[nysbirds-l] Long Island Coastal Plain Ponds/EPCAL Common Gallinule (Suffolk)
The lack of rain of has created some interesting conditions within Long Island's coastal plain ponds. I visited The Nature Conservancy's Calverton Ponds Preserve early this morning, a 350-acre complex located north of Old River Road in Calverton (Suffolk County), where extremely low water levels have exposed the bottoms of all three ponds within the preserve. In fact, Block and Fox Pond are both completely dry and the larger Sandy Pond is on its way. This is easily the lowest I've ever seen the water level within these ponds (much lower than last year). It has been an attractive place for Pectoral Sandpipers (total of 7 today) along with Solitary Sandpipers, Least and Semipalmated and Wilson's Snipe. I had a brief, distant glimpse of a long-winged peep in flight (no vocalizations unfortunately) that looked potentially good for Baird's but I could not refind the bird. Two Blue-winged Teals have also been present on Sandy Pond. ***Of legitimate visitation concern is the recent hatch of LONE STAR TICK LARVAE. If you decide to venture into the preserve I highly recommend pretreating your clothing in Permethrin and practice general tick safety. You'll likely get hundreds of them on you (unless I've intercepted them all). Also, please be considerate of the sensitive plant communities around the pond edge. After leaving Calverton Ponds, still intrigued by the low water, I decided to take a quick look into McKay Lake. McKay Lake is the phragmites lined pond along the south side of EPCAL (north of Grumman Blvd across from golf course). I counted 10 SOLITARY SANDPIPERS all spaced out along the exposed edge of the pond. While doing so, a COMMON GALLINULE walked out of the phragmites and proceeded to forage along the edge. Sadly the gallinule's right wing is mangled and will have no means of leaving this location. The bird however is very much alert and will retreat to the phragmites at even the slightest disturbance. It favored the southeast corner of the pond, best scoped from northeast viewing area. Best, Derek Rogers Sayville -- 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] Long Island Coastal Plain Ponds/EPCAL Common Gallinule (Suffolk)
The lack of rain of has created some interesting conditions within Long Island's coastal plain ponds. I visited The Nature Conservancy's Calverton Ponds Preserve early this morning, a 350-acre complex located north of Old River Road in Calverton (Suffolk County), where extremely low water levels have exposed the bottoms of all three ponds within the preserve. In fact, Block and Fox Pond are both completely dry and the larger Sandy Pond is on its way. This is easily the lowest I've ever seen the water level within these ponds (much lower than last year). It has been an attractive place for Pectoral Sandpipers (total of 7 today) along with Solitary Sandpipers, Least and Semipalmated and Wilson's Snipe. I had a brief, distant glimpse of a long-winged peep in flight (no vocalizations unfortunately) that looked potentially good for Baird's but I could not refind the bird. Two Blue-winged Teals have also been present on Sandy Pond. ***Of legitimate visitation concern is the recent hatch of LONE STAR TICK LARVAE. If you decide to venture into the preserve I highly recommend pretreating your clothing in Permethrin and practice general tick safety. You'll likely get hundreds of them on you (unless I've intercepted them all). Also, please be considerate of the sensitive plant communities around the pond edge. After leaving Calverton Ponds, still intrigued by the low water, I decided to take a quick look into McKay Lake. McKay Lake is the phragmites lined pond along the south side of EPCAL (north of Grumman Blvd across from golf course). I counted 10 SOLITARY SANDPIPERS all spaced out along the exposed edge of the pond. While doing so, a COMMON GALLINULE walked out of the phragmites and proceeded to forage along the edge. Sadly the gallinule's right wing is mangled and will have no means of leaving this location. The bird however is very much alert and will retreat to the phragmites at even the slightest disturbance. It favored the southeast corner of the pond, best scoped from northeast viewing area. Best, Derek Rogers Sayville -- 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/ --
