Hi Angus/All,
I am planning to do a "highlights" of my late spring/early summer sightings - late due to grieving over a close loss in June - this report will include Henslow's Sparrows sightings. I took clients from California to see Henslow's Sparrows in St. Lawrence County - in Hammond on June 14th. We found 8 singing males on one road alone in very windy conditions (at 5:15 a.m.) - so we would have found many more if we could have heard birds farther into the fields. We had spectacular scope views of singing males carrying nesting material. I am reluctant to name the road since all the lands in Hammond are private. The particular fields in Hammond where Henslow's Sparrows can be found are not generally cut over early, so they stand a good chance of nesting success - I would hate to jeopardize this by calling attention to the species. I spoke to Jeff Bolsinger (Kingbird Regional Editor for St. Lawrence Co.) and we discussed the frustration with the fact that much of St. Lawrence Co. was block-busted during the Atlas. In my opinion, St. Lawrence Co. is probably the most exciting place to bird in NYS (lacking only ocean habitat) and it was poorly covered during the Atlas. I hope that during the 2020 Atlas, more resources can be invested in covering this important birding area that is home to many rare species in NYS. I recently bought "The Ecology and Economics of the Birds Along the Northern Boundary of New York State" by A. Sidney Hyde, 1939, Roosevelt Wildlife Bulletin Volume 7 Number 2. In this book, a colony of 20 pairs of Henslow's Sparrows was documented at the mouth of Crooked Creek in Hammond (where 4 specimens were "collected"). This location is 3 miles from where we found 8 singing males in June. In my opinion, a concerted effort to find Henslow's Sparrows in the Hammond area will probably turn up even more locations than I am currently aware of. Joan Collins Long Lake, NY From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Angus Wilson Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 12:38 PM To: NYSBIRDS-L Subject: [nysbirds-l] Status of Henslow's Sparrow in NYS Bulletin board postings are naturally slanted to positive news and don't do such a good job recording disappearances, either of particular individuals (is the Hooded Crow still being seen?) or of populations. The recent discovery of two Henslow's Sparrows in a field near Ames (Montgomery Co.) got me thinking: are these are the only sightings for New York State this season? Looking at eBird (a better resource for this type of question) says no, but only just. Evidently, small numbers (the entries are for 1 bird each) are still present in Fort Drum and the nearby Perch River WMA (Jefferson Co.) and a little to the north in St. Lawrence County. But according to eBird, that's it. I suspect official surveys will have come up with a few more at these sites but still. Have other traditional breeding sites in western and central NYS been checked and found negative? Is total extirpation as a breeding species imminent? At what point should Henslow's Sparrow be added to the NYSARC review list? Heady questions. It would give me peace of mind to know if other breeding sites still exist. Precise locations are not necessary, just enough to know whether or not the breeding population in now confined to a relatively small area in the St. Lawrence Transition. Unfortunately I don't have the The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York State (McGowan and Corwin 2008) at hand but I am sure this indispensable resource for state birds has much to say on this troubling topic. In 1999, the DEC reclassified the sparrow as Threatened (from Species of Special Concern) but my sense is that the decline has continued unchecked. -- Angus Wilson New York City & The Springs, NY, USA http://birdingtotheend.blogspot.com/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME> Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES> Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave Archives: The Mail Archive <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> Surfbirds BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html> Please submit your observations to <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> eBird! -- -- 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/ --
