I refound both singing Swainsons Thrushes CCC Truck Rd west of North Rd New Michigan SF. Birds were counter singing by the big clearing where Jay McGowan and Livia Santana had them June 21. The habitat was more northern hardwood hemlock with scattered Norway spruce. Both birds were near a fairly big clearing. This is a departure from what I have seen in the past. Usually I found this species in deep dark Norway spruce stands. That's where I have been looking a lot to no avail this year. In the past, at New Michigan SF, they were found in such habitat. Why the change? Predation pressure? In the past, I did notice this species was distributed in some spruce stands and absent in others. Very spotty. For this BBA I have been focusing on documenting this species in Chenango County, a stronghold outside the Adirondacks, Catskills and Allegheny Mtns in NY. There seems to be good habitat in the high elevations in southern Madison, southern Onondaga, Cortland, and southeast Cayuga counties. It would be neat to find them in these areas too. Anyway just a quick atlas email on the difficulties of finding breeders and how a group of birders and perseverance helps. We now are up to probable breeder for SWTH in a priority block. Gotta get that confirmed next!!
Best Dave Nicosia -- 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/ --
