I logged another hour, from 12:30-13:30, with some help at the end from Tom Burke and Gail Benson (Patricia Lindsay helped count during the earlier session).
My final tally of Pine Siskins was 20,275, with the rate of passage falling off markedly after 13:00 (this does not include any interpolation for the hour 11:30-12:30). This number far exceeds my previous max at this site (6,520 on 10 Nov 2008), a number which itself far exceeds my other big counts on LI. Other notable counts today included 1,896 American Goldfinches, 15,670 Myrtle Warblers and 73 Red-breasted Nuthatches in active migration, east to west. Whereas the relatively discrete flocks of PISI and AMGO were counted or estimated by 10s throughout, the MYWA move through in a continuous broad trickle. My approach to this was to estimate a rate of passage via several minute-long counts during each half-hour period. These rates, from a brisk 150/minute from 8:00-8:30 and diminishing gradually to 8/minute from 13:00-13:30, are not at all unprecedented at this site. Although it is unheard of for morning flights of nocturnal migrants like MYWA to continue so late at most sites, this kind of prolonged flight is quite routine at the western end of Fire Island. Several factors make this site unusually favorable for observing massive flights such as those described above. The most important are that (a) this is the western terminus of the longest and most remote (from mainland LI) barrier beach on LI; and (b) there are several narrow points where it is possible for counters to see almost all flocks passing along the inlet shore, the ocean shore, and points in between. Jones Beach West End can be very good, but the greater proximity of the Jones Strip to the mainland almost certainly entices many flocks to cut north to the mainland before they reach West End (I've actually observed this on occasion from Cedar Beach). West End is also much wider, with the result that no single vantage allows easy viewing of the entire breadth of the flight lines. Counts from the South Fork, Shinnecock, Moriches Inlet, and eastern Fire Island tend to be much smaller for the same reasons. Birds displaced by nw winds to these stretches of shore tend to melt away into the mainland rather than stubbornly following the shoreline. The Rockaway Peninsula probably receives at most half of the birds displaced over the adjacent New York Night, the majority probably regaining the shore at Sandy Hook. Uniquely on Long Island, RMSP receives nearly the entirety of the wind-drifted birds captured by a 30-mile net "upstream." Hairy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and White-breasted Nuthatch were all observed in ones and two, indicative of their ongoing irruptions, and three late swallows were seen: 2 modestly late Barns, and an exceptionally late Northern Rough-winged. The paucity of sparrows on the ground was shocking--I saw no more than three each of White-throated, Swamp, Junco, Chipping, and Savannah. Apart from the MYWAs mentioned earlier, I saw absolutely no warblers other than two Western Palms. I saw zero Gray Catbirds or Eastern Towhees. The best bird "on the ground" was a Philadelphia Vireo picked out by Tom Burke near the administration buildings. Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of Shaibal Mitra [[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2012 11:56 AM To: NYSBIRDS ([email protected]) Subject: [nysbirds-l] Enormous Pine Siskin Flight, LI barrier beach We tallied 19,490 Pine Siskins passing east to west at Fire Island this morning, 8:00-11:30. I'm heading back down there now and will post more details later. Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ Washington Monthly<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2012/features/americas_bestbangforthebuck_co039461.php> magazine ranks the College of Staten Island as one of "America's Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges" -- 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/ --
