Sue and I decided to reactivate what had been a yearly ritual; conducting an early June breeding census at Connetquot River State Park (CRSP). This activity was put on hiatus for a ten year period when the second Breeding Bird Atlas began in 2000. After the Atlas ended in 2005 we did not renew the activity, but felt the time had come to pick it up again.
Our census began at 4:00AM listening for Whip-poor-wills and any owls. We walked our traditional route from the parking lot to the fish hatchery and heard not a single Whip. We continued north to Bunces Bridge then east - no Whips.This was the first time we ever failed to record Whip-poor-will on this route, and during our survey over the years we have had some miserable weather. On a positive note an Acadian Flycatcher was calling on the trail on the east side of the river opposite the fish hatchery, and the Hooded Warbler (still singing) reported last week continues in the woods just east of the lower pond. Pied-billed Grebe was giving its cuckoo-like call on the upper river. CRSP is an interesting birding area in that you can record big numbers of common pine barren and riparian breeding birds by walking a good portion of the east side of the river. I did not consider the numbers we generated today out of the ordinary for CRSP, yet my e-bird submittal got flagged for five species. For example, we walked about five miles and recorded 70 Gray Catbirds, 31 Great-crested Flycatchers (a good number), 36 Eastern Towhees, 32 Common Yellowthroats, and 30 Pine Warblers. I remember one year observing 169 Towhees, although we did walk about 7-8 miles that year through prime towhee habitat. We failed to record a single cuckoo and had only one Carolina Wren. We observed 54 species - probably below our long-term average. Ken & Sue Feustel -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
