagrants appeared on Long Island, including Common Ground-Dove and multiple Cave Swallows--which were associated with this year's system also. (2) On 13 Nov 2015, Pat and I were stranded on Block Island, where all ferries were canceled due to the high winds. Birding was tough that day, in contrast to the much blander previous day, when we and others had conducted our annual CBC-style November count on the island. A very striking contrast between the two days involved the overall numbers of gulls. On the windy 13th, we found vastly more large gulls on the island than had been present a day before, include 7 (vs. 2) Lesser Black-backs. We also found 4 Franklin's Gulls, in keeping with the amazing theme of that day. Clearly, the large gulls were aggregated there because the winds discouraged them from their normal feeding patterns, whereas the Franklin's Gulls were there because they had traveled from somewhere far to the west. Just one day later, almost no Franklin's Gulls could be found. Perhaps they fled south, or maybe they went out to sea (there is an over-representation of pelagic records among northeastern records of Franklin's Gulls), or maybe they did something else that reduced detection (one of the wind maps from the preceding days showed air flows at 1000 meters, so maybe by the 14th, all those Franklin's Gulls were just gazing down at us from vast heights!). And the Lesser Black-backed Gulls had melted away as well. Isn't it odd that these two utterly contrasting species have correlated November occurrence in our area? My point is that there's a lot we don't know about why it seemed as though one could just drive up to any spot on the east coast on 13 Nov and see a Franklin's Gull. They had to get here, and then they had to behave in a way that allowed us to detect them. Given that they were capable of hunkering down under high winds on the 13th, why didn't they simply hunker down in Iowa (or wherever they came from) in the first place? In the same vein, were the Common Ground-Doves forcibly ripped from the ground and blown multi-hundreds of kilometers, or were they, in some sense, willing to go along? Shai Mitra Bay Shore From: bounce-119894441-3714...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-119894441-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Robert Berlingeri [rjberling...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, November 13, 2015 5:55 PM To: NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu Subject: [nysbirds-l] More Gulls While at the tail end of my travels today on the sou
RE: [nysbirds-l] More Gulls
Very belatedly, I would like to offer some thoughts about the astonishing Franklin's Gull flight of 13 November 2015, partly inspired by Bobby's intriguing post. Now several weeks after the flight, summaries and interpretations have been prepared and digested: http://birdcast.info/forecast/migration-story-mid-latitude-cyclones-plains-temperature-anomalies-edmund-fitzgerald-and-franklins-gulls-part-2/ In particular, parallels have been drawn between this year's incursion and a similar one in November 1998: https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/nab/v053n01/p00012-p00019.pdf I'd like to add two ideas to the discussion: (1) a suggestion to the weather history enthusiasts in our community to examine 27 October 2010 as another potential example of a similar phenomenon; and (2) some questions about how and why the birds ended up where they did. (1) On 27 October 2010, Ken Feustel found a hatching-year Franklin's Gull at Robert Moses SP, Suffolk County, Long Island. A number of us raced there very quickly, hoping to see this locally very rare species, but narrowly missed it. Broadening our search, we found numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (a parallel to Bobby's experience, and also our own, this year), but almost absurdly, Patricia Lindsay found a different, adult, Franklin's Gull at nearby Captree SP. Although eBird shows only one other Franklin's Gull along the northeast/mid-Atlantic coast during Oct-Dec 2010, that bird was also found on precisely the same date, 27 Oct, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It seems very likely that others passed undetected that day. The weather-map aficionados will probably remember this period, because in the days immediately following, a remarkable series of vagrants appeared on Long Island, including Common Ground-Dove and multiple Cave Swallows--which were associated with this year's system also. (2) On 13 Nov 2015, Pat and I were stranded on Block Island, where all ferries were canceled due to the high winds. Birding was tough that day, in contrast to the much blander previous day, when we and others had conducted