Jones Beach West End: 3 December The beach fauna appears to be in a winter pattern. Except for a single flock of winter finches moving through, things appear to be settling down. Shorebirds on the bar (it's silting in again) consist of about 20 Oystercatchers, 250 Dunlin, 150 Black-bellied Plover and 4 Red Knot. Close in to the marina were several Common Loons, a Red-throated Loon, half dozen Red-breasted Mergansers and 4 Long-tailed Ducks.
The usual land birds were mostly absent, Sparrows particularly. In the medium, there is the continuing 4 Black-capped Chickadees, lots of Red-breasted Nuthatches, a few Yellow-rumped Warblers and a wandering flock of mixed Crossbills feeding on pine cones. These were mostly RED CROSSBILLS with a few WHITE-WINGED mixed in; the flock appears to be hanging out. Yesterday, Pipits and Snow Buntings were reported, but not seen by me today. I didn't go down onto the beach, Sy Schiff -- 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/ --
