All, Yesterday Livia and I finally got a chance to kayak around Howland Island for the first time this summer. We got started a little later than planned after being distracted looking at the continuing Black-necked Stilt, so didn't make it onto the water at Carncross Road until a little after 8AM. The water levels were much lower than last year, so while the whole route was passable, some areas were a pain to get through due to thick vegetation and shallow water.
The target and highlight was of course PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. We found two singing males last June, and a refuge survey a few weeks ago found three singing males. Yesterday, Livia and I found *SIX* singing birds around the nine mile loop. We had birds in both of the same areas where we had them last summer, as well as an additional bird at the top of the island and two around Haiti Island in the southeast corner. This could have conceivably been the same bird heard from opposite sides of this island, but I am more inclined to think it was a different individual. At the northwest point we had two singing birds, one of which was carrying a caterpillar for some time, indicating an active nest or fledglings nearby. A map of the birds we heard yesterday can be viewed here: https://flic.kr/p/JixJCm The red points are yesterday's locations, the blue last year's. And some mediocre recordings and a couple of photographs can be seen here: http://bit.ly/28JE1al Anyway, fun to hear so many and great to know that the Armitage birds are not the only ones in the area! Jay -- Jay McGowan Macaulay Library Cornell Lab of Ornithology jw...@cornell.edu -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
