I spent the entire morning and early afternoon birding in different parts of
Sunken Meadow State Park in Suffolk County today. I started at 8:00am on the
Inner Marsh trail at the western end of the park finding lots of warblers and
other fall migrants, then headed down the park road which terminates at the
Golf
Course. After sifting through the plethora of migrants at that end of the
park, I drove to the eastern end of Field 1 and proceeded to walk along the
edge
of the canal all the way to the dunes. By the time I finished it was 2:00pm
and
I had 19 species of warbler the best being 1 Tennessee, 1 Cape May, and 2
Bay-breasteds. Another bird of note was a bright Philadelphia Vireo
flitting high in the treetops at the edge of the Creek. I did cross paths with
a foraging Red Fox in the early a.m. as well as some angry White-tailed
Deer. A Doe stomped her forefeet at me a few times because I didn't realize
her
two fawns were frequenting the area. Below are the highlights of what I found
today.
Wood Ducks- 5
Osprey- 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk- 1
Red-tailed Hawk- 4
Peregrine Falcon- 1 flying West above the trees, viewed by Field 3
Least Flycatcher- 1
Empid. sp- 3, 1 with a lot of yellow on breast but very brief encounter
Great-crested Flycatcher- 1
Eastern Kingbird- 7 heading west
White-eyed Vireo- 4
Philadelphia Vireo- 1 in the top of tree bordering SM Creek
Red-eyed Vireo- 8
Red-breasted Nuthatch- 1
Veery- 4
Tennessee warbler- 1
Nashville warbler- 2
Northern Parula- several
Yellow warbler- 1
Chestnut-sided warbler- 1
Magnolia warbler- several
Cape May warbler- 1 first fall male
Black-throated Blue warbler- several
Yellow-rumped warbler- 1 feasting on myrtle berries along canal
Black-throated Green warbler- 2
Blackburnian warbler- 1 female
Palm warbler- 6, 5 being the "Western" subspecies
Bay-breasted warbler- 2, 1 bird still had decent amount of buff on flanks
Blackpoll warbler- 5
Black-and-white warbler- several
American Redstart- several
Ovenbird- 2
Northern Waterthrush- 2
Canada warbler- 2
Scarlet Tanager- 1 nonbreeding male still singing
Rose-breasted Grosbeak- 2
Baltimore Oriole- 1
A couple more sightings, which are late I might add, include: An Eastern
Screech-Owl which has been calling in my backyard the past three weeks in East
Northport. The big sod field on Osborn Rd and Sound Ave yesterday held 1
Buff-breasted Sandpiper, 1American Golden-Plover, 16 Black-bellied Plovers, 1
Least Sandpiper, and 32 Killdeer. A Turkey Vulture was also flying above the
fields. Another Turkey Vulture flew over CW Post campus yesterday at around
2:00pm. And last but not least, 7 Common Nighthawks were gliding above the
soccer fields in East Northport just west of Townline Road yesterday at 5:45pm.
Vinny Pellegrino
picasaweb.com/vinnypelle
East Northport, NY
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've
imagined."
-Henry David Thoreau
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