our annual CBC-style November count on the island. A very striking contrast between the two days involved the overall numbers of gulls. On the windy 13th, we found vastly more large gulls on the island than had been present a day before, include 7 (vs. 2) Lesser Black-backs. We also found 4 Franklin's Gulls, in keeping with the amazing theme of that day. Clearly, the large gulls were aggregated there because the winds discouraged them from their normal feeding patterns, whereas the Franklin's Gulls were there because they had traveled from somewhere far to the west. Just one day later, almost no Franklin's Gulls could be found. Perhaps they fled south, or maybe they went out to sea (there is an over-representation of pelagic records among northeastern records of Franklin's Gulls), or maybe they did something else that reduced detection (one of the wind maps from the preceding days showed air flows at 1000 meters, so maybe by the 14th, all those Franklin's Gulls were just gazing down at us from vast heights!). And the Lesser Black-backed Gulls had melted away as well. Isn't it odd that these two utterly contrasting species have correlated November occurrence in our area? My point is that there's a lot we don't know about why it seemed as though one could just drive up to any spot on the east coast on 13 Nov and see a Franklin's Gull. They had to get here, and then they had to behave in a way that allowed us to detect them. Given that they were capable of hunkering down under high winds on the 13th, why didn't they simply hunker down in Iowa (or wherever they came from) in the first place? In the same vein, were the Common Ground-Doves forcibly ripped from the ground and blown multi-hundreds of kilometers, or were they, in some sense, willing to go along? Shai Mitra Bay Shore From: bounce-119894441-3714...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-119894441-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Robert Berlingeri [rjberling...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, November 13, 2015 5:55 PM To: NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu Subject: [nysbirds-l] More Gulls While at the tail end of my travels today on the south shore of Nassau County, I was at Tobay Beach (JFK Bird Sactuary) when I came across 4 Leeser Black-backed Gulls resting in the Parking lot. - Not sure if these have any relation to the recent unprecidented influx of Franklin's Gulls in our area, or if these are lingering birds which I had at this location on Oct. 3. Perhaps these came from points to the north, migrating slowly under mild conditions with prolonged SW winds? - One of the birds was a full adult, 2 1st year birds, and one in between. Only 23 other Gulls were with the LBBG's: 15 Herring, 5 GBBG, and 3 RB Gulls. The only Laughing Gulls I had today were in the Field 6 Lot at Jones Beach, whereas hundreds, and beyo
[nysbirds-l] Prospect Park rarities (Kings)
The dice continues to roll favorably with our two celebrity birds : PAINTED BUNTING & BLACK-HEADED GULL. With far fewer birders milling around, I went to see the Painted Bunting. It seems to be exploring more of the green roof as now the Bunting moved to the far north end of the Rink green roof. As one come up the curvy path to the left of the Lefrak (Lakeside) Center Rink admission north entrance, the PAINTED BUNTING fed within a snakeroot stand between the bridle trail and that pedestrian green roof path.This location was close to the East Drive. The other celebrity bird, BLACK-HEADED GULL is a clockwork bird. Apparently its coming into its favored location the west shoreline of Prospect Lake, by a red ice rescue ladder near the Well Drive/ Lake Drive T junction. About noon, one is best getting this gull if he or she hang out at this opportune time.Get there before noon. The bird was reported today first by Jean Shum, then Dale Dancis with Manhattan birders in Twitter tweets to me. Peter BBC -- 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/ --
[nysbirds-l] Flushing Meadows Cackling Geese
Still present , right now in field by lot 5 -- 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/ --
[nysbirds-l] Painted Bunting threat
Many of you may know that a free roaming cat was seen stalking the Painted Bunting recently. The good news is that the cat has been captured and removed by Marty who deals with wildlife issues for the Prospect Park Alliance. Thanks everyone for the alerts and special thanks for the guy who sent the photo (albeit very grainy) to me. Go to BBC FB page for a clearer photo of the cat. More good news, the Prospect Park Painted Bunting continues today in the same area. Rob Bate Brooklyn -- 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/ --
