It was a great day for hawks along the inland ridges - I would think. But getting there, maybe not so good. Scrapping plans for an October trip because of snow - that's a first. So there's Fort Tilden - beautiful and snowless -- as a fallback. And it was an interesting day, so excuse the length of this post.
Being in the mood to watch migrants migrate, I parked myself at the western border on 193rd St. (forget that wind battered, cold platform) a little after 7:30 and stuck with it for as long as there was activity (3:00 as it turned out). Some 250 hawks moved by, a good total for Long Island so late in the season. Sharp-shinned Hawk was most numerous with 172 (mostly colorful, photogenic adults). Northern Harriers came in with 26 (6 or so adult males), by far the best day I've seen anywhere in what's been a poor season for them. Stragglers of Merlin, Kestrel, Cooper's Hawk, and Peregrine Falcon filled out the roster of expected Long Island migrants. Where Fort Tilden gets interesting as opposed to points east on the island is the potential for a variety of mainly inland migrating hawks. Today that included a Bald Eagle, Northern Goshawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, and a Turkey Vulture. The latter moved through at the most unexpected time of 7:45. Thermal using raptors by and large have always been seen here between the hours of 10 and 2. To round out the raptor report, observers that ventured to the platform reported a Short-Eared Owl flying in from the ocean. The number of Goshawks could have been 1, 2, 3, who knows? Goshawks don't move through Fort Tilden in the manner that most hawks do. Tilden is an attractive place for Accipiters and they (particulary Cooper's) often hang around a while. From my vantage point, I would say there was a male and a female. People birding other sections of Tilden reported birds they thought were Goshawks. One person mentioned one that he eventually decided was a Cooper's, sort of giving the impression of shooting down someone else's ID of a Goshawk. So it should be noted that it was a hawk flight day and there were multiple large Accipiters around. The upshot of this is that if you're interested in searching for Goshawk, I am of the opinion that this is a chaseable species at Fort Tilden right now - just don't expect one to stay in sight for long. I also planned on counting diurnal passerine migrants. But only blackbirds were worthwhile in that respect. Some 6700 (not really a big number for Tilden) passed through. I didn't want to overdo it by trying to separate all to species, but would say the large majority were Red-wings. Brown-headed Cowbirds were well represented and Rusty Blackbirds were in the mix, as evidenced by a group of 6 that landed in a nearby tree (soon followed by 6 Pipits landing in the field behind me). Only about 200 Common Grackles appeared. They can stage a spectacular show on their own, but not today. If that floats your boat, around Veteran's Day is peak time. A couple of people told me of large numbers of scoters on the ocean. While I hawk watched, 3 White-winged Scoters flew over me. Offhand, I can't remember seeing scoters fly over land. I eventually made my way to the beach to see the flocks that were predominantly Black Scoter, but with a few of the others. I took a bunch of pictures. Upon review, one of the pictures held a bizarre surprise -- a Wood Duck sitting on the ocean with the scoters. A few minutes later I was back at 193rd St., to show Andrew Baksh the spot. I mentioned that Wood Duck is surprisingly regular as a flyover at that spot. Almost on cue, one (the one from the ocean?) flew over. Finally, Andrew (and earlier Peter Dorosch) told me of up to 3 Vesper Sparrows in the community garden. I did get to see a couple, so thanks guys. Steve Walter Bayside, NY -- 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/ --
