We birded the Sands Point Preserve (Nassau County) from 9AM-12 this morning. Lots of expected October activity. The highlight of the day was a Common Raven, first heard in the area of the water tower near the entrance road to the preserve, then seen flying towards the cliffs bordering the sound. Later, we again heard it back near the water tower. It's possible that their were two birds. The water tower is mushroom shaped and does not appear to be suitable for nesting. The turret of Castlegould, however, is fairly tall and might appear attractive to a pair of ravens next year. How cool would that be?
Migrants were well represented today with the following: Wood Duck (female on the pond) Sharp-shinned Hawk all 5 expected woodpeckers in good numbers, including 2 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers Eastern Phoebe- 10 Red-breasted Nuthatch- 2 American Robin- many overhead Hermit thrush- 4 Golden-crowned kinglet- 35, several extremely tame ones on the lawn Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 40 Cedar Waxwing- 100+ Blue-headed vireo- 7 Yellow-rumped Warbler- 100+ Palm Warbler- 1 Black-throated Blue Warbler- 20+ Blackpoll Warbler- 2 Rusty Blackbird- 1 (at the pond; tough to find in the preserve in fall) Indigo Bunting- 1 Purple Finch- 25+ (scattered throughout the preserve) Eastern Towhee- 6 White-crowned Sparrow- 3 PS: The addition of Common Raven brings my official Sands Point species list to 263, since I started birding in 1974, if anybody cares.... Glenn Quinn Antonio Quinn Hauppauge, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
